While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“I was in Cleveland Stadium — known as Municipal Stadium throughout my childhood — on the last day before the Browns moved to Baltimore. The rage and frustration and sadness in the crowd that day seemed visible to me, like breath turning to steam in the cold, and some people tore out the stadium seats, and some people threw stuff on the field, some people held signs, and some people just tried to root for the Cleveland Browns for the last time. The Browns beat the Bengals 26-10 that day. I walked the field afterward for a long time, seething, crying, wondering how Art Modell — no matter what his problems or issues — could have done this to the city he knew.
Or did he know? A few years after that day, a longtime friend of Modell’s called me and said that Art really wanted to talk to me, really wanted to explain. Of course, this was after the Cleveland Browns had died, after Modell’s Baltimore Ravens had won a Super Bowl, after a new team that called itself the Cleveland Browns had emerged in a brand new stadium with a beautiful owner’s box for an owner who was not Art Modell. The friend said that Modell felt terrible about having to move the Browns, but that he had no choice and that if only I heard it from him, I would understand. We never did connect for various reasons — I’m not sure it would have made much difference.” [Posnanski/Sports on Earth]
—-
“There’s long been a baseball reason to deal Perez: he’s going to get a big bump in salary next season thanks to arbitration’s love of saves, and the bullpen is one area on the club that the Indians have some depth in. With two years of control left, Perez is going to be an attractive option to clubs that lose out in free agency or would rather not pay market price for a free agent. Even with everybody now knowing what type of um…personality they’ll be getting, the Indians should be able to get a decent return.
To me the big issue is what to do with Perez in the meantime. To this point the Indians haven’t punished Perez for any of his antics, but I think if the Indians don’t punish Perez, they’re just encouraging him to spout off further. He’s not going to stop, so doing nothing is not an option. I’d give Perez the Carlos Zambrano treatment: suspend him for the rest of the season, and start listening to trade offers the day after the World Series.
Chris Perez has become a distraction. If he remains on this club, he’s just going to remain a distraction, and the Indians have enough problems to deal with after the season to have to deal with a continuing problem the rest of the season.” [Ryan/Let's Go Tribe]
—-
“Way back in 1999, the Cleveland Browns had a new team and the Philadelphia Eagles had a new head coach. Fast-forward 14 NFL seasons and the Browns are still essentially a new team, one that has 15 rookies on its roster and possibly five in the starting lineup for Sunday’s season opener vs. the Eagles.
Andy Reid is still the Eagles coach. He’s the longest tenured coach in today’s NFL, a year ahead of Bill Belichick in New England. As a point of comparison, the reborn-in-’99 Browns are now on their fifth full-time head coach. Second-year Browns coach Pat Shurmur is one of four former Reid assistants who are now NFL head coaches.” [Jackson/The OBR]
—-
Awesome. Fan recounts his experience sacking Tom Brady at a fantasy type event- “As I sprinted toward Tom Brady’s blindside, I wondered what would happen if I just decked him. I imagined the fallout. Belichick would have me put away. I’d be ostracized by my friends, become New England’s version of Steve Bartman, and Giselle would hate me. (On the positive side, at least Giselle would know who I was.)” [Cooley/The Postgame]
—-
Finally, be sure to get your WFNY gear for the opener on Sunday! (Yes, a shameless plug but really, did you want to read another Modell piece anyway?) [GV Art and Design]
