C-Cap Recap: The House Doesn’t Always Win
May 1, 2015Indians Season Series Summary No.7: It may be early but it’s getting late
May 1, 2015Happy Friday folks. It’s first round hangover day. Hope you kept it sane last night, you know unless the Browns did something incredibly awesome. Then, I hope you earned your hangover. Regardless, while we’re waiting…
The First Round Come Down…
I have no idea who the Cleveland Browns acquired last night, either by draft or by trade. As far as I know the Browns traded Mike Pettine and their entire first round this year and next for Chip Kelly and Marcus Mariota, while Pat Shurmur was sent to Tennessee to head up their dining hall operations. A boy can dream, can’t he?
I just know that as I write this Thursday afternoon, I’m already fast-forwarding to Monday morning when I know what’s actually happened and it doesn’t represent a single thing I talked about for the past few months of Browns rumor talk. That’s why I just don’t have the motivation for it anymore, and it’s all RG3’s fault.
If you remember correctly, I went all in on RG3 when that pick was for sale. I was not only obsessed with him as a QB prospect, but I was obsessed with the process whereby that pick was sold and Mike Holmgren’s Browns missed the boat. I’d written ad nauseum about RG3 on these pages and talked about it on radio shows and podcasts and anywhere else that I had a venue. In the end, I felt sick, not necessarily because the Browns didn’t get RG3, but with myself at how many words and thoughts were completely wasted on a guy who would likely never play a single game in a Cleveland Browns uniform. I didn’t make any kind of proclamation of “NEVER AGAIN!” but it’s kind of played out in such a way that I just can’t do it ever again.
Granted I did talk a lot about Marcus Mariota this draft season, (is he a Cleveland Brown right now?) but it was more in the vague “team building philosophy” with a healthy dose of “should they, shouldn’t they” discussion as opposed to the full-on desire and directive that the Browns simply must do something. I don’t know if it’s a permanent change, mind you, or if it’s just a part of the hangover. We’ll have to see, I guess.
Happy anniversary to me…
This anniversary is really important to me, but it’s not the anniversary for the day I got married. No, this anniversary is for the date when I quit smoking. In all honesty, I’m a little bit cloudy on what the exact date is, but I know it was sometime around May 2006, meaning that it’s been nine years since I quit smoking cigarettes.
In a lot of ways I’m proud of my achievement, but I also feel a bit sheepish about it. I think “BIG TOBACCO” is pretty despicable and all that, but when it really comes down to it, I blame myself for all that time smoking. I was the one who tried it and kept doing it as it cost me my health, not to mention tons and tons of money. Somewhere in the middle of being horribly addicted to smoking, I started to despise those dastardly chemists who continually doctored their recipes to ensure it would be as hard as possible to quit like I knew I should have. Still, I probably blame myself about 90% and only reserve about 10 for those bastards
Anyway, I’m using this anniversary as an excuse to talk about a nicotine story that hit my news feed this week regarding the CDC and their treatment of the E-Cigarettes industry. It appears that despite the fact that E-Cigarettes are basically delivering nicotine by removing tobacco from the equation that the CDC is still considering E-Cigarettes “tobacco.”
Cigarette usage has declined in high school students from 15.8% in 2011 down to 9.2% in 2014 as vaping has increased from 1.5% in 2011 up to 13.4% in 2014.
Wait a minute. “The tobacco industry” is hooking kids on e-cigarettes? Although tobacco companies have begun to enter the e-cigarette business in recent years, the two industries are hardly synonymous. Leaving aside the question of ownership, e-cigarettes do not burn and contain no tobacco, which is why they are so much safer than traditional cigarettes. It is more than a little misleading to classify them as tobacco products.
Yet that is what the CDC does. When it claims “there was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014,” it is counting e-cigarettes as tobacco products. That makes as much sense as counting nicotine gum or patches (which also contain nicotine derived from tobacco) as tobacco products. This is no mere word game, because it is not true that “there was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014.” The CDC is lying to us.
Obviously, it might be better if people wouldn’t use nicotine at all, either by smoking or vaping, but the idea that we can’t get a large official organization like the CDC to think critically and scientifically about the difference is frustrating.
The one thing that is basically undeniable is that loads of people die every single year from smoking. It’s ironic that I would use a CDC statistic to tell you how many die each year from smoking, but I’ll do it just the same. It’s around 480,000 people when you count up the lung cancer, heart disease and other cancer deaths that are attributable to smoking cigarettes.
So happy anniversary to me. Hope I quit in time to avoid any major long-term side effects. Thanks for putting up with this part of the post today.
