Box Score: Indians 2, Tigers 1
May 24, 2012While We’re Waiting… Tristan a project, rewarding winners and losing velocity
May 25, 2012Jim Brown apparently hasn’t changed his mind about Trent Richardson. Now he’s taking it a step further and questioning the commitment of Mike Holmgren to Tony Grossi.
“What have I said about the Browns other than the fact that Richardson is an ordinary back? There’s so much I could say. So you tell all those people that want to look at me, look at what you’ve got. You’re sitting on a mess. You’ve got a guy that doesn’t give interviews except in other cities. I ask all the people in Cleveland, do you get the impression that Mr. Holmgren wants to be there? If you do, then tell me.”
I wouldn’t expect Jim Brown to like Mike Holmgren very much seeing as he was the one who seemingly took Jim Brown’s paycheck away. As for his thoughts on Trent Richardson, I think I understand where he is coming from.
Trent Richardson strikes me as the kind of back that needs reps in order to break a few. He isn’t Adrian Peterson or Barry Sanders it wouldn’t seem. Even still, Jim Brown seems to have a hard time articulating exactly what he means through the haze of bitterness.
[Related: Barry Sanders: Trent Richardson is Not “Ordinary”]
89 Comments
Barry Sanders was definitely the type of back who needed reps to break one. I am just nervous that Jim is right about Richardson. I am wholly on the bandwagon, but I am truly concerned because i didn’t love him out of college.
Two things: First, I think the GREAT Jim Brown is wrong about Richardson but it makes sense to me that he would say what he said. He has always been an ego-maniac and he will never change. I’d be more concerned if he did change, to be honest. It might mean a stroke is in the works. He thinks he is the greatest (which he is, right now) and that someone on par with the likes of Emmitt Smith is mediocre. Oh to have such mediocrity.
Regarding Holmgren, here he may be on to something. I hear whispers from media guys that he isn’t exactly pleased with Cleveland. His angered words (you’re either wish us or you’re not) tell a lot. You rarely (if ever) heard that kind of desperation and anger with the Big Show in other cities. It could mean a variety of things, none of them good.
Don’t dismiss the GREAT James Nathanial too quickly. Later in the interview (read the whole thing, please) he says this about Emmitt Smith:
“If you look at Emmitt Smith and the kind of blocking he had, I don’t
think he’d have close to the career he had (without it),” Brown said.
“But if you take a Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson … Earl
Campbell, there’s something special there.”
Now, THAT is a smart comment. If he is capable of such insight there I have to think what he said about Holmgren might be partially true. Walter Payton, Dickerson and Campbell were legendary backs (all of which would, I think, would still say that Jim Brown was better, if they were all still alive)
When Holmgren’s term is up and the GREAT Jim Brown reveals some of the “so much else he could say” stuff, it’ll be interesting to be sure.
I’m still confident TRich will blow away our expectations and be a dominant back.
Of course it was Grossi. Also, didn’t Holmgren just talk to the media reecently?
I’m guessing Jim Brown wouldn’t question a person’s commitment to pro football if that person had an opportunity to pursue a mediocre career in Hollywood.
Jim Brown needs to STFO and beat some more women.
I get it, you were the best running back ever.
Now stop being a bitter old man.
Somehow double posted
Jim. Thanks for everything. Time to retire from talking.
to be fair, he was just sick of dealing with Modell
Jim Brown was once great for football .All I have seen him do the last several years is cause problems.He got into Clarett’s head and screwed him up .Now he is trying to cause problems for someone else. He really thinks he should be relevant in regards to the decisions the Browns make .The fact is he should shut his trap . He isn’t entitled to make decisions for the Browns or any other pro team .Yes he is entitled to an opinion like every one else .Thats where he needs to end it .He is going to smear his name before long .
“He is going to smear his name before long.”. Oops. Too late.
Shut The Front Office?
i hope everyone takes the time to read what brown said. he was asked his opinion on subjects and gave them.
1. “I think the kid is a good working back, and if you’ve got everything else around him he can play his role. But when it comes to outstanding, I don’t see anything outstanding about him. It’s not said in a cruel manner. He’s very efficient, and that’s what you want.”
i’ve seen the same. terrific condition. but not the 4.3 speed that somehow got reported. doesnt attack the hole ferociously, but lets the line open holes. ie, ‘good working back.’
2. “You’re sitting on a mess. You’ve got a guy that doesn’t give interviews except in other cities. I ask all the people in Cleveland, do you get the impression that Mr. Holmgren wants to be there? If you do, then tell me.”
this seems truthful. and we know from the perez experience that cleveland media/blogosphere appreciates athletes telling it like it is, right?
3. “If you look at Emmitt Smith and the kind of blocking he had, I don’t think he’d have close to the career he had (without it),” Brown said. “But if you take a Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson … Earl Campbell, there’s something special there.”
emmitt smith’s practice of saving his footballs after touchdowns was the worst.. he should have given the balls to tuinei, newton, stepnoski, kennard, allen in rotation.
