June 20, 2013

Raiders “badly” wanted to re-sign Desmond Bryant, per Peter King

April 8, 2013 by 4 Comments

The Oakland Raiders yearned to re-sign defensive tackle Desmond Bryant but could not match the salary cap flexibility of the Cleveland Browns. A report by Sports Illustrated’s Peter King states that Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie was forced to keep his team out of “salary cap jail,” and had no choice but to let the Browns take the mauling defensive lineman.

Bryant inked a five-year, $34 million deal with the Browns earlier this off-season, adding considerable quality to what was largely considered a strength of the team in the defensive line. Bryant, 27, also drew interest from the San Francisco 49ers before being scooped up by Cleveland on the first day of free agency.

Last season, Bryant recorded 36 tackles, four sacks, and one forced fumble. He was also tied for 7th among defensive tackles with 12 quarterback hits. He is expected to join Phil Taylor and Atyba Rubin on the starting line within Ray Horton’s 3-4 defense.

[Related: Breaking down Paul Kruger’s and Desmond Bryant’s Browns contracts]

 

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SI’s profile on Dan Gilbert: “Cleveland never gives up”

December 18, 2012 by 2 Comments

Detroit is a town that’s been beaten up, down in the dumps, but has this certain spirit about it. Cleveland does, too. It never gives up. We’re going to keep coming at it. I want to be part of that. I want to be in position to affect the outcome. [...] Look, I’m a Midwest guy. I’m basically married to two cities, Detroit and Cleveland. I believe in these cities. I believe they can come back bigger and better than they’ve ever been and I would like other talented people — whether they’re in sports or in business — to believe the same.

– Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert via a lengthy profile published by Sports Illustrated – it is well worth the time of every Cavalier fan. In the piece, Gilbert discusses LeBron James, the current state of the Cavaliers, and the future for the team and the city of Cleveland. Seriously: Read it.

[Related: Hard Truths and Subplots- Sizing Up The Cavs a Third of the Way Through]

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King: Haslam to be ‘Much More Involved’ in Browns’ Day-to-Day

August 7, 2012 by 22 Comments

While he won’t likely tip the scale in the way of Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban, Cleveland Browns owner Jim Haslam is going to be around the city of Cleveland and his new football team a lot more than his predecessor. Sports Illustrated’s Peter King penned a column following a 30-minute conversation and, like most that have crossed the new owner’s path, came away impressed.

“It’s very important to thank your customers for their loyalty,” Haslam told King. “In my business, I go to the stores unannounced fairly often to talk to my employees. It’s important to assess your business often, and to ask the people out in the field for ideas. I ask, ‘What are we doing wrong?’ Ninety-five percent of our new ideas come from our employees.”

King adds that Haslam yearns to learn. Far from an expert on the Cleveland Browns, it’s Haslam’s job to learn the ways of the Orange and Browns. It sounds as if the new owner plans on bringing a lot of what he learned through his years as partial owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers — stability, consistency, leadership — across state lines. In his discussion with King, Haslam appeared adamantly concerned about the coaching carousel that has plagued the Browns since their return in 1999.

“They’ve averaged a new coach once every 2.8 years [since the franchise returned to Cleveland in 1999],” Haslam said, “and that’s just not a good recipe. One thing I learned from watching the Steelers is the importance of consistency in coaching, and how much it sets you back when you’re always making a change. When you change coaches, it can be a three- or four-year deal to get back.”
 

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Goodell: McCoy Hit Helping Change NFL Concussion Protocol

June 11, 2012 by 23 Comments

In his latest Monday Morning Quarterback, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King has a one-one-one with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, wherein they discuss the infamous Colt McCoy-concussion situation from 2011.

With regard to the league’s Athletic Trainer Concussion-spotting program (ATC), the NFL also plans on furthering the use of a tablet that could possibly be implemented as an additional means of analyzing a player who may or may not have sustained a head injury. When asked if the McCoy situation would have been different had this process been established last season, Goodell had the following:

[McCoy] was examined, but they were focusing on his hand, because that’s what he was complaining about. There are two or three injuries on that one play that happened in different places … I have to go back and look, but I’m quite certain we had the ATC spotter when the Colt McCoy hit happened. What was happening though was the doctors were in looking at him [at his hand, not his head], so the ATC spotter said, ‘Well, he’s being evaluated, so that’s fine.’ What was the fallacy in it is that they were evaluating the wrong thing. What we’re going to do now is to say regardless of whether you see them being evaluated, you are to speak to them and you are to tell them that there is head-to-head contact and here’s the play and look at it. You would have seen the Colt McCoy hit and would have said, ‘Forget his thumb now. Let’s focus on if he had any type of injury to his head.’ … He would not have gone back in after three or four plays. One of the things we’re learning about concussions is sometimes the symptoms don’t occur for several minutes. We don’t know about the brain. It may just not be apparent for some period of time and that’s another complicating factor to this.

