Cleveland Browns Game Five: Winners and Losers
October 4, 2013Early thoughts on the 2014 Indians: WFNY Roundtable
October 4, 2013The Cleveland Browns won their third in a row last night. I covered the recap already, but I had some more random thoughts coming out of the game.
Are we jerks? Cleveland Browns fans needed Brandon Weeden after Brian Hoyer got hurt and yet booed him onto the field last night. I can’t blame anyone for having that opinion of Weeden and his slower than slow decision-making ability, but I’d be lying if I said hearing the chorus of boos over my TV didn’t make me a bit embarrassed. I also didn’t boo Chris Perez when he was announced before the Wild Card game. I haven’t come to a conclusion yet. I’m honestly asking a question here.
The referees’ pink flags have got to go. I think I speak for all of us when I say we hate breast cancer. I’m also here to tell you that I’m aware of it and everything involving it thanks to the NFL’s pink October. When the referees have to change their flag color to pink, it’s gone too far. Last night when Joe Haden was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, I thought maybe the two players had accidentally dropped the pink towels that they had in their waistbands. Nope. Those were the officials’ flags that looked like the towels, shoes, gloves, and everything else that was emblazoned pink for awareness. Referee flags are supposed to stand out and look different for a reason. The awareness campaign has gone overboard. Give the refs their yellow flags back.
The Browns went Brown on Brown with their uniforms last night. There were a whole host of opinions available on the fashion choice. I rarely express an opinion on sports fashion because it really doesn’t matter that much to me. I have to admit that I was a fan of the Brown on Brown last night. USA Today on the other hand went all Buzzfeed on the topic to repeatedly hammer home the point that they didn’t like them. Seems to me that they just don’t like the brown color in the Browns’ normal uniform anyway. Thumbs up or thumbs down? Would you prefer just to see the white pants back with the Brown jerseys?
At least one silly commenter at the Buffalo News thinks it was no “couinsident.” And by that I think he meant “no coincidence” that Tashaun Gipson went low on E.J. Manuel after Brian Hoyer was knocked out of the game. I’m going to preface this by saying the Buffalo News commentariat was very smart and reasonable other than this one guy who I’m picking out.
“If you watched the browns d aftet thier qb went out cuz of his own doing they started going low at ejs knees every cjance they got I don’t thinl that’s a couinsident I think dirty couch told them to go ater his legs to purposly knock ej out that just a desperate team playing dirty footballssame on the browns carma will show it ugly face to tjem”
LOL.
Hope your weeks are finishing well and the weekend is looking good. Regardless of how they did it, the Browns won so you are free to enjoy your Sunday however you prefer. Weigh in on these topics in the comments if you feel like it.
(AP Photo/David Richard)
95 Comments
Am I the only cynical old crust who thinks the NFL adopting breast cancer as a cause is an underhanded way to improve their image and increase their market share with female viewers?
No, I think that most people agree that this is pretty much exactly what it is.
1-2 is sad unless you win your next 2 games to get to 3-2 and 1st place 😉
:::GROAN:::
I didn’t care for the all Brown the pants needed some white or orange. What is really needed are the orange pants with brown or white jerseys.
It’s turned from breast cancer awareness to breast cancer obsession. Going forward, let’s just permanently use pink footballs and change the name to the National Breastcancerball League and be done with it.
That hit on Manning would have been a $100,000 fine and a suspension.
I think underhanded is the wrong word. I’d go with “blatant, obvious moneygrab”
I am confused what is this “bray-stuh can-swer” thing you speak of? I think we need to do something to raise awareness of this mysterious, obscure illness.
When I turned this game on and saw the Brown-on-Brown versus the Blue-on-White I thought it was a FedEx vs UPS commercial.
That said, it’s still a good cause, and it’s still a net positive in the areas that really matter. If just one bottle throwing drunk decides to drop a couple bucks for a good cause, I’m fine with coloring anything they want in pink.
But only for the month of October. Each other month needs to be some other ploy to grab at additional money.
I guess #1 and 2 are sad, but here’s what I perceive: A) The Bills ran a ton of hurry-up offense. Fans are finishing watching the scoreboard replay as the offense is starting to set. Or checking their phones. A lot of multitasking. B) Browns fans are more passionate than sophisticated. (Some of the idiocies bellowed around me were mind-boggling, making me wonder how these people earn enough to afford seats. I’m talking sheer nonsense). A town which watches their own team’s more sophisticated offense might better understand how to disrupt the opposing team.
The Weeden booing was definitely premature. (If we can get a 95QB rating out of him every game tho we’re GOLD)
Loved the brown pants (no stripes plz)
If Hoyer was Brady/Manning that would have been a flag
BILLS LOLS » Bills fan on SiriusXM NFL this morning stated how awesome he thought the Bills special teams were, and they should have “kicked our a**es”
I’m an atheist, but I end up praying on the edge of my seat every time Cundiff comes out on the field.
B is my point, and that’s what bothers me. Perhaps it’s simply because we haven’t had a good and sophisticated O in years or because Rick just started the Film Room last year, but the loud Browns’ fans seem stupid when you listen to them.
I’m probably just being contrarian, but I don’t understand why breast cancer gets hyped so much when heart disease and lung cancer are bigger killers for women.
I know I should probably just shut up and focus on the good, but the amount of media attention and money generated by this just makes me skeptical and cynical.
Agree 100% on the flags. There was even some confusion in the broadcast booth at one point. They need to be yellow!
I didn’t hate the all-brown, and I certainly liked it better than the orange pants. (Seriously, orange pants advocates? Why?) I guess I slightly prefer the white, but the truth is the Browns uniforms need some updating. I know that might be sacrilege in these parts, and I’m not advocating for different colors or a logo or anything like that, but just some modernizing. Maybe tweak the shade of orange a little to make it less 1978. Maybe try a matte helmet finish or one with some subtle texture in it. Maybe put a stripe on the all-brown pants. I don’t know, I’m not a fashion designer. I just know the packers and bears uniforms look classic in a good way, and the Browns uniforms look dated.
