Eric Mangini Will Tolerate Players Using Twitter…For Now
August 10, 2010America Is Ready For Some Football
August 10, 2010I doubt Braylon Edwards is a stupid person. He just says a lot of stupid things when prompted by the media. In private, I would not be surprised if he is a fairly quiet, normal, and witty person. His actions and words in public, however, impress upon you someone who can only be considered a first-rate dullard. He has deluded himself into explaining away his failures in Cleveland on the field as a result of Browns’ fans inability to accept him and their distaste for what he stood for off of it. It’s deja vu all over again.
He is looking for any explanation that exculpates his personal shortcomings as an employee of the organization. I cannot speak to the psychological reasons why he continually makes this case – delusion, insecurity, provocation – but his propensity for dropping the football at the most crucial times led to unrealized expectations and an unfulfilling career in Cleveland. This caused the fans disappointment, and in some cases, anger – “the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” But Braylon was back at it again in an odd bit of propaganda in the New York Times yesterday.
It’s August so there is a sense of optimism and renewal all around the NFL. It’s great to be a New York Jet! Braylon: “This is all I ever needed. And all I never had.” A particular new coach? Quarterback? New set of gloves? Hands? No, a city that matches one’s essence.
“There’s nothing going on in Cleveland. There’s no real estate. There’s no social life, no social networking. All the people who have something going on leave Cleveland. So Cleveland has nothing, and I came in there with a New York-type of essence. So what? That was the attitude I came in with. Like, this is who I am. They didn’t like the flash.”
The man used to cite his Michigan background as the reason why he failed here. But now, talking to the New York Times, it’s that we could not accept his New York-type of essence. I laughed very hard at this self-proclaimed character description. He lived his entire life in Detroit and Michigan but perhaps confuses Royal Oak with 5th Avenue (After being traded, his very NY essence attempt to buy Rihanna a $10,000 bottle of champagne at a club was rebuffed when she didn’t know who he was). But he’s in New York now and this is an NYT reporter, so now his New York essence failed to mesh with blue collar Cleveland. If his hands fail him this season with the Jets, as they did at times in the second half of last season, I suppose it will be his Detroit roots and Midwestern upbringing that prevented him from being accepted by the overwrought New York media and fans.
Braylon’s mother, inadvertently providing a compelling argument that delusion is an inherited trait, joined in the quotable fun with the unchallenging NYT reporter:
“He has a sense of renewal…He came from a team that was always looking for a savior to a team that knows how to win. No one would understand what he’s been through unless you’ve been drowning.”
Well that wouldn’t be many people and most of them are dead so maybe it’s just that no one can really understand or appreciate Braylon and that’s not his fault. She also added that the dropped passes stat was “created because of him.” While still inaccurate, I was confused if this was supposed to support or rebut some argument favorable to her son.
To repeat again, the fans came to dislike Braylon because he was a failure as a football player. He failed to catch the ball at the biggest moments. He failed to lead in any way and often blatantly disobeyed organization rules. According to Braylon, his failures had nothing to do with the team’s failures and he felt he was stuck in a state of constant upheaval. Forgetting that he was a first round pick and the most skilled player on offense, he was helpless to lead them out of this “less-than mediocre” position. But it was not that he played at Michigan or that he drove a Bentley or wore fine Italian suits or had a New York essence. He had immense talent and failed as a football player. He was shipped out when the “boys will be boys running with their shoes off” regime of Romeo Crennel left town.
Browns fans will have a chance to greet their former friend when the Jets play at Cleveland Browns Stadium on November 14. Consider it good practice for December 2nd. Braylon’s words and actions off-the-field, save for his remarkably generous donations to Cleveland public schools, compounded with his football failures to put him in poor standing with Browns fans – not other pre-conceived cultural norms. But this NYT reporter would rather talk about how his gimmicky and unoriginal beard represents his “growth and continuing revival.” Ignoring the quotes that were given to him, the reporter fails to see that it’s just more of the same.
47 Comments
Hey, Brayin’, kick us again, we were just getting up.
Braylon never understood that Buckeye fans loved him when he played for the Wolverines. Who else could we leave uncovered on 3rd down and be assured they would drop the ball?
It was when he came to the Browns and continued that progression of dropped balls that he became villified.
Leroy Hoard and Steve Everitt became beloved in Cleveland, not so much for Braylon. Hope he enjoys the NY media tearing him a new one when the Jets don’t meet expectations (as expectations are now a Superbowl berth at the very least).
Like it or not, we Clevelanders are doing ourselves a disservice if we cannot admit that he is 100% correct on this point. Only after we admit it can we fix it.
maybe we would have accepted him and forgiven the drops had he shown up in in overalls, a straw hat and a pickup truck? we certainly don’t like that new york essence and those eye-tal-yan suits.
“He came from a team that was always looking for a savior to a team that knows how to win.” over the past 5 years, the Jets are 36-44. i would hardly call that “knowing how to win.”
bottom line is, you can take the man out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of the man.
and we ESPECIALLY don’t like fake new york essence of someone from detroit.
just saw this on lecharles bentley’s twitter. OMFG
“Braylon Edwards back bashing Cleveland: Nothing that comes out of his mouth or goes into surprises me: decode @ your own discretion!”
“Clevelanders are doing ourselves a disservice if we cannot admit that he is 100% correct on this point. ”
Put the pipe down. I’ve lived all over the country, and the bars and restaurants are actually better in Cleveland than more then a few places that I’ve been to. So, he’s 100% right? Not a chance in hell.
It certainly isn’t New York, but nowhere else is.
Braylon should note that Cleveland has the internet ergo it has social networking, doy.
The fact that he said there’s no social networking in Cleveland makes me doubt he knows what the words “social networking” mean. Unless Facebook, Twitter LinkedIn and Myspace have all banned Cleveland IP addresses.