Just last week, McCoy told SI’s Dan Patrick that he did not recall the James Harrison hit that would subsequently end his season. Goodell and King would go on to discuss the ramifications of the recent death of Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau as well as veteran linebacker and John Carroll University alum London Fletcher stating that there should be mandatory mental evaluations for all retired players.

[Related: Colt McCoy: So You're Saying There's a Chance]

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Pryor says he was humbled by what happened at Ohio State

May 9, 2012 by 37 Comments

Sports Illustrated’s Jim Trotter has a piece out today on Terelle Pryor. Among many things discussed was the circumstances that led to Pryor’s suspension at OSU and the season he had last year in Oakland sitting on the bench.

“It was humbling,” he said. “A mistake I made when I was a freshman by selling my pants for $3,000 just took away everything from me. I was just driven into the ground. I was the worst person in the world. My face popped up on the screen, and it seemed like I was the only one who did anything. I was the only one who was getting attacked. At that point last year, I’m 21 and it just felt like everything was against me, like I can’t do anything right. I did something to help somebody else out, and I end up getting into trouble. I understand. I shouldn’t have sold the stuff and taken $3,000. But I was kind of in a place where I didn’t understand why this is happening to me — especially for the reason that I did it.

“The reason why I did it was to pay my mother’s gas bill and some of her rent. She was four months behind in rent, and the [landlord] was so nice because he was an Ohio State fan. He gave her the benefit of the doubt and she said, ‘My son will pay you back sometime if you just let me pay you back during my work sessions.’ She ended up losing her job, and she and my sister lived there. Let me remind you it was freezing cold in November, December, and she’s using the oven as heat. That’s what I did as a kid. I was telling the NCAA, ‘Please, anything that you can do. I gave my mother this so my sister wouldn’t be cold, so my mother wouldn’t be cold.’ They didn’t have any sympathy for me. It’s not like I went there and bought new Jordans. It’s documented. Whenever I write my book the proof will be in there, the receipt that the money I gave my mother was to pay the electric and heat bill. The truth is going to come out one day when the time is right. I don’t think I deserved [being punished] in that way, because of the reason I was doing it. I felt like I was doing God’s work in a way, and I was getting driven into the ground.”

Do take a moment and read the whole piece if you are an Ohio State fan. It probably won’t change your opinion of Pryor. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that Oakland decided they need to give Matt Leinart a shot at the back-up job.

[Related: Raiders use third round pick on Pryor in supplemental draft]

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NBA Player Poll: Byron Scott Among Least-Preferred Coaches

April 19, 2012 by 23 Comments

Despite taking two teams from the cellar to championship contention and currently in the midst of rebuilding a 19-win franchise in Cleveland, nine percent of NBA players surveyed by Sports Illustrated list Byron Scott as the coach they would least like to play for.

A survey answered by 134 current NBA players, Boston’s Doc Rivers received 22 percent of the vote for coach players would most like to play for while Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy brought up the tail with 22 percent voting him as the least enticing option. Milwaukee’s Scott Skiles (14 percent) split Van Gundy and Scott on the List of Least with former Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown receiving four percent of the vote — good enough for fifth.

Van Gundy, Skiles and Scott are three NBA coaches who are notoriously known for demanding a lot of of their players. Van Gundy is one of the league’s least laid back individuals, an intense worker who demands the same from his players. Skiles is known as one of the league’s biggest no-nonsense, in-your-face sideline chancellors in the game. Scott holds the dreaded “Camp Scott” during the preseason, frequently claiming the stomachs of countless out-of-shape players. Brown is most known for his willingness to forgo elevated point totals and pace for improved, stout defense.

Offering considerable insight as to who today’s ever-coddled NBA players prefer, the currently unemployed Mike D’Antoni — he of the Defense Optional style and one playoff appearance since 2008 – received 21 percent of the vote for coaches who they would most like to play for.

If it’s any consolation for Scott, it appears that the feelings are mutual.

[Related: When There’s a Wing, There’s a Way]

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It’s Good to Be Miserable?

July 10, 2011 by 2 Comments

This week, the sharp Sports Illustrated columnist Steve Rushin wrote a column about the sports fan’s misery index.  Rushin writes that for many of us, it’s good to feel bad.  We create methods and calculations to quantify our misery and look for any way to inflate that quantification.  For example, “When we’re miserably hot, we create a Heat Index to feel hotter than the actual temperature. When we’re miserably cold, we conjure windchill to help us feel more frigid still.”

This desire to despair is nowhere more applicable than the sports community.  Sports fans are perpetually lamenting their team’s shortcomings.  Rushin argues:

“No one is happier to be unhappy than sports fans, which is why Cubs fans (zero titles in 102 years) are legion and Marlins fans (two titles in 14 years) are non-existent…that’s where every fan secretly wants to be, because misery doesn’t really love company after all — it wants to be alone, at the very top.”

To inflate the misery, Rushin comes up with an indiscriminate index that each fan base can use to tout their woe.  [Read more...]