Weekly moment of soccer zen…
Yes! This is exactly what the weekly moment of soccer zen is supposed to be. Using ridiculous speed. Showing a ludicrous amount of calm and patience to let the keeper commit himself out of the play and then watch as two defenders do the same in wild diving fashion. Calm comes over the scene as he eschews brute force or superior speed to put it in the back of the net.
Jon Ronson’s book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed”
This is a topic I’ve spoken a lot about. I spoke about it last week with regard to Britt McHenry and a lot of you disagreed with me. That’s fine, I’m happy we’re continuing to have the conversation about the new very public world we’ve created and the shame cycles that occur following mistakes, both perceived and real. I’m only halfway through Jon Ronson’s book on the topic, but I’m already far enough in to be able to recommend it. It will make you think and think hard.
My biggest mistake a week ago was defending Britt McHenry. That’s not even really what I wanted to do. What she said wasn’t good. It reeked of arrogance and ugliness. That shouldn’t have been disputed. The real conversation shouldn’t have been about the mistake she made, but how we, as a part of the greater world, reacted to it.
Now that I’ve had another week to think about it, I’m really salty with ESPN over their suspension of her, because they gave in to something that’s probably even more insidious than anything Britt McHenry was guilty of doing. ESPN should have found a way to defend their employee, even in the face of an ugly mistake, from being preyed upon by a public shaming and bullying that occurred because a tow truck employee released an embarrassing tape. What Britt McHenry did was wrong, but so was the release of the heavily edited tape that was released with no other purpose than to try and tear down Britt McHenry.
It’s easy to look at her and say she deserves whatever she gets because people are entitled to their reactions, but I’m not so sure that’s where the conversation stops. We need to be responsible for the world and culture we’ve created, and if that means we take a satanic zeal to virtually tearing people down and potentially costing them their relationships, jobs and other important parts of their lives based on their mistakes is worth considering. We almost universally decide that punishments ought to fit crimes and each one of us aren’t doing anything when we publicly admonish someone on Twitter or Facebook, but when we join a group, I think we might be at least partially responsible for the worst among us who take it too far.
What I’m coming to realize from Ronson’s book is that these shame mobs are fueled by a mass of people who all think they’re in the right. They think they’re helping and creating a fairer world by taking high and mighty people down a peg. As the mass grows larger and uglier though, it crosses a line at some point and those looking for “justice” find themselves reveling in the destruction of another human being. We need to ask ourselves if that’s justice and if that’s the world we want to live in.
Anyway, go buy the book. Read it. Let me know what you think. Does it give you a new perspective on the culture we’ve created and the blurry lines of victims, perpetrators, bullying, crime and punishment?
That’s it from me today. Hope you enjoy the rest of the NFL draft this weekend.
79 Comments
really just responding to your assertion that what Farmer did is a nothing. From the first time it came out I worried as much about what it represents – a GM ignorant or heedless of the league rules, work place maturity and boundary issues – as particular fall out from texts. It’s at minimum a warning sign. Maybe he’s learned from it. But remember this is a guy with limited experience in positions of authority. He was a professional jock and then a scout/underling in the cloistered world of the NFL.
He gets no benefit of the doubt from me until this works. We gave the same mistaken benefit of the doubt to Phil Savage when the media hailed him as some personnel genius more than ready to run his own show. I know I’m ranting but have grown to hate the whole Cleveland savior narrative. Save the hosannas. Make him earn it with a good roster, winning record in a parity league, successful drafts, something besides “he sounds good in a presser.”
“Shanahan was nothing but a spoiled, prickly SOB who no one likes. And
not responsible for any good in the early season when we stupidly threw
roses at him every week.”
Those aren’t mutually exclusive. We threw roses at Josh Gordon for a long time too, but then his true colors showed and we turned on him. I don’t see why the same level of scrutiny can’t be applied to Shanahan. He can be a great coordinator when not being a spoiled, prickly SOB.
That’s not to forgive the texting, of course. But Kyle had something of a rep before that and there’s legitimate reasons to question the ability-to-family ratio that lead to his employment in the NFL.
True, but many excellent coordinators are prima donnas. You don’t want your GM to create rifts. This team didn’t want to lose him after one year but did. I don’t buy that Farmer had no part in it.
aah.
at the beginning there, I thought you were writing an old cigarrette commercial
Pass on Gregory unless he falls deeper in round 2 then maybe, just maybe I’d consider moving up. Personally I’m a Kendricks guy though. He’s a tackling machine.
Williams would be tempting but as I said above I’m a Kendricks guy. The LB corps needs help next. I pass on Beckham they don’t need a player like him around after Gordon and Manziel. Unless like Gregory he slips even further in the draft then maybe.
Fair enough. I won’t argue that Farmer didn’t have a part in it.
Guess my thinking goes:
1.) I have never liked any of the Shanahans. They seem to be self promoting snakes.
