Furious 48: Heat at Cavs—Behind the Box Score
April 3, 2015Trey Lewis “loved” Louisville visit
April 3, 2015
Oh man, that April Fool’s day. It was maybe a little bit self-indulgent by the site, I’ll admit, but I really loved it. No disrespect to anyone else’s contributions and monumental efforts on the day, but Swisher’s Bro Cruise was far and away my favorite. That one was like a perfect, bite-sized, comedic pop song. At least to me, anyway, but it probably doesn’t come as a shock to most of you that I love jokes about Swisher. I don’t hate the dude, but I really love to laugh at how bosteriously “bro” he is.
Big thanks to Will for spearheading the day. I don’t know if it’s been said publicly, but Will organized the whole thing, did the editing and organizing and helped us deliver a full day’s worth of fake content. Even if you hated the exercise, I would hope you’d respect the attempt and effort that went into it. I’m not patting myself on the back in this case, I just wanted to call out Will for a job well done.
Could Johnny Manziel’s football career be close to over?
I’m not trying to just smack you in the head with a headline, but I’ve been thinking it through. You can’t “bury Johnny Manziel after just six quarters of football” as we’ve been beaten over the head on sports talk radio since the 2014 NFL season finished. At the same time that you acknowledge that we can’t predict the future, we also can do our best to imagine the future, and it’s hard to figure out how it works out well.
I was listening to The A to Z podcast on my run Thursday and Andre Knott said something that’s really obvious, but I haven’t heard anyone else say it. Johnny Manziel is working on whatever he’s working on in rehab, but he’s not working on reading defenses and his seven-step drops. Nobody’s critical of him placing his personal priorities above his football priorities when he’s making positive choices like going to rehab, but the reality of the situation will start to land on all of our heads throughout the off-season as football becomes a priority again.
I was always high on Johnny Manziel as a player playing quarterback in the NFL based on his game tape from college. I saw a guy who used his athleticism to extend plays and find receivers in the latter part of their routes. I saw a kid who could fire the ball when necessary and one who had the competitive fire we haven’t seen in a Browns quarterback since Bernie Kosar. What we learned in 2014, unequivocally, is that Johnny Manziel needs more time and development and it seems doubtful he can get that in Cleveland.
You can make the argument that nobody should be more patient with Johnny than Cleveland. From a business standpoint, his contract doesn’t eat the team up like first rounders of old. And no team could benefit more from stashing a guy with potential for a year or two to let him develop into a real quarterback in an arrangement that we’ve largely not seen since Aaron Rodgers sat in Green Bay. So, let’s project how this could all play out assuming the Browns don’t make a move for Marcus Mariota or some other QB in the draft. It’s a giant assumption to make considering it’s almost completely undeniable that the Browns tried to bring in Sam Bradford, but let’s go with this assumption so we can boil down the Johnny Manziel scenario.
Johnny Manziel comes into the off-season program and participates. Josh McCown plays just well enough and professionally to be named starter. McCown has a Hoyer-like year where the team wins some games, but not really because of him, but because he doesn’t lose games for the Browns. Unless the Browns specifically bury Johnny Manziel as a third or fourth string QB and say he’s absolutely not playing because he needs to develop, can you imagine any scenario where Josh McCown is playing and doesn’t leave room for the fans and organization to be distracted by the prospect of someone else on the depth chart – namely former first rounder Johnny Manziel – coming in to play quarterback at a higher level?
I can’t.
And I also don’t think Johnny Manziel will magically become better at football this off-season when he’s been so busy, presumably getting his partying under control enough so that he can focus on football.
I still think about Johnny Manziel what I thought about him coming into the draft last year regarding his tape and potential. I just don’t know how the Browns can be the environment to give him the time to become the best quarterback he can be.
Johnny Manziel is a fixer-upper in a pretty decent neighborhood. Even if a lot of people can recognize it and see the potential, I have to stroll on by a house like that because I don’t own many tools and I have no ability to rehab a house. The Browns are like that prospector who aren’t in a position to fix up the property. Johnny Manziel has loads of potential, but I don’t see how he reaches it in Cleveland. As a result and because of the business of football and contracts for draft picks, it’s hard to see how Johnny ends up achieving his max potential.