Did that happen? Has even the Internet left Cleveland? Or did Cleveland reject the Internet because of it’s “New York essence”?
I can’t stand atheletes that can’t accept responsibility for themselves. It’s not his fault he dropped the ball? Why isn’t the NYT reporter firing back at him and asking how, exactly, did the fans dislike of whatever-he’s-blaming-today cause him to drop a football? Last I checked, none of us were on the field batting it out of his hands…
maybe my memory is hazy, but wasnt edwards one of the popular players the season he caught 16 TDs? maybe all those TDs made us forget he went to UM?
Bentley wrote “OMFG”???? Really?
Maybe I’m just clueless and hopelessly out of touch, but who modifies “God” with the f-word? Wow!
to clarify, i added the “OMFG” as sarcasm. the rest actually was LB’s post.
@15 That picture is worth a 1,000 words!
Craig- if you could find that thursday night game of braylon where the ball drills him in the face itd be even better
Also for the record, I am grateful for all charitable contributions from rich athletes. Could they please stop using them as shields to defend them in other areas of the world? Braylon’s constant referral to his donations to charities in Cleveland screams of the Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, CT.
“Well that wouldn’t be many people and most of them are dead”
Hilarious
Getting Braylon traded was the best thing #6 ever did for us.
I almost wish the Browns would put together a montage of all the dropped passes to play on the Jumbotron on November 14th, but he doesn’t deserve that much attention, even negative.
HE REALLY DROPPED THE BALL WITH THESE COMMENTS. GET IT?
@8: Sure, we’ve got nice restaurant. Michael Simon knows how to cook. We have some decent bars, too…
We have no industry, no economy, no housing market, we got passed over by the economic boom of the 90s, slammed by the crash of the 2000’s, our city is bleeding population (down from #5 in the nation to #51), and we have no leadership or ideas to bring us to the forefront.
Anyone I’ve ever known who got a dime to their name left as soon as they could, if they didn’t leave before hand to make their money.
@Jneids – if the Browns put together a montage of all of Braylon’s drops, they would have to start it now if it was supposed to finish by Nov 14th [/zing]
Absolutely the LAST time I’m making a professional athlete my role model, Braylon. I cheered for you, you said I was your “twelth man” how many times so like wtf. Hey, you know what forget you check this out.
YO, BIG APPLE. HE DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU HE JUST LIKES WHEN PEOPLE CHEER FOR HIM. BUT HE DONT CARE AT ALL ABOUT YOU.
What a moron.
@ #23 – As far as I can tell, there are plenty of people who live here willingly, unless they put up a barbed wire fence keeping us in that I wasn’t aware of. I left, then got a transfer back here as soon as I could. I did this simply because I feel like raising children here is a better option than in New York City or (most certainly) Los Angeles.
I’m fairly certain there are others that feel like I do.
No one said it’s paradise, but it’s still home.
Personally I was just happy to get this ball-dropping, excuse-making, italian suit-wearing jerk off of our team. The fact that he’s still whining about Cleveland enforces that point. Let him say whatever he wants – as long as he says it while playing for some other team. No one really cares about Braylon anymore.
He fits right in with that team and their large coach.
We could call him LeBraylon if he wasn’t such a lousy player.
Even after all this garbage, I still appreciate his attitute toward Lebron James. “He’s a guy from Akron who likes everybody but his hometown.”
@29
ZING!!!!
WE HAVE HOUSES AND FACEBOOK AND TWITTER AND EVERYTHING!! SHUT UP, BRAYLON!
@27 – right on the ball. The day they announced that trade I was beside myself with happiness. I could care less about what he says, I care more about what he puts out on the field…and well…we know how underwhelming that was.
The guy played with a chip on his shoulder after the trade but now that he feels he’s “made it” in NY he’ll get too comfortable…just like he did here. Those comments only prove that point….say this? a year later? Someone is getting too big for their own britches again…I’m waiting for the epic melt down that will be Braylon this year.
Those that also know the feeling of drowning, just like our man Bray-Bray, suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay being waterboarded as we speak…
just hope he gets traded to Kansas City…
The dropped passes stat may not have been created for him but it sure should be named for him. That way he can lead the league in Braylons.
@36
Ha haaaaaaaaaa! Great idea, Mark. Each year the NFL can present the guy who leads the league in DPs with the noncoveted and nonprestigious Braylon Edwards Trophy! Which, of course, he’ll promptly . . . well, you know.
is this where we coin the phrase “BOY HE REALLY BRAYLON’D THAT ONE” and spread it nation wide?
Braylon and the art of drowning.
I could not be happier that he plays for the Jets. They deserve each other.
There’s nothing going on in Cleveland. There’s no real estate. There’s no social life, no social networking. All the people who have something going on leave Cleveland. So Cleveland has nothing
Social Life–Check!
Social Networking–Check!
Real Estate–Check!
Has Something Going On, And Is Still In Cleveland–Check!
Cleveland’s pathetic. I’ll bet you can’t find a single bottle of $10,000 champagne in this hick burg.
Hey Braylon…bend over and smell my essence. How can anyone be the most talented when that person can’t catch the ball.
@paulbip – careful with that request…
From what LeCharles tweeted and other things I’ve heard from numerous sources (who were there during the infamous fight outside The View), Braylon’s gay. That would explain the “New York Essence” comment perfectly.
haha. GAYlon.
He had (or has) the most persistent case of Football Dropsy I’ve ever seen.
Here is a big GFY Braylon from WFNY
Braylon Edwards should switch to DB. Then he wouldn’t get blamed if he went the rest of his football career without ever catching another ball.
This guy would probably drop his mother’s groceries.