WaitingForNextYear

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 in the sidebar.

“If LeBron [James] truly decides to change his number, he has to file his intentions in early March with the league office.  That is, unless, he plans to join another team next season.  [...] Does David Stern let him bypass the policy to keep the mystery?” [Stepien Rules]

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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 in the sidebar.

So when Mangini was talking about evaluating their injuries, this is what he meant… “Punter Dave Zastudil, who may have been headed to the Pro Bowl for the first time, and tight end Steve Heiden, the second-longest-tenured Brown on the active roster, were placed onto the Injured Reserve List late Wednesday afternoon and thus will be lost for the rest of the season. It’s more bad news for the bandaged-up and beaten-down Browns, who, at 1-8 and having lost four in a row, stagger to Detroit on Sunday to face the equally staggering 1-8 Lions, losers of six straight.” [The OBR] (more…)

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 in the sidebar.

“The mental welfare of this perpetually beleaguered, nationally pummeled, unemployment-burdened, sports-doomed, pray-if-LeBron-leaves city was fairly stable between 1996 and 1998. Those were the three years when the NFL didn’t exist by the lake, when civic outrage over the Browns’ devastating departure to Baltimore faded into a hope that something better and more loyal was on the way. Who knew that not having them at all was a far saner fate than resurrecting them for the next decade? [...] In a league bottom-heavy with awful teams, the Browns are the most dysfunctional and harmful to one’s equilibrium.” [Jay Mariotti/FanHouse]

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While We’re Waiting (usually) serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Given the late end of last night’s game, today’s WWW has more of a focus…

If you were able to stomach the entire Browns/Ravens game, you likely caught the final play of the game which involved two laterals until grinding to a screeching halt at the hands of Robert Royal.  Down 16 points, the Browns were apparently trying their hardest to at least cover the 11-point spread; the play, however, resulted in an injury to all-everything return man/wide receiver Josh Cribbs.

After being granted a mythical fourth timeout, Cribbs took a pretty good hit on the final play of the game and was taken off of the field via stretcher.  It was later reported that No. 16 had feeling in all of his extremities, but was carted off for precautionary reasons.  Most recent reports have Cribbs being treated for a concussion.

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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 in the sidebar.

“The Ravens play the hapless Cleveland Browns on Monday night, but these struggles aren’t new to the Browns. From the time the Cleveland Browns returned to the NFL in 1999, they have been a cursed franchise. There have been bad first-round picks, crushing injuries and widespread illnesses.  So, what could be the cause of all of these troubles? My theory is the curse of Art Modell.  The Cleveland fans’ hatred of Modell, the owner who relocated the team from Cleveland to Baltimore, has placed bad karma on the current Browns team. Until they let their anger go and welcome Modell into the Hall of Fame down the road in Canton, the Browns will continue to languish at the bottom of the league with quarterback controversies and questionable coaches.” [Jamison Hensley/Ravens Insider]

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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 in the sidebar.

So ESPN got WJW -TV drunk on Bud Light and sold them tickets? “The Browns have averted their first TV blackout since 1995.  The team announced Thursday night that the remaining tickets for Monday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens have been purchased by the Browns, ESPN, Bud Light and WJW-TV, which will air the game.” [Associated Press]

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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 in the sidebar.

Getcha notebook ready: “[Delonte West] was asked after Wednesday’s shootaround how he is progressing after having two leaves of absence during training camp to attend to personal matters. West ended up not playing in the first three games of the season.  “One plus one is two and C always comes out to A and B,” West said to FanHouse.

West, who hadn’t spoken to reporters since media day Sept. 28, was asked what that meant. “One plus one always be two,” he said.

West again was asked to clarify. “One plus one always be two, brother,” he said. West declined further comment. [Chris Thomasson/FanHouse]

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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 in the sidebar.

“There’s also specific evidence that Mangini knows [about Brady Quinn's escalators]. Last week, owner Randy Lerner was asked whether the escalators were a factor in Quinn’s Week Three benching. Lerner didn’t say, “What escalators?” Instead, Lerner said “[n]one at all.” Mangini was asked about the impact of the escalator in August, while he was still trying to figure out whether Quinn or Anderson would be the Week One starter. “Not one bit,” Mangini said in response to whether Quinn’s escalators would influence the decision. If the Lerner is trying to stiff G.M. George Kokinis simply because Kokinis eventually was worn down by Mangini’s apparent efforts to dominate the team’s personnel decisions, Mangini might already have said enough to get himself fired with cause, too.” [Pro Football Talk]

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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 in the sidebar.

“I would love to hear more regarding the dismissal of Erin O’Brien, who according to various reports, served as some sinister agent of mayhem, adhering to the clandestine boss’s every whim. Although others suggest that O’Brien was no more than Mangini’s executive baby-sitter and chief manicurist. Whatever her role was within the organization, it is a telling sign that one of Mangini’s own is no longer with the Browns.” [Cleveland Reboot]

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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 in the sidebar.

