NFL refs will be back for Browns vs. Ravens
September 26, 2012WFNY Podcast – 2012-09-27 – Craig and Scott preview Browns vs. Ravens
September 27, 2012While 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 at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“I don’t like the Browns because they make me feel good. I like them because they’re the Browns. The franchise is highly guilty of lacking the exalted, trebly end of bathos, but they’re not evil or a scam, they’re just shitty—just like me and lots of other people. It sucked when they moved to Baltimore in 1995—it sucked so much that Susan Faludi has a chapter in one of her books about the feelings of betrayal and loss that it inspired in Browns fans. We watched the press conference where Art Modell formally announced the move on a TV set in the middle of my 9th grade biology class. The new Browns are shittier than the old Browns, but it’s still a perfectly good football team. I was never happier in my football-watching life than when Eric Metcalf returned his second punt of the game for a TD against Pittsburgh in 1993, but when William Green, who later missed time when his fiancée stabbed him with a kitchen knife, uncorked a 64-yard TD against Atlanta in 2002 to clinch a playoff spot, the new Browns were the real Browns as far as I was concerned. Even though I dance aroundthe dumpster fire and mutter about abandoning the Browns a few times every year, I’m never going to leave. No amount of losing or cutaway shots to Pat Shurmur looking like Beaker from The Muppets made flesh, no bad draft picks, no anything can make me not a Browns fan.” [Pete Beatty/The Classical]
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On Native American imagery and sport: “Some people view these developments as a long-overdue response to offensive stereotypes; others view it as political correctness run amok. Either way, the issue is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
The intersection of sports and Native Americans is a touchy area, and it frequently descends into angry name-calling. But I don’t think it has to be that way. If you’re fine with the use of Native American imagery, that doesn’t automatically make you a racist. And if you’re opposed to it, that doesn’t make you an activist crusader. In short, I think reasonable people can disagree on this issue.” [Paul Lukas/ESPN]
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Shelley Duncan gets his 2012 season put under the microscope. [Let’s Go Tribe]
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We know how you’re feeling, Tampa Bay. Well, without the whole winning thing: “All of which is to say, the Rays can easily afford to give Price a big contract extension, or just ride out the three years of team control they have left before he can test the open market. Ditto for the just-purchased-for-$800-million Padres and a Headley extension (or two more years), the Mariners with a new Felix deal or two more years, and plenty of other young stars on teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox, or Dodgers. Claiming otherwise amounts to concern-trolling. It offers a bullshit excuse for teams to cry poor as they sell off their best players. And as history has shown, the prospects who poor-mouthing teams acquire when they unload star players often turn out to be little more than magic beans with a pulse.” [Jonah Keri/Grantland]
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And finally, can the Browns defend the passing game of Baltimore’s Joe Flacco? [Dawgs by Nature]
11 Comments
Was at the game that Green took that play 64 yards vs atlanta. Had a few beers and I told my buddy if they score that drive that we were taking our shirts off. Next play, Green takes the handoff towards the left side of the line…that was a cold game
Have some beers on tonights game. Ravens fans are giving me 21 pts
that is an insult to Beaker…however, John Clayton is a dead ringer for Dr. Bunsen Honeydew
I love that Keri later cites LaPorta as the example of a rental being worth more than the supposed prospects. How he fails to mention the fiasco that was the Cliff Lee deal amazes me.
Keri lost me with this statement:
“the Rays can easily afford to give Price a big contract extension”
that is BS. sure TB might be able to give one to Price, but at the cost of jettisoning other players. TB isn’t pulling in the $150mil-$200mil/year local TV deals of Anaheim, LA, NY. so, the payroll field is tilted. it’s just how it is. what TB has done with it’s development program is phenomenal (as was their drafting when they were a terrible team). that is how they compete. to suggest they can just keep everyone post-arbitration because the Rays have “gained” $50mil in team value is ludicrous (team value does not equal operating revenue).
and, he does not even consider that teams would lose these players on the open market. now, if the argument is that you should wait until their last season, see if you are competitive, and then trade them if you are not or keep them if you are because the prospects are not usually worth the trade, then I can at least have that argument. if you are going to suggest that you always lose the trade unless the players you get back become just as good as they player you lost, then I cannot have the argument because it’s ignoring a bunch of basic principles.
??
okay, we didn’t get enough for CC. no doubt. but, was having CC for 3 months on a non-competitive team really better than having Brantley for the past few and next few seasons?
that is the crux at which Keri whiffs on in this article. yes, it’s best to have a FO that can find the diamonds and figure out how to become a better overall team (see the As trades in the article), but even when you whiff and only get a marginal-to-good player like Brantley, it’s still better than nothing.
They would’ve gotten a compensatory draft pick. Then again, with the Indians player development issues, that would have equated nothing.
yes, i’d like to see the odds on the compensatory player ending up better than Brantley, but it is a very good point to consider.
You remembered to use the ` instead of the ‘.
I’m very impressed. Well done.
i’m fighting the good fight here 🙂
I hope they drink cheap beer
If he’s a Muppet, then he’s a very manly Muppet.