I hope I’m wrong, but that’s why I have a tough time – going back to the A to Z podcast – when I hear Zac Jackson saying the Browns are probably better off just cutting bait with Johnny, to say that he’s crazy or wrong or anything in between. It might be the best thing for the Browns and Johnny Manziel.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
I don’t know if I’ve really been focused on the “zen” part of soccer zen the past few weeks, but I’m hoping this is the post that really brings it back. This ball control and volley out of the air is zen-like. I can only imagine what it all must have felt like in his mind as he was executing this play and striking the ball toward the net. Just watching it go straight and yet seemingly finding its way through the defense and past the goalie like an untouchable comet must have been simultaneously sap slow, and speed of light quick.
Death Cab for Cutie releases Kintsugi
Death Cab for Cutie will go down in (my personal) history as one of the bands that I was utterly in love with and obsessed with as a music fan. I saw them early on before they hit their peaks in the bowels of Cambridge Massachusetts at The Middle East. I traveled to Chicago not once, but twice, to find my way in front of a stage that they were playing on. They have an album, Transatlanticism, that will forever be personally etched in the fabric of my life. I know that’s a pretty hackneyed thing to say, but it’s just to say the truth about my relationship to the band. They are Pearl Jam and Tool and Mineral and Radiohead and Acid Bath and Deftones and a very small handful of other bands that get that status in my world.
As I’ve gotten older, I stopped trying to judge these bands against their past performances in live settings and on record. Much like I’m dealing with far different things in 2015 than I was in the early 2000’s, they are too. A lot of water has flowed under lots of bridges for all of us, and just because new material isn’t serving me the same way previous material did when I needed it and it filled a void, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still doing it for different people.
That’s not me making excuses for the band and their latest release Kintsugi, which I feel is chasing something and somewhat misses the mark with me, it’s just realizing that maybe it’s more about me and my past relationship with the band. When you let something into your life the way I’ve let certain bands and their music into mine, it makes the experience impossible to duplicate. Have you ever tried to relive your college days with your buddies much later, or gone to a high school reunion? You never recapture the past as much as you experience a much weirder and more awkward future that has unquestioned references to the past. It’s not necessarily bad, either, but it’s markedly different.
I listen to Kintsugi and I kind of like it, but I keep listening through it like trying to find something in a closet by staring into the door without opening it. I’m searching for the band that defined my life in and around the release of Transatlanticism. That’s as silly and fruitless an exercise as pretending that I’m still in my mid twenties.
Anyway, they’re an all-time great band to me, almost regardless of what they do. Any band should be as fortunate to have a catalog and career to match these guys. So, listen to the first track from their new album, “No Room in Frame,” as performed live on Jimmy Kimmel.
46 Comments
That goal was zen-like until the moment it crossed the goalline and went into the net. Then the zen is over and excitement explodes similar to that Delly-TT oop from last night.
Re: Manziel. “You can make the argument that nobody should be more patient with Johnny than Cleveland. From a financial standpoint…” There, FTFY. Unfortunately, the business standpoint also includes reputation. And unfortunate but true, reputation includes getting the most out of first round picks. I’ve wanted badly to stash a QB like the Packers did with Aaron Rodgers. I realize that strategy doesn’t guarantee we find our “franchise QB,” but throwing them to the wolves in year one certainly has yet to work out. But terms like “first round bust” and all the media and analysts up in arms about a rookie QB not succeeding immediately seem to “encourage” us to keep trying…and failing.
well , the thing that should give us all hope , is that manziel did not take last year seriously at all , as his focus seemed to be on his off-field activities. the guy obviously has some talent … so , it would be nice to see what he can or can’t do when he is prepared & focused.
you can say the same exact thing about justin gilbert.
It’s going to be a media zoo when Manziel comes back for OTAs. Hundreds of legitimate journalists as well as every hack celebrity reporter who can find his way out of the woodwork are going to descend upon him like a plague of locusts. It’s going to make last year’s media frenzy look tame.
But the best thing to do is to let it happen, get it over with, and hope that things die down a bit afterward.
