Obviously, I am not looking to replace the Browns. At the same time, a little Northeast Ohio professional football supplement like we had with the Gladiators arena team for a season would be nice, right? We learned this morning that the Browns were working out a great many UFL players whose season ended already including RB DeDe Dorsey, DB Michael Grant, and T Jeremy Parquet. I won’t pretend to know who all these guys are, except I remember DeDe Dorsey playing for my wife’s Colts for a minute. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be willing to learn who they are if the UFL found a way to expand to some region of Northeast Ohio.
I know a lot of you probably are thinking that you don’t really want to line up to watch JP Losman take on Brooks Bollinger in any kind of shootout on a football field. I can understand that, I guess. Then again, if they had never failed to become NFL players, would it matter? I got geeked up about watching Raymond Philyaw play for the Cleveland Gladiators and he was a never-was in the NFL.
I don’t even care where the team ends up necessarily. Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Columbus, and maybe even Youngstown would all be suitable destinations where I think a UFL team would thrive. Between FSNOhio and STO, I am quite sure somebody would be willing to throw the games on TV. I know when the UFL is listing destinations for teams, they don’t automatically think, “New York, Los Angeles, Florida, Las Vegas and… CANTON!” but they really should consider Ohio. We will never stop loving the Browns, but we are capable of a polygamistic football scenario where we have a primary and secondary team that plays in an entirely different league.
Anyway, maybe LeBron can attempt to buy one of the franchises. Or maybe it is another thing that Dan Gilbert can purchase in the state of Ohio. The UFL has said that they are going to consider Wisconsin, Chicago, and Pennsylvania next. If he is really looking to find a stockpile of football fans to watch UFL games, he should look no further than Cleveland and / or Ohio.