“The only real question is if Holmgren wants to take the desk job, just for the sake of having a job in football as soon as possible, or if he wants to wait for a head coaching gig. Obviously, if Holmgren did take this job, it would be possible to fire Eric Mangini and take over as the Browns’ head coach, but Browns owner Randy Lerner is reportedly content to give Mangini a chance to prove himself as the head coach. It would be a pretty bold move for Holmgren to take over and immediately fire the head coach.” [Matt Snyder/NFL FanHouse]

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What a week in the news for the Cleveland Browns franchise: “Is Browns owner Randy Lerner preparing for another implosion of his team’s football operations? That’s the question people in the NFL are pondering in the wake of the stunning and still-mysterious departure of General Manager George Kokinis on Monday and the team’s 1-7 record under coach Eric Mangini.” [Tony Grossi/Cleveland Plain Dealer]

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While We’re Waiting is a special daily feature and serves as the morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your reading pleasure. Have something else you think we should write about tomorrow? Send it to our fancy ol’ tips email address in the right sidebar.

Nothing quite like national basketball writers reiterating to us that New York City loves the best thing to happen to Cleveland sports in generations. Epic sigh: “Only in New York City could a basketball player do everything right – shoot with range, play tough defense, find his teammates with pinpoint passes, working with a sense of flair and drama all along – and still have it come off as slightly gauche, and unseemly. That’s what tonight’s Cavalier win over the New York Knicks felt like.” [Kelly Dwyer/Ball Don't Lie]

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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 in the sidebar.

More on the “Brown Out”… “Folks, including commenters here, and Tony Rizzo, and Mike and Mike, have congratulated Randall for obtaining so much apparent support for his cause, and for his success in getting Lerner to meet with him and Schaefer, as though that in itself was an unqualifed good.  But it’s not.  It’s an abuse of power. [...] Because when ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and just about every other national sports media outlet in the country writes and talks about Randy Lerner meeting with Browns fans, and you are the most vocal of the only two Browns fans who these outlets are writing and talking about, then you do represent Cleveland Browns fans, whether you like it or not, and no matter what you self-servingly say.” [Cleveland Frowns]

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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 in the sidebar.

Your must-read article of the day: “There are no best practices or guides for dealing with an athlete with a diagnosed mental illness.  The Cavaliers have been patient with Delonte West. Every decision regarding their talented but troubled guard is made with caution because, although they dealt with West last year, the situation is an unfinished puzzle of doctors, coaches, front-office execs and counselors. [...] The organization and the league aren’t the only ones in uncharted waters. The media that regularly cover the team are in a similar position. How do you couch analysis or report information when the affliction is mental, not physical?” [Vince Grzegorek/'64 and Counting]

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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 in the sidebar.

“So why this head now? There are two primary competing views. One holds that Lerner finally recognized a supposed mistake in hiring a coach before a GM this off-season, and now seeks to remedy that failure and install a GM who’d serve as an adequate “check and balance” on Eric Mangini’s power. The other, we think better, view is that the decision to dump Kokinis was more a vote of confidence in Mangini than an assault on his power. There are credible reports that the Mangini/Kokinis relationship was doomed from the start — that Kokinis was promised final say on personnel decisions when hired but was nevertheless forced to take a back seat to Mangini, thus poisoning the relationship between the two. This view is supported by Kokinis’ virtual invisibility since joining the franchise.” [Cleveland Frowns]

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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 in the sidebar.

In case you weren’t waching: “[Cliff] Lee pitched a gutty seven plus innings to earn his second win of the World Series, as the Phillies rolled past the Yankees to cut the lead to three games to two, forcing a game six in the Bronx, where the defending champs will once again be fighting for their post season lives. The veteran lefty, who dazzled the Yankees to the tune of no earned runs over nine innings in game one, took the hill once again for the Phillies. Although he wasn’t as sharp as his previous effort, he held the American League’s best offense at bay long enough for the Phillies to build an early led en route to the victory.” [The Fightins]

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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 in the sidebar.

Welcome back, D-West: “They were missing that little spark at that point in the game when you needed one.  They were missing that defensive toughness on the perimeter.  They were missing one more guy that had the ability to stop a run by knocking down a perimeter three.  They were missing one more guy that could create his own shot.” [Stepien Rules]

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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 in the sidebar.

Handicapping the Cavs pursuit of the Warriors’ Stephen Jackson: “LeBron and Shaq’s approval of a Jackson acquisition was well-documented throughout the day on Thursday in the aftermath of the loss at Toronto. The Cavs sorely miss Delonte West, although it’s better to not have him now than it would be to go through this in April, May, or maybe June.  Even if and when West comes back, the Cavs may be looking to move quickly in acquiring more weapons to combat the Bostons and Orlandos come playoff time.” [Amar Panchmatia/Cavalier Attitude]

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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 in the sidebar.

I was the genius who wrote not to worry after the Cavs lost their home opener, 95-89, to Boston on Tuesday. I wrote it was only one game, they’ll figure things out, blah, blah, blah.  The Cavs are now 0-2 after a 101-91 loss at Toronto.  As former Tribe manager Mike Hargrove used to say, “I’m not worried, but I am concerned.”  Worried is when you don’t have talent to compete.  Concerned is when you can’t get the talent to play together.

It’s time for serious concern.” [Terry Pluto]

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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 in the sidebar.

Your reigning Coach of the Year: “In a town where Jhonny Peralta has been the starting shortstop for the better part of a decade and Brian Robiskie is a second round pick, it’s too much to bear yet another coach who’s too dumb to see what’s apparent to even the most casual of fans. Not with the Cavs. All we have is the Cavs. It was one thing for Mike Brown to “experiment” with Shaq and Z on the floor together last night against Boston. The experiment, of course, was a disaster, and it destroyed any chance the Cavs had to win the game.” [Cleveland Frowns]

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