4. ““You’re not gonna come into pro football dealing with how strong you are,” Brown responded. “They’ve got enough people dealing with strength. Your quickness and your speed are the two assets that I would look at. Look at Earl Campbell. Earl was quick. You have to have a certain kind of quickness, certain kind of speed, and then your strength comes into it.”
who would know this better than jim brown?
jim brown is not trolling cleveland fans. he’s answering questions asked of him honestly and drawing from his unique perspective.
Right you are, Jimbo. It’s not like Brown called a press conference to start ripping people. Grossi asked him questions, and he gave his honest opinions. I don’t know why anyone would get all worked up about it. Brown doesn’t have any actual influence on anything. He’s just airing his opinions like the rest of us.
“Even still, Jim Brown seems to have a hard time articulating exactly what he means through the haze of bitterness.”
Actually, no. It’s really easy to understand exactly what Brown means. If anyone is having a hard time articulating anything here, it’s the author in trying to articulate why Brown’s comments should be simply dismissed as “bitterness” for any reason other than that the author would like to maintain his Pollyanna stance on this franchise and the current front office.
Really, do you get the impression that Mr. Holmgren wants to be here? Like Mr. Brown, I’d like to know the facts that support this belief.
And if you want to be so dismissive of Brown’s opinions, it would also help if you could point to instances in the past where he expressed views about the franchise that ended up being badly off. I’m trying and nothing really comes to mind.
everything is Art Modell’s fault. I think that’s the one thing we can all agree on.
First of all Barry Sanders was the very definition of needing reps to break a long carry. The guy led the league in rushes for a loss almost every year.
When did “breaking one” become the standard for running backs? What does it mean? Are we talking guys like Sanders that need 25 carries but at least one of them is probably going to go 40+ yards? Is it guys who only get 10 carries but seem to make an impact on one of those? It seems to me that it is rapidly becoming one of those meaningless “Kiperisms” that people use to knock a player they don’t like but don’t have a good reason for not liking. So Richardson doesn’t have the straight away speed to beat a CB in a footrace? Well 99% of the guys with that speed, can’t stay in the backfield to block, and they generally go down on one arm tackles from linebackers (remember Metcalf?).
If JB said that about Emmitt Smith all I can say is that somewhere Gene Hickerson is rolling his eyes.
“I wouldn’t expect Jim Brown to like Mike Holmgren very much seeing as he
was the one who seemingly took Jim Brown’s paycheck away.”
Also ridiculous. Brown turned down a $100,000 annual salary for a figurehead position. It’s plain that it’s not about the money to him. He turned the figurehead position down due to the lack of respect that was shown to him by Holmgren and Lerner.
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know, but it looks to me like Jim Brown was the archetypal prima donna to me. He didn’t like the fact that Paul Brown didn’t treat him like something special, so out goes Paul Brown. He didn’t like the fact that Modell didn’t treat him like something special (didn’t want to have to go to training camp) so he quit football. It began to look like Franco Harris might break his rushing record, so he starts posing in Raiders uniforms at 40 years old on the cover of SI.
I’m not denying he was one of the baddest baddasses ever on the football field and I feel a sort of pride (for some reason) because he was a Cleveland Brown, but his act is old to everyone except journalists and think he should probably quit giving interviews as well.
Yikes.
There has never been a singular quote from Holmgren even close to pointing to him not being committed or happy here.
In fact quite the opposite is true:
“Rest assured, I’m all in,” he said. “[Wife] Kathy and I, we love Cleveland and this is ourhome. I’ve never had a job anywhere where I wasn’t all in and I’m all in here.”
Everything was Modell’s fault; the blame for recent happenings now falls at the feet of #6.
No offense but you are pretty much the anti-pollyanna, everything I’ve ever read from you tilts to a doubting, negative view of this front office. If you are going to call someone out for a lack of objectivity, you should work harder to be objective yourself.
As to your point about Holmgren wanting to be here. Other than giving interviews to a friend in Seattles, radio station what evidence do you have that he doesn’t want to be here? He absolutely said that he would fufill his 5 year commitment, regardless of what you think of the product, he is the first person since the return to create a cohesive relationship between the front office, scouting, and coaching staffs, I don’t think that this is even debateable. So again what has he done that makes you think he doesn’t want to be here?
So do you invite Craig and the boys to regularly edit your blog from the comments section?
“No offense but you are pretty much the anti-pollyanna, everything I’ve
ever read from you tilts to a doubting, negative view of this front
office.”
The problem with calling me the anti-pollyanna is that I was the only one in town preaching patience with respect to the Mangini regime. It goes to show that if there’s something to be positive about, I’ll be positive about it. As for my negative view of this front office, I’ve written in detail and at length over the course of two-plus seasons as to why that negative view is well supported. If you want to address any of those specific points, I’d be glad to engage. You can start by reading “Mangenius Interrupted,” then work backwards from the Mike Holmgren or Randy Lerner tags at my site.