I think they should change out the regular jerseys for those cheesy beach t-shirts with cartoon breasts on them.
“Holding. The guy with the DD’s on the left side.”
D’Qwell Jackson and Ahtyba Rubin would like a word, also. 🙂
I root for the Browns, but in no way would I ever want to be labeled a “Browns fan”
I think because it’s such a gender specific issue. (I know men can technically get breast cancer, but it’s super rare) Heart disease and lung cancer are bigger problems in general, but there’s nothing particularly empowering to any individual group by rallying behind those causes. I suppose you could argue prostate cancer or testicular cancer might make good male equivalents, but men don’t really respond in the same way to those kinds of issues. (although I’d freaking love to be able to wear a t-shirt that says “save the balls” in public and not get thrown out of stores)
If you asked Braylon Edwards, he would disagree.
I think Weeden is so hated because of him being drafted in the first round.
I understand not his fault, but it comes with being picked there.
I’m not one to boo or to feel that passionately about the sucky sucks that the Browns have marched out onto the field over the years. That said, I REALLY dislike Weeden. His attitude, his play, his body language, his sense of entitlement, his first round status, his immaturity… Maybe all these aren’t legit, but outside of D.A. I can’t think of a player I have ever felt more justified in disliking. It’s just a perfect storm.
Even Braylon tried to be likeable.
You are definitely not the only one.
Awesome referance!
Google up some articles on line about the pink ribbon industry, it’s fascinating. A lot of the “cancer awareness” stuff is just about making money, not about donating money to research.
If you want a longer read, I highly recommend “The Emperor of All Maladies.” It’s a very readable book by an oncologist that deals with the history of cancer and cancer treatments, and really digs into the socio-political aspects of the cancer awareness movement.
I as a Bills fan do not have a problem with the two hits that took out both QBs last night. Both of which were clean and no intent to injure that I could see. However, the celebrating of Gipson after seeing EJ laying on the ground after the hit, was classless. None of the Bills players were shown celebrating when Hoyer slid incorrectly, and put himself in that position. BTW, Kiko made the hit with his shoulder. watch the replay.
True. It’s understandable, I guess.
I’ve heard as much but never looked into it. Like I said, you get that much money and you know somebody is going to find a way to exploit it. I’ll check out that book. Library has it.
That explains the spell of staph infections!
True that on Gipson…though I think if he knew that EJ was injured, he wouldn’t have done that. I think he was just happy about what felt like a good clean hit on a QB who was moving the ball on us.
I get it. But every team has young, demonstrative and sometimes stupid players who celebrate at inappropriate times and later feel bad about it (or at least say they do). I’m sure Bills players have inadvertently done this to other players. As Ben says, if he realized the guy was really hurt he wouldn’t have done it. And if he celebrated over a player he knew he really hurt there are some veterans on the Browns who will let him have it.
Brown pants with striping would look good for the road, as well as more orange and brown on the away jersey. Too much white there for my taste. Also, I would have the orange pants with the brown jerseys for home games. Shelve the white pants for good (except for throwback days).
I don’t think Kiko’s hit was dirty (Hoyer slid too late and awkwardly), however it will likely be a fine in todays NFL. Kiko needs to learn to keep his chin up on those hits. He was looking at the ground, which is an auto-fine by Goodell.
outside that unfortunate play, Kiko looked fantastic last night, btw. Good luck the rest of the season.
your thoughts are my thoughts too.
ORANGE PANTS!
Team names too: Cleveland Pinks, Minnesota Mammograms, Tennessee Tumors, etc. I don’t think enough people think enough about breast cancer enough of the time. The NFL has to step this up.
Were they booing or saying Boorandon
I’ve always wanted to invent an Awareness Awareness ribbon to promote awareness of awareness. Another of my ideas is one of those car window decals of Calvin peeing on stuff – well, mine would be a decal of Calvin peeing on Calvin peeing.
I hate all of it. I hate “awareness” campaigns, I hate self-righteous outward displays of hatred – even when it’s hatred of hatred, and I hate promotion of the stuff as if it – the promotion – is somehow worthy of lauding. If the NFL really wanted to do something about breast cancer, they could donate to medical research a billion of the billions of dollars that they earn every year.
Oh, loved the brown on brown. Reminded me of the early ’90s and high school. [Cue Explosions in the Sky music.]
WFNY Villain has spoken. Deal with it.
If you’re really interested, I recommend a documentary called “Pink Ribbons” which came out last year and had good reviews in the NY times and such. I think it’s now available on Netflix. [Full disclosure: I’m partial because my sister is one of the people featured in it].
Hard to look at all the smiley “would you like to wear a pink ribbon for breast cancer” stuff the same way after seeing it.
I get your visceral dislike, I just don’t happen to share it about this athlete. You could be right about everything but I don’t see the entitlement or immaturity, just see a kind of clueless big-armed doofus without a football IQ, either because of lack of intelligence or because his long baseball detour was crib death for the development of a host of quarterbacking tools. I didn’t hate Travis Wilson even though he apparently possessed zero ability to match his arrogance; I hated the guy who thought him worthy of our third round pick.
Brown pants gave got to go.
BROWN PANTS would be awesome if the pants were of the same shade of brown[they looked like opaque pantyhoes] and have 1 wide white stripe down the legs with thinner orange stripes in each side.P.S. we DO care how are brown-dogs look.classy and mean!!!
Agree wholeheartedly on self-righteous outward displays.
Bring back the brown and orange uniform!