The Browns decided to keep Cody Parkey? While We’re Waiting

Welcome to Friday’s edition of WWW. It’s been another pretty fun week of sports coverage in Cleveland. The Indians clinched, the Cavaliers had media day, and the Browns loss kinda felt like a win for a team that is focused on the draft. That’s where we begin today, however, because even despite the acknowledgement that the Browns are focused on the draft, their one big move this week feels crazy to me.

The Browns are keeping that kicker around?

I said he wouldn’t be named, but the Browns decided to keep Cody Parkey employed for another week.

What are the Cleveland Browns doing? I was supportive of Hue Jackson not trashing the new guy kicker who showed up at the last minute to kick and then went on to miss three field goals including a game-winner in his debut in Miami. There’s no sense in piling on that guy. He wanted to make all those field goals. He tried his hardest to make those field goals. He didn’t, so you move along. Or so I thought.

Even without a need for revenge or anything like that, I’m shocked to hear that the Cleveland Browns are keeping him for another week. If I’m being really kind to the Browns, maybe I’ll just say that it’s hard to imagine things could get worse for the young kicker?

Everything I say about the Browns, including this, is couched in the thought that it doesn’t really matter because winning isn’t the priority this year, but this reeks of not even pretending. How can the Cleveland Browns look around the locker room and see the guy who was brought in last minute to do one job, fail pretty miserably at that job no matter the difficult circumstances, at a completely replaceable position, and feel good about the coaching and front office? Do you think any other self-respecting NFL team would keep this guy around for another week?

I don’t. And look, I know it’s not a big deal in the here and now, but this is questionable judgement at best. It seems like the Browns are even being kind of defensive about it as well. When asked about Parkey versus alternatives like former Bears kicker Robbie Gould, Hue Jackson comes off a little defensive.

“We made an organizational decision that that was the right guy for us,” Jackson said. “He was the right guy. We felt good about watching him kick on tape. We felt good about everything that he was doing. We felt he was the best of the group. We all made that decision together.

“If I didn’t say it, I guarantee that nobody else has any right to ever say anything about we should have had this guy or somebody wished we had that guy. We took the guy that we wanted. It was Cody Parkey. That is the guy we put on our team and that is the guy that kicked for us.”

Maybe this actually plays well in the locker room that Hue Jackson wouldn’t scapegoat a guy, but the lack of change at this position at this time considering what we saw in Miami last week seems to me to be pretty unacceptable. As a fan, I think it sends a bad message, not because we need a player cut for vengeance, but because this is a position where changes get made and it should feel like the Browns are trying. Keeping Parkey for another week doesn’t feel like trying. I hope I’m wrong.

I was on a podcast that wasn’t my own!

Tom Valentino is a guy I’ve known on Twitter for a long time. He reached out and asked if I would come on his podcast called The Nail in the Coffin that he does with a friend named Travis. It was fun talking about the Indians, Browns and even some about WFNY without having to guide the conversation at all. Check it out.

National WHAT day?! (of the week)

I’m tired of national days of recognition for things. It occurred to me this week in particular because apparently, September 27th was National Chocolate Milk Day, September 28th was National Drink Beer Day, and September 29th was National Coffee Day. So, I started looking it up, and as you might imagine there are about four or five of these things on every single day. It’s dumb. It’s not real. Let’s not play into it at all ever, please. As a result, I think for the next year, I’m going to be going over what ludicrous National Days are happening in the week of my WWW.

Granted there are some well-intentioned awareness days too. I’m not here to talk trash about September 30th’s National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. But, while we’re looking at September 30th, I have to say I don’t believe you when you say it is National Chewing Gum Day, National Mud Pack Day, and National Hot Mulled Cider Day. It’s just not.

My favorite National Day from this past week, after doing the research, turns out to be National Checkers/Dogs in Politics Day. This is a nugget of history that was watched by 60 million Americans that I’d never heard of in my life.

For reference, the total population of the United States was 161 million in 1950, meaning that more than one-third of Americans tuned in. Just for comparison’s sake, more than 80 million reportedly tuned in to the first debate between Clinton and Trump compared to an estimated national population of 325 million people.

Anyway, here’s the story.

On September 23, 1952, Vice President candidate, Richard Nixon, gave a speech that was called the “Checkers Speech”. Accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses, Nixon needed to defend himself. His place on the Republican ticket was in jeopardy as well, so he flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half-hour television address. It was in this speech that Nixon stated that regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift; a black-and-white dog the Nixon children had named “Checkers”, thus giving the speech its famous name.

The “Checkers Speech” was seen, or heard, by about 60 million Americans, the largest television audience at that time, and it led to an outpouring of public support.

Your weekly moment of soccer zen…

You can’t always guarantee the outcomes, but you can always work to control whatever you can control. Not all of these are goals or good outcomes, but this dude’s dribbling ability is pretty incredible. He’ll consistently give guys a chance to capitalize by consistently making people miss and drawing extra defenders and penalties. Watching the one guy just grab his jersey after getting beat was awesome.