6
Apr
2009
Cleveland Rising
This week, READANDREACT spoke with web-journalist Barry McBride, the undisputed figurehead of THE ORANGE AND BROWN REPORT (www.theobr.com), a site dedicated to the Cleveland Browns and their diehard fans. His site, launched with sheer grit and determination in the 1990s as a way to galvanize the city and help engineer the return of the Browns to Cleveland, has transformed into today’s top-flight source of news, rumors, and coverage of the Browns… ANYWHERE. Barry, always humble, gives us his thoughts about Brady Quinn, Braylon Edwards, Eric Mangini, and the team’s glorious (and inglorious) past, as well as their chances of ever getting back to the playoffs (and maybe the Super Bowl?) before we leave this mortal coil.
Barry, thank you for being with us. These days, most people take a site like www.theobr.com for granted. But the site well-represents a shift in sports journalism. Your site’s stories have been lifted by the mainstream media. Did you ever think that might be the case when you started this whole thing?
It’s been an amazing journey, and proof that a website or any other media outlet will be just as good as the people writing for it. We’ve been particularly blessed there.
Back in the 90s, I certainly never thought we’d be at the point where we were battling toe-to-toe with some of the major players in this town for stories and opportunity. The website was started for fun, a sense of adventure, and the vague notion that appreciative readers would buy us beer. We didn’t have any big plan to replace any of Cleveland’s major media players.
In terms of how we’ve been treated by the mainstream media, it’s been a mixed bag. Like any group of people, you’ll have folks with great integrity and folks who lack any at all. You try to learn from the former and ignore the latter, although it can be frustrating or depressing at times.
The Browns have been through 20 years of turbulence. On bad days, the team feels like a franchise slowly rotting from the core out. Is Coach Mangini the one to turn things around? Does he get how much this could mean to the city and the league?
Mangini seems to understand how important this franchise is to Cleveland, and Randy Lerner certainly does. The team’s owner desperately wants the town to be proud of the team again.
The question with both isn’t whether or not they understand how important this is, but rather if they’re capable of making the right detailed decisions to get things back on track.
Mangini, for example, borrows his style from his mentors Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. The OBR’s Steve King did a neat article not too long ago, which compared Mangini’s arrival in Cleveland to that of Bill Belichick in the early 90s. (The article can be found here: http://cle.scout.com/2/847469.html) The parallels are eerie. But under their surface similarities, will Mangini make the right personnel decisions like Bill Parcells? Is he capable of developing a game plan as effectively as Belichick? On both questions, the results in New York were mixed and the jury remains out. If Mangini builds a winner here, he’s redeemed in the eyes of the NFL. If he doesn’t, Browns fans will suffer through another re-boot in three or four years time.
Along those lines, we’ve seen Winslow shipped south for picks… we’ve heard whispers that Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, and Braylon Edwards are all available for the right price. Is Mangini confident enough to start from scratch? And, if the team parts ways with its “stars,” would this roster reset be a surprise to Lerner?
We met and talked with Randy Lerner earlier this off-season, and the Browns owner is convinced that the most important decision he can make is to get the right coach. He believes that Bill Belichick was the key to the Patriots turnaround, and that Chuck Noll took the Steelers from perennial losers to one of the league’s top franchises. His instinct tells him he made the right choice in Mangini, and he’s going to let his coach do things how he feels they need to be done.
Mangenius has arrived.
31
Mar
2009
Tuesday evening notebook
As posted earlier this evening, the Broncos have made the decision to trade their overly dramatic quarterback Jay Cutler (who doesn’t mix well with their seemingly overhwhelmed head coach). Per PFT, interested teams appear to be the Jets, the Browns, the 49′ers, the Bears, the Lions, the Redskins, and the Bucs. Pat Bowlen is fuming.
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/31/six-teams-and-counting-interested-in-cutler/
The Lions obviously have a need. But if they pull the trigger, they’ll most likely be forced to deal the first pick in the draft (what else can they POSSIBLY offer). Recent reports suggest that they’re impressed with Georgia QB Matt Stafford. Would Denver then turn around and pick up Stafford? (Is Stafford honestly worth the number one pick?) (With Chris Simms on the roster, if Denver went a different route in the draft, it could potentially shake up the top five quite considerably.)
Option two: There is a steady stream of whispers suggesting that Brady Quinn will be shipped to Denver for Cutler in a multi-player, or player-picks swap. This seems feasible, especially considering how deeply enamored Mangini was with Cutler when he entered the league. If they join the fray, the Browns will give up much more than Quinn, no doubt. Additional scenarios suggest that a third team would be involved in the trade (one rumor had the Browns giving away Quinn to Denver, the Broncos shipping Cutler to Washington, and the Browns somehow ending up with Jason Campbell and a coffee maker.) (Editor’s note: I will stab myself if the Browns do something like this.)
Instead of Quinn, would the Browns ever ship Derek Anderson in a trade? Would the Broncos ever fall for this? Unlikely. Anderson had a sensational 2007 season, and showed what he can do with a solid offensive line and some weapons on offense, but he was horrid in 2008, and sunk swiftly with the rest of the team. In relief, Quinn showed grit and promise, but ultimately failed to turn the ship around before getting injured. That said, Quinn appears to have more promise–or, at least, we’re not sure he’s a bust.
The question that needs to be asked is whether we view Cutler as a guy ready to lead an NFL team into the future. Physical skills aside, his self-centered behavior, and flashes of immaturity over the past three years, leave you wondering if he can suddenly become a stable and team-oriented presence in a new lockerroom.
26
Mar
2009
From the East Emerges Mangenius
This is intergalactic bounty hunter IG-88:
This is Mangenius:
Mangenius has left the metallic storefronts of New York for the football epicenter of the nation—Cleveland, Ohio—to reinstall toughness into a roster that has floated for a decade.
Mangenius from the East.
This is 4-Lom:
4-Lom is a bounty hunter hired by Vader for his technological coldness. The guy has never been comfortable in his own skin (obvious to the reader).
This is Brady Quinn:
Quinn—at this hour—hangs on the fringe. He is full of promise, largely untested, entrenched in a beguiling quarterback duel with the erratic and gangly Derek Anderson. Neither have proven a thing to anyone. Wildly strange times. Ego battles. Bland animals emerging from the forest. A press corps longing for a subject. In the end, it is a scuffle that may amount to nothing, if the team (once again) refuses to compile more than four wins in 2009 and—per the norm—implodes upon itself for the tenth time in a row since returning to the National Football League in 1999.
This is Bossk:
Bossk has spread a wide net across the star system. He is out for blood. (He is also a food critic.)
Circa 1987. This is the Lovely Elizabeth with Randy “Macho Man” Savage:
She is gone—lost to a home-brewed, drug-fueled cocktail. He is elderly now—a memory to all, snapping vaguely into a Slim Jim.
Bounty hunters cross the galaxy as you read this.
Mangenius hovers above a meadow in central Iowa.
King Kong Bundy floats motionless in water.
The autumn looms.