2.) Kyle wasn’t long for this team one way or the other.
3.) I believe in Farmer and think he could be here a long time.
4.) I’d rather have the unassuming, skilled GM stay over the young, arrogant OC
5.) In some ways, I’m sort of glad somebody in the front office didn’t let the lunatics start running the asylum.
If we’re really trying to build a coherent, consistent organization, we don’t need the Shanahans and Loggains of the world. (Of course, that means that the front office deserves some criticism for hiring them in the first place.) So while I see why it’s a black mark, I wouldn’t put it in the disaster category. Probably more “live and learn”.
I was going to say adderall.
You are starting to worry me, well, if I cared of course.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/340/2/3/jared_leto_as_joker_by_sonic1002-d88wnck.jpg
Not a “nothing,” but also not a “disaster,” by any stretch of the imagination. Farmer’s no savior, but he’s also no Holler.
Ah, who cares? I’m with you – let’s see how this plays out. What were we talking about, again?
the only good thing you can say about Chicago is that it’s at least not in Canada
-Harry Doyle
Maybe. Fine. I’ll stop with this: Nothing Farmer did appears unassuming. To the contrary, his texts reveal a very grabby guy.
Also, when you’re hitting me with numbered subparts I give up. Farmer is definitely the guy. We feel it, or need it, or something.
LB’s dawson , kendricks & mckinney are all available … i guess it depends on if they address ILB or want an edge-rusher.
as Shadow mentions, Hulu plays most current seasons on ABC, NBC, Fox, CW the day after they show. CBS streams all their shows on cbs.com the next day.
I don’t think TNT/TBS stream their live sports. If you have NBA league pass, then all non-local games can be streamed.
Best part is that Pat Shurmur wrote out that meme (your)
I wrote the above Shurmur quip before seeing the Quality Control was already on the case. I should have known (and still think it was Pat).
Any LB would help IMO I just happen to be a fan of Kendricks. I think he’d be a perfect heir apparent to Dansby in the middle. Start him at OLB then move him inside.
I could lampoon Dawson fully, but I think this sufficiently wraps up my thoughts (2 lines from his draft profile):
Has to win with speed over power as a blitzer.
4.93 40yd dash
I prefer Kikaha, Harold and Ogi as pure talents, but I would not complain with Kendricks on the inside instead. I would not put him at OLB though outside some situational work.
Quality Control is always on the job. We never sleep.
Many sporting events on ABC are streaming via WatchESPN (which you can get if you have a Sling subscription…..Sling also has TBS and TNT).
Thanks Shadow.
Thanks Bode.
Thanks Andrew.
I just got tired of blocks of texts!
Yeah, unassuming isn’t a good way to describe him. At that level, most guys are going to be alpha males (or try to act like it).
Guess it just comes down to preferring Farmer to Shanahan (whom I’ve always disliked). With Farmer, I’ve approved of every personnel decision he has made minus those related to the QB position. Of course, finding “THE FRANCHISE QB” gives all GM fits and makes them prone to illogical decisions (like drafting JFF). Basically, you’ve got to take a chance there.
Notice no one is addressing the beard issue – what does that say about Farmer to you? I’m asking not only about the bristles themselves but the timing.
Ok, maybe that’s not suspicious to anyone else. Here’s where I am: no Browns GM gets anything but a completely objective, fact-based review from me. No more hope, no more want, just results. I’m a fishmonger with an educated nose … er, forget that analogy … I’m a surgeon looking at the patient’s innards and deciding what’s up without squeamishness or sympathy. Farmer is supposed to entertain me with a competent football product on Sunday, and his little spoken intro before he sings ain’t the entertainment. Policy had all the answers and quite the resume, he said. Savage? Finally the real personnel evaluator. Mangini? Yeah, track record, and the missing discipline. Holmgren! The long-missing NFL gravitas with rings. And let me tell you what Banner did in Philly, baby, just like the NFL told Haslam.
So we have a good feeling about Farmer, his air of certainty, his new philosophy, maybe the cut of his gib? ‘Scuse my spit take. Show me the players in games, Ray. Until then none of us have any idea. Including Ray, by the way.
https://38.media.tumblr.com/0664b35d62f76e4bcaa3ef5db1221232/tumblr_nlq1s6VeIF1qiqj0po1_500.gif
You’re really earning that avatar with your Farmer psychoanalysis.
I actually feel he his player acquisitions have shown it on the field. I’d argue that the talent added to the roster in 2014 was the most added in any v.2.0 season. Even with the lost years by Gilbert and Manziel (who I still believe can contribute). This off-season, he did what I want a GM to do in free agency and drafted to strengthen both lines (without trading up or doing something equally stupid).
So I’m not really just basing this on good feelings.