Craig and the boys are always welcome to leave comments, including reasonable criticism, at Cleveland Frowns, and frequently do.
I’m assuming you understand there’s a difference between editing and commenting.
Jim! It’s been waaay too long since we had the opportunity to hear your opinions about how the Browns are drafting and running things.
And Grossi, you keep that number on speed dial, that’s your go-to guy now. He’s got a little sumpin sumpin whenever there’s a lull or you’re dealing with that new issue of getting calls returned.
Trent may be a great back but the bigger point is how accurate the great Jim Brown is on the No Show. I have talked to many of our faithful and his actions show that JB is right. I as well as most of you could have done as well drafting from our couch, i.e. give our QB a real weapon WR, fix the ‘O’ line, and add to the D; QB was not in the cards and not the compelling need. RB could have waited. When you stop an think about it you have to fix the basics before you can correctly assess your QB, the the big arrogant one thinks the receivers will be made better with better line and better QB. Ok but fix the line before you throw away a guy willing to give it his all, knows the system and has yet to have a quality WR to throw to. He is setting us up for another 4 yr rebuild and then it will be time to move on and let someone else come in make big money and treat us like we are too stupid to talk to. Browns fans know what it takes to win in the North and it isn’t very pretty; strong hardnose football with a competent QB. Solid D to keep the other team off the field. The winning examples are the pukes and the dead birds. The guy just doesn’t care enough.
naw, #6 is just an idiot. Art is evil.
just want to agree on the ‘haze of bitterness’ thing. i didnt take that away from the brown interview at all. jim brown has spoken without filter on all manner of subjects long before he parted ways with berea. there’s no reason to think his comments here are borne out an axe to grind.
Hey, whatever keeps Art out of the HOF is a good thing. Let’s keep shoveling the dirt.
no, you got so up in arms over Mangini being let go that no matter what this regime does it is wrong in your eyes.
just stating how it looks from an outside observer.
I view it like this: Richardson is not going to be a Jamaal Charles or Chris Johnson. He’s not going to get those seams where he just bursts for a huge run on nothing but pure speed (while also having the strength to go forward if hit earlier).
However, I agree that it is overblown. Ray Rice and Maurice Jones-Drew is more of the type of back I expect from Richardson. I don’t think anyone will complain if that is the case.
You know, I really can’t worry about people who don’t take the time to actually read the posts.
Ha haaa!
A person with a real NFL job hurries into his office and picks up the phone. Let’s listen in:
“Tony, thanks for holding. Long time no talk! How have you been? How are things at the P.D.?”
. . .
“You’re working for who? You’re doing what?”
. . .
[Thought balloon: “They called me out of a meeting to talk to a radio station???”]
. . .
“Sportstalk radio, eh? Sounds, um, exciting. Oops, I gotta run, Tone. Something’s just come up . . . uh, but nothing newsworthy. Tell ya what, Tone, let me get back to you say sometime next week. Maybe the week after. It’s just been crazy busy here.”
. . .
“No, that’s alright. Uh, I really gotta go. Bye.”
Tongue in cheek my good man.
not for nothing but the concept of ‘legitimate media’ has changed/is changing.
for me, is espncleveland.com and foxsportsohio.com provide much better content from much better writers than the PD/cleveland.com.
if you’re Jim, Jim, you’re scowling at your cellie and mumbling until anyone finally calls to ask what you think.
No, you just live in a weird world where your illogical arguments make sense only to you.
It’s been good to see a rejuvinated Tony Grossi on his new ESPN platform. Agree Jim, the PD coverage is almost worthless at this point – just soft pabulum with no critical edge.
Funny enough, if someone left this kind of comment on Frowns it would be in danger of being deleted by the author. Carry on.
That’s some convenient self-serving nonsense. Inability to address the substance of my post noted.
I just don’t believe him kanicki. That letter he wrote and sent to the media was bitter in my opinion. No amount of denials on his part will allow me to consider him anything but bitter after reducing his interactions with this regime (I believe over the ring of honor stuff) to
“one monkey don’t stop the show.”
Have you ever seen the “Testimonials” at the sidebar at my site? I point this out because it’s probably the most efficient way for you to gather evidence that my arguments actually do make sense to plenty of intelligent folks. The comments section at my site is another good place to find such evidence. I want to help you, Ben. Let me know what you think.
“I hear whispers from media guys that he isn’t exactly pleased with Cleveland.”
Really?? What whispers? From whom?
Are you afraid to out your sources?
Unless you can back up these unsubstantiated rumors, then see cmm’s comment below.
We fixed the O line and Colt McCoy was never the answer. You, and many others, need to realize this.
We fixed the O line and Colt McCoy was never the answer. You, and many others, need to realize this.
ok…i was talking about hating Art Modell. Thanks for revisiting history for us though.
theres a “Keep Art out of the HOF” page on Facebook, of which, I am a member
if I ever join facebook, then I shall look for this page.