Cavaliers Ride Big Two in Win Over Celtics: Behind the Box Score
December 15, 2015Video: LeBron James honors Special Olympics MVP, gives him game-worn sneakers
December 16, 2015Happy Wednesday, Blawg Pound.
Here’s a dirty little secret about sports: they aren’t that interesting to talk about. They’re fun to watch and discuss, surely, but there’s only so much that can be said before we’re just scraping back and forth across the bottom of the bucket. You’ve seen First Take. You’ve heard the NFL talking head shows. You’ve read blogs lacking the insight, repute, and charm of this one. We as a people are certainly capable of talking sports 24/7, but after a while we get diminishing returns.
Even a guy like Johnny Manziel, who has unwittingly become a talking point in the Great Battle for Football’s Soul, can only hold up so much discussion. At what point do we stop thinking and saying and wondering about what we personally feel and start speaking in the abstract about what someone could represent? Have you been offended by Johnny Manziel’s behavior? Do you feel that Johnny Manziel is an embarrassment to the Cleveland Browns and to the NFL? Does he need to be taught a lesson in an effort to change his partying ways?
Seriously, how upset can you really get? He’s a kid playing football. He’s done some dumb stuff, and he may or may not figure out what it means to play in the National Football League. The end, more or less.
But that doesn’t fill up an A-block or a sports page (or a morning column), and I understand that. Our appetites for sports talk seem to be growing at the same exponential rate at which technology is said to advance. I get frustrated by it at times, but I often realize that I’m urinating into a stiff breeze; there’s no point to it. It’s better to turn around and be swept away by the energy.
This is all a very roundabout way of addressing an idea that I’ve probably spent too much time on as it is, which is the question of why we are sports fans. What do we get out of it? It’s a question that one can only think about when things are extraordinarily good — when else is such a question worth discussing? — or when sports things are extraordinarly bad — when else is such a question worth discussing?
Though the Browns’ win Sunday has dampened the volume, for the past few weeks it seems to have become fashionable to wonder why anyone would be a fan of the Cleveland Browns. It is asked in other football cities with some combination of pity and wonder: How are you a Browns fan? It might be asked of an otherwise reasonable fellow who doesn’t make a habit of drinking beer in parking lots at seven in the morning: How are you a Browns fan? It might be asked with sincere curiosity as to the logistics of it; not as a rhetorical question, but a Socratic one: Seriously, how are you a Browns fan?
Similar conversations happen in local circles as well. I have had friends pose the question, to some degree of seriousness, of whether or not it would be ethical to raise one’s child a Browns fan. While many among us feel that Browns fandom has hardened us, toughened us, prepared us for life’s inevitable failures, we have a hard time passing that imaginary burden on to our imaginary offspring.
(It’s after paragraphs like those that I realize that sports are indeed that interesting to talk about, because you never know what sort of rabbit hole you’re going to wind up down. Also, use less italics, you idiot; people wrote before word processors.)
Anyway, I was thinking about my past few sports-consuming days and remembered for the umpteenth time what sports are about: It’s the camaraderie, stupid. It’s about heading down to the Muni on Sunday morning and enjoying an unseasonably warm — actually, hold that thought, because this weather needs more discussion. Do you realize how absurd it is that we’ve enjoying fifty-, sixty-degree days in the middle of DECEMBER?! Any conversation I’ve had in the past week was cut short by my insistence that we talk about the weather, which is ordinarily a social sin but in times like these is a necessary celebration. I cannot say enough about it or get enough of it. I haven’t had to wake up a half hour earlier to scrape off the car once this year. I’ve worn a proper winter coat like twice. I know it’s going to snow until the Fourth of July, but my god this is incredible.
So yeah, it’s about heading down to the Muni on Sunday morning and cracking open a couple pops with the boys. I didn’t even go to the game Sunday — I went to the previous two but managed to miss the good one — but I couldn’t let such a gorgeous day go by without commiserating with my brethren on the asphalt. I met with old friends and made some new, if only provisional, ones.