Cannot wait for the “Did you know today was 4/20?” jokes to roll in.
http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/37100000/Beavis-and-butthead-beavis-and-butthead-37136900-480-284.gif
There is absolutely no way that the Browns can consider Manziel to be a starting option for week1 of the 2015 season when they talk today. Just how it is. That being said, redemption stories are often the best kind of stories. No reason to cut bait and let’s hope that there’s a workout gym in that rehab center. If he’s staying in shape, then the time away could be doing him good. I agree that he’s a fixer-upper, but I at least want to see if the mold and termites can be fixed before dumping it as a loss.
The real problem with being able to stash a franchise QB is that it necessarily means that you have 2 franchise QBs on the roster. Until the Browns get their first, they won’t ever be able to stash their second (and beyond the Packers, I can’t think of a team that has successfully done so).
Agree that if he’s staying in shape then the obstacles to him being a better QB aren’t prohibitive. Indeed, if he gets his mind right, this year is essentially a mulligan on his rookie year. My concern is that – in addition to not practicing QB fundamentals – I doubt that you can get into “combat shape” in a rehab facility. But . . . I’ve never been to one (honest!), so I can’t really speak with great knowledge.
Disagree slightly. I don’t know that the first QB has to be a franchise QB – placeholder would suffice. The situation last year would have been great IF 1) Hoyer was willing to mentor, 2) Hoyer didn’t fall off a cliff halfway through the season, and 3) Manziel cared. I realize that’s a lot of ifs, and maybe that perfect situation will never happen because nobody wants to be a placeholder, but we were close.
Yeah, I agree that those IFs could make the difference (and you nailed them all perfectly), but with the pressure to win now in the NFL (outside of Indianapolis), I just don’t see any team, and particularly the Browns, standing pat with a placeholder when a season’s on the brink. It would certainly be the wise move, but I don’t see a lot of wisdom in the NFL when the rubber of the roster meets the road of the season. NE is an exception, I think, as I like how they were willing to sit on Mallett for a few years (until they traded him).
Yeah, my rehab experience is limited to the Sandra Bullock movie – 28 Days. And while I understand he’s not running 7 on 7 drills, might he have time to look at tape? Maybe time to work on footwork and mechanics? Again – 28 days is my reference point, but Viggo Mortenson WAS able to practice pitching (now I’m just being silly). Not saying this should in any way take away from whatever rehab specific work he has to do, but he has to have lots of free time, right?
hi GARRY … i’m hoping the patriots find out just how tuff it is to get that franchise QB after brady hangs-it-up … they got lucky with brady.
I might be the only one, but I thought the April Fool’s Day work here was the BEST THING EVER. I loved every article, if only for the effort and fun that clearly went into all of them, and I agree that Scott’s article on the Swisher Bro Cruise was the best of a great bunch. I hope you do this every year.
Agree. That’s generally how I feel about every team with a “franchise” QB. It’s all luck.
And speaking of luck, when it comes to comeuppance, the team that I want to see suffer is the Colts. I will never, ever forgive them for tanking an entire season for the rights to draft Andrew Luck – and nobody anywhere can ever convince me that they did anything other than tank that season. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait a long time for this to happen.
If JFF wasn’t in rehab, “not working on reading defenses and his seven-step drops”, he’d be in Ibiza, “not working on reading defenses and his seven-step drops”.
… i agree. don’t take life so freakin’ serious. and it’s got to be hard for these guys , especially Craig , to put out an article nearly every day during the offseason.
Wait. Sandra Bullock and Viggo Mortenson are in a movie together? Where has this “28 Days” been my whole life?
Still pissed about the Colts, or the Browns not losing enough that year SMH
You look at JFF and see…
http://ei.marketwatch.com//Multimedia/2013/06/21/Photos/MG/MW-BE489_Fixers_20130621132525_MG.jpg?uuid=ff4f0834-da97-11e2-91d1-002128040cf6
I look at JFF and see…
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/72328000/jpg/_72328295_fire.jpg
Speaking of 4/20, has anybody seen or heard anything about the whereabouts of Mr. Gordon?
This might be a bit irrational, but my level of hate for the Colts is pretty close to my hate for the Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals (but I guess all sports hate is irrational). The Colts have 3 strikes against them in my mixed metaphor mind:
They were the Ravens before the Ravens became the Ravens and are the reason for the Ravens becoming the Ravens. Strike 1 (very nearly a line-drive out to the pitcher).
