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April 14, 2014Photos: EA Sports in town getting Browns players “In the game”
April 14, 2014What’s the down side in not attending a draft prospects Pro Day? The Cleveland Browns may soon find out.
In the wake of an injury sustained by Clemson’s Brandon Thomas, potential first-overall draft selection Jadveon Clowney will not be participating in any private workouts heading into May’s NFL Draft. “He still will visit teams and interview with coaches and GMs,” writes SI’s Peter King, “but his next show-and-tell football performance will be after the draft in a mini-camp, with whichever team picks him.”
The Browns were the only team to not have front office members present at Clowney’s (incredibly impressive) Pro Day two weeks back, citing that “being in charge of that workout is different than being at a Pro Day where it’s orchestrated and scripted.” Unfortunately for Cleveland, they’ll now see neither.
This (bound to be controversial) decision by Clowney will only serve to add to the talented pass-rusher’s mystique while making the monocles pop out of the eyes of schoolmarms like this “personnel man” throughout the league. Remember, this was the same player who was accused of milking injuries to not hinder his draft stock just weeks after being the subject of glowing columns and feature-length stories.
Isn’t anonymous character assassination delightful?
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(Photo: Dale Zanine, USA TODAY Sports)
11 Comments
It will be interesting to see how Clowney pans out he’s either going to be the amazing Pro Bowler projected or possibly one of the biggest duds. This is why I’m hoping he’s selected before #4 that way none of us can whine about what may have been or mope about him being another Courtney Brown.
You would think someone would have some insight from Spurrier or Ward defending him.
You would think. 😉
At least Brown never came across like a entitled sandbagger.
I’m thinking Clowney = Haynesworth.
I never liked the selecting of Brown I favored his teammate Lavar Arrington more but you make an interesting comparison Clowney to Haynesworth. Like I said it’ll be interesting to see how Clowney’s career goes.
So as I understand it, here’s the problem:
The Browns, having “only” hours of video of Clowney’s super-freakish athletic abilities and game performances, and having not attending the pro-day that everyone says was “amazing,” now “only” have hours of game performance video and volumes of testimony about his freakish athletic ability to determine whether Clowney is worth drafting. (Well, that and the ability to interview him to decipher all of the non-athletic questions.)
Wait, what was the problem? And how can anybody possibly make a controversy about this?
I smell what your cookin’ but I think by not speaking/visiting these top draft picks the Browns are doing themselves a bit of a disservice. There’s nothing wrong with trying to learn about potential players your team may face in the future.
B/c Grossi has to write about 1K words every day and it’s a looooong offseason.
Nobody said they weren’t going to meet or speak with Clowney. They just chose not to watch him do an interpretive dance on his collegiate practice field.
http://distilleryvesper8-12.ak.instagram.com/45e92898c34911e3b0940002c954a988_101.mp4
The problem was that NO WHERE in those hours of game footage was there ANY video of him grabbing tennis balls. For shame Browns, for shame.
Gotta stir-up drama about something in the off-season. Rabble Rabble!