The good feeling continued Tuesday evening at the bar at Sachsenheim Hall, a delightfully windowless establishment on Cleveland’s west side. I’d never been before, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be back. Tacos cost a whole buck-twenty-five on Tuesdays and barley pops come in liter steins straight out of Munich. I went there to watch Cavs-Celtics — my prediction that the Cavs would win by 50 wound up just a little shy — along with some other WFNY folks1 and other esteemed members of the Greater Cleveland Sports Social Media World, or GCSSMW; we’re working on the acronym. But yeah, same idea as tailgating, which basically boils down to enjoying a beverage and cracking wise on the ol’ ballclub.
It can be trite to come to such an underwhelming conclusion — sports are fun because people — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important or necessary. If you like me ever get sick of talking sports — or any topic — day after day, it’s nice to step back and remember what drew you to said topic in the first place. Look at me, getting all serenity now over here.
And, as promised, another Christmas song that you probably will not hear in your average grocery or drug store. A couple notes about this tune from Clarence Carter. One, you may recognize the horns from being sampled in Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis.” Two, the subject matter is worthy of an NSFW tag. Enjoy it, gang.
- Big shout to Jacob, Jess, and Ben. [↩]
35 Comments
Ok, I’l start…the Browns just added 3 players. One is a WR.
Has anybody at a post-game presser flat out asked Pettine “WHY AREN’T YOU PLAYING BOWE?”, and not let him off the hook with some worthless coach-speak answer?
This has gone beyond ridiculous.
I could probably write a 5000 word dissertation on “why” we are sports fans, but I’ll give the abridged version of the Cliffs notes:
I think everyone’s experience is different but for the vast majority, a lot of the touchstones are the same. You start as a kid dreaming of being the guys you see on TV, pretending to be Ricky Feacher catching a pass from Brian Sipe in the backyard. The first time you got to a game and all the sights and sounds. Making memories with your family tailgating or watching the games together, learning new and colorful language from Grandpa. Maybe when you hit adolescence, you forego Dad (or Grandad’s) ol’ hometown team for the new hot sexy thing. As you mature a little more, you probably come back to the ol’ hometown team, and a lot of that might be because it’s a connection to the past, when times were better maybe, or when certain people were still in your life. You’re still interested in the games, but they almost become secondary to the ritual. Its also a means of social interaction, and there’s nothing better than being in a place where 80,000 people agree with you. Talking about sports online is an extension of that, it’s fun to interact with folks about things you have an interest in. As you mature a little more, realize that sports is not a “live or die” proposition, that they are just games and there are very definitely more important things in life, you are still a fan because you want to share these rituals with people who are important to you, and the cycle begins again.
Agree about sports talk shows. I can’t watch the pre- and post-game shows because they’re soooo boring. You got your warmed-over talking points, your sleep-inducing player interviews, and your jocular grab-assin’ with Terry, Howie, and the whole fun gang.
Radio is a little better, but that’s very host-dependent, and it’s still listenable only in small bites.
And for some reason (maybe an older and crankier audience), fan phone calls to local TV blab shows are generally far worse than fan calls to radio shows.
Get rid of Bowe if you aren’t gonna play him. Dude doesn’t try when he is in. His pass routes suck.
I guess you haven’t watched any of the games…. when Bowe is active he walks the wrong routes. He doesn’t walk the right routes or run the wrong routes, he WALKS the WRONG routes.
My longtime fantasy basketball team is named the Back Door Santas.
He’s been a “healthy scratch” in all the games I’ve watched.
But, I want to hear Pettine say why. I want to hear someone say it.
They don’t seem to have any problems expounding upon Ervings problems. Or JFF’s problems.
Why not ask Farmer then? “So, Ray, why isn’t your coach playing your prized FA?”
Yep. Cut him and end this charade.
you know what, its not like we need the roster spot. Cutting him gives him exactly what he wants…he gets to take his money and go smoke weed and eat cheetos all day. Screw that. Embarass the hell out of him. Make him a healthy scratch. Make him freeze his ass off on the sidelines. Embarass him publicly. Let him pay for his money with shame.
I actually kinda like it
He’s got a two-year deal.