In 2007, all they had to do was win one last game and the Browns were in the playoffs. Now I understand that the Browns are responsible for their own condition, but the Colts, per their dumb script, sat Peyton Manning so that he could be ready for another early playoff exit, and lost to a division rival. Browns stayed home. Strike 2.
Tanking an entire season to draft Andrew Luck. Strike 3.
Hey colts,
http://img.pandawhale.com/90165-I-hate-you-gif-Anakin-Skywalke-epbW.gif
I see something like this:
http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ice-shack-B-600×404.jpg
Could. Not. Agree. More. I thought I was alone in thinking that the Colts just tanked that entire season, and thought I was crazy because I thought it was pretty freakin’ apparent. Oh so the defense just completely rebounded the following season? Man, Andrew Luck was more valuable than we thought! Add in the fact that they ADMITTED they threw that game to the Titans, and that’s twice they blatantly, intentionally lost games with no recourse. Quite the opposite, in fact. Karma my (_|_).
Maybe, but only if the heater catches it on fire, melts the ice, and falls through.
But if it doesn’t . . .
I’ve been preaching disaster from day one. I’m not changing my tune now.
He’s a bum.
They are ahead of the Bengals and the Broncos in my book. You don’t average 10 wins a year and then put up a two win season only to be followed up by multiple 10+ win seasons.
I can tell you where he is NOT
Yes, but he’s a bum in rehab. Thus the front-wheel drive.
They fully bumped the Broncos off my list.
Nice.
I hated the pick, was hoping I would be wrong. Barnwell (and Mayes) redid the 2014 draft on their podcast and had Bridgewater going in the top 5. I threw up in my mouth a bit.
Had we not beaten the Colts that year, we would have had the #1 pick. But Pat Shurmur was hell bent on proving the Peter principle, and at the time it made us 1-1 and lots of people were trying to talk themselves into “Maybe we got something with this Shurmur guy”
I was screaming “Suck for Luck” all season, even during that game. So much so that one of my friends refused to watch the Browns with me. Most people treated me like I was crazy or a sphincter. Oh well. Andrew Luck was about as cant miss as cant miss gets. Normally I would never condone tanking but in my mind he was a sure of a sure thing as there has been in the NFL draft.
yay revisionist history. That and a dollar will get me a cup of coffee.
Oh, it’s a star studded cast. Steve Buschemi, the pilot from firefly, Poppy from Seinfeld, the guy who was “The Rick” in those ESPN commercials from way back.
I loved the Kevin Love at Thanksgiving one. That was outstanding.
Not entirely true. They went 0-13 and going into week 14, the Browns already had 4 wins, the Redskins had 4 wins, and the Vikes and Rams each had 2 wins. The colts could have easily projected tiebreakers at that point and saw that they had it locked up as long as they didn’t win the last 3. They Beat the Texans (10-6) and the Titans (9-7) in consecutive weeks. 15 & 16, then lost to the Jags on the last game of the season to lock up the pick.
we could sit here and argue all day about how one win can change things, but Im tired
Love’s Thanksgiving and the Johnny Utah profile were my 2 favorites.
I pair the Colts and Broncos to just hatred of equestrian mascotted teams. Not to be confused with equestrian ascotted teams.
I was adamantly anti-“suck for Luck” back then, and even looking back on what has transpired since and is likely to transpire going forward, I am still very happy that the Browns didn’t do it. The very thing that makes the Colts so odious now would be the thing that would make the Browns odious in their place. Sure, the Browns are naturally odious enough on their own right, but at least they are odious naturally, and not artificially. I’d still much rather lose with some measure of integrity than win shamefully.
Johnny in rehab reminds me of a potential storyline:
Johhny:Jesse Pinkman::Pettine:Walter White.
49ers?
Yeah, sorta; sorta not. They did well keeping him on the bench, with a little bit of playing time, his rookie year. But with a Smith injury, he (Kaepernick) got a nervous head nod as the full-time starter in just year 2. Not the way the 49ers drew it up, but I guess it worked.
Hmmm….i see this:
…
Oh, THOSE 49ers! Exhibit A for both: Effective succession plan and PR nightmare train wreck.
Exhibit B:
http://sophiasartphotography.com/orlbb/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/belichick-browns_original_crop_north-340×210.jpg
But I’ll also take credit for thinking of the Smith/Kaep scenario, thankyouverymuch.
Looks like Gordon to me.