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Helping Byron Scott Relive the Glory Days

March 8, 2011 by 3 Comments

 

It is undoubtedly cliché to say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  But in reference to the image above, it is tough to describe it any othe way.  The list is endless: an A-list celebrity, members of an NBA championship team, sunglasses, the socks, and – oh my – the shorts. 

Which is why, when I ventured into Cavaliers’ shootaround with this image in hand, Byron Scott could not help but smile and shake his head.  [Read more...]

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Rolling Stone Pegs Mangini as Augustus Gloop

October 21, 2009 by 20 Comments

mangini Augustus Gloop RiverBy now, you have likely heard that Rolling Stone will be featuring an article in which one Matt Taibbi takes on Browns head coach Eric Mangini as well as the team which he manages every Sunday afternoon. 

The part where a music-based magazine is piling on our woeful season is only a sliver of the equation.  The rest of it is comprised of the comparison in which Mangini is simply a personification of Augustus Gloop – the heavy-set lad who finds himself in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate river only, to be defended by his mother as if it were the fault of Sir Wonka. [Read more...]

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While We’re Waiting… Cleveland SI Covers, Tressel Not Calling Plays, and Kings Island’s Halloween Steve McNair “Tribute”

September 24, 2009 by 18 Comments

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.

si-covers-cleveland

“Sometimes I think Cleveland teams are a weird sports version of Stormtroopers, as if they might just exist to make the “good guys” look awesome.” [Matt/Kardiac Kid]
 

[Read more...]

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December 31, 2008 by 6 Comments

It’s a shame that for every one Joe Posnanski, there are 10 Stephen A. Smiths.  However, everytime Joe steps up to the plate, he hits a home run.  Some of his posts are a little long for most casual blog readers, but he continues to be one of the best out there – and yes, his Cleveland ties give him a few extra points in my book.

His latest is up at SI.com, and is a must read for all Cleveland fans.  Please do yourself a favor while you wait for the clock to tick closer to 12:00 AM and check it out.

New year, same hope: a title for my hometown (finally) [Joe Posnanski]

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All-Time Baseball movie character draft

April 8, 2008 by 17 Comments

chapel.jpgI’m a fan of Extra Mustard. For those of you not familiar with SI’s version of a sports/entertainment blog, you should try it sometime. In fact, start with a photo gallery that they entitled “Drafting Baseball Movie Characters.” Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Interesting idea they came up with, too bad they flopped on the execution. I mean seriously, who was in charge of this draft Matt Millen? Isaiah Thomas? Butch Davis?

Here are the top 10 picks in their mythical draft-

  1. Jack Elliot 1B- Mr. Baseball

  2. Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh SP- Bull Durham

  3. Dottie Hinson C- A League of Their Own

  4. Montgomery Brewster SP- Brewster’s Millions

  5. Amanda Wurlitzer SP- Bad News Bears

  6. Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn RP- Major League

  7. Henry Rowengartner RP- Rookie of the Year

  8. Bobby Rayburn OF- The Fan

  9. Ed – Ed

  10. Roy Hobbs OF- The Natural

Ok, let’s start with the obvious- Ed? This list is already a travesty. A mockery. A sham. You know, a travshamockery. I liked Brewster’s Millions a lot, very underrated movie, but Brewster himself was a junk ball pitcher, and his claim to fame was that he could “get anybody out for three innings”. Well that might be useful for a relief pitcher, but not a starter. And come on, Mr. Baseball wasn’t even the best choice from the team! [Read more...]

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On The Cover

March 26, 2008 by 9 Comments

LeBron on the cover of Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated Opens Their Vaults

Not sure how many of you guys have seen this, but if you haven’t, this is well worth checking out. After all, you’re already going to spending much of the day listening to classic Joe Tait calls, so why not spend some more time looking into the history of our beloved teams through the eyes of Sports Illustrated?

Sports Illustrated has finally decided to share their vaults with all of us. Honestly, this is one of the most incredible sports websites you’re gonna find. They have put all of their articles, covers, videos, etc….. basically, EVERYTHING they have ever done into a neatly designed searchable database. You guys gotta check this out. Want to see all the covers LeBron has been on, or read any of the 402 articles that mention him, or watch any of the 1,000 videos? No problem at all. Trying to find that cover with Andy Katzenmoyer on it, or the one with Art Modell punching the Browns mascot, or the now infamous 1987 cover with Corey Snyder and Joe Carter where the Indians are predicted to win the American League? It’s all in there. Or maybe you really want to go back into history and find the cover with Bob Hope in an Indians uniform, or the one with Hopalong Cassady on the cover, or when SI declared Terrell Brandon “the best point guard in the NBA” (ok, that one’s not ancient history, but man does it feel like it).

Have some fun with this and search around for things and see what crazy items from SI’s past you can find. Feel free to give us links in the comments sections with any notable stories, covers, images, or videos you find.

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