Are we going to go through this again next season?
next year isnt (fully) guaranteed. Whether they cuth him this year or not, the price was 9 mil. If they keep him for next year they have to give him another 3 mil (contract was 2 yrs. 12 mil). Im sure hes not coming back.
Make him suffer thought training camp next season, then cut him. Heh, heh…
“Brian runs good routes and catches the ball, and he’s a big part of what we’re doing,” head coach Mike Pettine said. “Dwayne, his early struggles here are well documented. He fell behind in training camp from an X’s and O’s standpoint and from a conditioning standpoint, being injured and not being able to practice. I think he’s still playing catch-up from that. We’re hopeful Dwayne is going to be the player that we had here in the spring. There’s a lot of football left to be played. We’re confident that he’ll get to that place.”
“We make that decision each week,” Pettine said, via Cleveland.com. “We build a plan and see where we are from a depth standpoint. We talk about the minimum position requirements. The top four guys are entrenched.”
Since the top four guys are entrenched, that means Bowe is currently behind Travis Benjamin, Brian Hartline, Andrew Hawkins and Taylor Gabriel on the depth chart.
It doesn’t sound like Bowe is the No. 5 guy either. Pettine clearly wants a fifth-stringer who can also play special teams and Bowe doesn’t exactly fit that bill. Someone else does though.
“Marlon Moore is doing an outstanding job on special teams,” Pettine said.
That means Bowe might be the most expensive sixth-stringer of all-time.
I like your style. I forget what we called them, but back in jr. high football we had a field that was lined off every 5 yards. We had to start on one end line and run, and hit the ground every 5 yds. One day, after a particularly poor practice we did this 6 times. Dry heaves aplenty. Sounds about right for Dwayne
Sounds like suicides
yeah, I remember suicides from when we had baseball practice indoors as run from the end line to the foul line and back, to the 3 point line and back, to mid court and back, to the far 3pt line, etc etc. But yeah basically. Everyone prolly had different names for them. I think we called them Sharks
It’s just hard to believe that Bowe has gone from a productive WR, to sixth-stringer on our less than stellar group.
He hasn’t been productive for 3 years.
Speaking of Taco Tuesday, if you don’t know what a walking taco is, or you have never had one, you are doing yourself a disservice.
hi RGB … I’ll bet haslam & farmer have asked pettine about why bowe isn’t playing.
good post MAX …
hi NATE … we sell a bajillion of these at our seasonal restaurant.
Productive-ish. lol
I’ll allow it! Haha
Haha…and we can all yell “Shame!” at him. Wait. I’ve got an idea. Have Farmer sign the guy to a 3 year extension and make him sit on the sidelines for another three years of shaming.
“You’ve read blogs lacking the insight, repute, and charm of this one.”
Aww, William.
Apparently, Mr. Gordon is channelling his inner-arteest…
http://thebiglead.com/2015/12/16/josh-gordon-made-a-pretty-cool-pete-rose-photoshop-print/
or how about, “If you consider yourself a good coach, why can’t you get a former pro-bowler to play hard?”
The answer is because he is not a good coach, and because he treats the team much like a high school coach would treat his team: with a full compliment of grudges, doghouses, and moral-teaching opportunities.
I don’t want to say I told you so…..but i will. From Day1.
6th? Try 8th:
Hartline, Hawkins, Gabriel, Benjamin, Moore, Darius Jennings, Pryor. Those guys have all played in front of him. what a joke.
This is the same thing that happens to our baseaball team – I’ll call it Tribe Syndrome. Signing a wastoid like Bowe to a large deal only to have him sham it up and be outperformed by young hustlers.
This is why I always want to give a youngster with heart a chance to play over the reclamation project.
I was talking to Ricky Feacher one day and he answered his cell phone: ” Hi, it’s Ricky Feacher.” I always thought that was really funny. that’s all. carry on.
the keys to the game are always the worst: “stay out of 3rd and long” Oh , really? Staying out of third and long is a key to this game? May as well add staying out of 4th and long, too. “Don’t commit foolish penalties” is also one you always see. These things are dumb. Give me things like, “use play action on over-aggressive LBs” or “Go after the rookie CB who has a groin issue”. No desire to watch those guys talk.
Indeed?