OBR News-o-rama

Puffing Ravens and Idling Cornerbacks

barrymcbride — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:37:55 GMT

Cleveland Hopkins Airport is a Mecca for misbehaving NFL players. It’s the Mos Eisley spaceport, transplanted from Tatooine to Cleveland, but with more weed and SUVs.

The airport has been a wretched hive of scum and villainy ever since the Leigh Bodden Parking Catastrophe of 2007, and the airport’s mean and hazy reputation got even worse today.

In a story which, to my knowledge, first appeared on Scout’s Ravens site, it was learned that Baltimore cornerback Derrick Martin ~~smuggled three baggies of kickass weed~~ unaccountably had a small amount of an unidentified, and possibly evil, leafy substance in his luggage on Saturday night.

Very likely, the plant material is simply part of the heralded Ravens project into the use of natural substances in the treatment of pain, inflammation, arteriosclerosis and osteoporosis.

The long-standing off-season research effort has shown promising results in treating patients with an irrational fear of bald authority figures and those with wrenching back pain created by fleeing law enforcement officials.

Other than suddenly buzz-less cornerbacks, we have idling cornerbacks. A couple of these hope (or hoped) to replace the aforementioned Bodden, sent packing to Detroit after his parking fracas caused racing pulses and inexplicable photoshop activity at local tabloid news departments.

Here are the idling corners who made the news:

Daven Holly, who recently spoke to the Associated Press about his surgery and hopes to return to the playing field in 2009. In the article, Holly revealed that he had an ACL problem that was worse than expected, which is exactly what Lane Adkins told you a month ago.
Ty Law, who is working out and waiting for a phone call, as well as talking confidently with journalists in Massachusetts. Like the injured cornerback above, Law speaks with the assuredness of a professional athlete about how he’ll be in the best condition of his career.
Julius Stinson, who was on the Browns radar as a second-day pick before the draft until he completely ripped his Achilles tendon shortly before the draft. Painful story.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read stories like these. The injured player who believes he’ll return better than ever, the aging warrior who vows to have one last hurrah, and the promising athlete who gets derailed with the promised land in sight.

In many cases, if not most, stories like these do not end with storybook finishes.

As wonderful as it must be to have the physical ability to play this incredible game at its highest level, you can’t follow it for long without realizing how expendable players become when fate or time takes their skills away. For every player smiling with a lei around their necks at the Pro Bowl, hundreds lie discarded in a scrap heap out of sight of the public.

It is such a fine line. Gridiron glory can comes frustratingly close until a sharp pain announces that the dream may have been shattered in an instant. Other players can attain the summit, only to find that their moment disappears far too quickly.

At some point, for every player, the ability to excel at the highest level moves forever out of reach, never to return.

Maybe one of the three men listed above will move back into the spotlight. The odds against them are always long.

The Browns and Kevin Jones

barrymcbride — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:53:58 GMT

Braylon Edwards suffered his ACL tear in December 2005. Edwards surprised just about everyone by being ready for the season opener in 2006, but couldn’t escape the old chestnut about two years being the usual recuperation time from this type of knee injury.

Like clockwork, Edwards exploded in 2007 with a breakout season that showed what the receiver could do when completely healthy. Despite getting back in the game quickly, it took Edwards nearly two years to really get back to 100 percent.

Lions RB Kevin Jones is trying to prove to NFL teams that he’s back in just six months and the Browns wanted to look at the video of a recent workout to see for themselves.

If healthy, Jones could be the type of runner the Browns might grab should something happen to Jamal Lewis. After a 1,133-yard rookie season, it’s been all downhill for Jones, who has had to deal with declining opportunities and a series of injuries. Prior to tearing up his leg last year, Jones had missed the end of 2006 and the start of 2007 with a foot injury.

Despite the fewest attempts of his career (153), Jones scored eight touchdowns, a career high, and remained effective catching passes out of the backfield (32 receptions, 197 yards). That was only half of his previous year’s total of 61 catches in 2006.

His contract ($2.37 million salary in 2008), injury history, and declining production led the Lions to release him in March.

A number of teams have expressed some interest in Jones in recent weeks. The Patriots are among them, and Jones has visited the Titans. Jones has himself talked about a desire to head to Chicago to play for the Bears. Even the Lions are pondering re-signing him, albeit at a reduced salary.

If Jones is ready to play during pre-season, it would be quite a story. Not expected to be ready this season, Jones revitalized his knee using a combination of low-tech lifting, acupuncture and holistic medicine practiced by his agent, Dr. D.S. Ping. If Jones is really back, he could get some contract offers.

The Browns, meanwhile, are studying up on Jones by looking at the video from his recent workout. The team’s depth chart at running back seems fairly solid and the team is likely not desperate enough to enter into a bidding war for Jones, if one ensues. If the back remains on the market, the team may simply want to be well-informed in case they need to bring him in as an injury replacement*.

As to whether Jones is really back, take a look for yourself. Here is video of a workout from last week.

* Knock on wood. Throw salt over your shoulder. Sacrifice a goat, whatever.

On the Edges of the Browns News Desert

barrymcbride — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:36:00 GMT

There’s not a lot of Browns or NFL news breaking around the internet, which will probably remain the case for the next three weeks or so. Here are some items from the last couple of days, none of which really merit the OBR’s front page…

Adam Schefter thinks that Koren Robinson might wind up in Cleveland. Adam Schefter apparently doesn’t know much about Phil Savage’s approach to players who could be off-field distractions. “Need” doesn’t always equal “want”. This is a bit more logical than fantasy services tossing out the notion that Matt Jones would wind up in Cleveland, but still is something that I would tend to reject out-of-hand based on the team’s past behavior.

Webdawg at BrownsBacker.com always has cool stuff that he digs up or has sent to him. Here’s an old article that Doug Dieken wrote for the publication that later became Browns News Illustrated. This pre-dates The Big Lebowski by a couple of decades.

The good news in Baltimore is that there is absolutely, positively no way that training winged scavengers to run around your stadium can go wrong. Just curious: is David Modell still involved in the organization there? This has the stench of Modellian dumbassery all over it.

In New York, success plus new stadium adds up to Personal Seat Licenses, which is causing a little uproar. Coincidentally, that’s the same as the deal we got here in Cleveland, minus the “success” part. Fortunately, Mike Florio rides to the rescue with an editorial that not only re-hashes years of similar columns, but comes with the added bonus of arriving fifteen years too late.

Oh, please, please, please just shut up about LeBron and Nets. The national media seems to be unable to close their mouth and keep their drool contained at the notion of James moving to the east coast to hang with a rapper. I couldn’t blame him if he does go… he’s hardly making a dime here in Cleveland*.

Here’s the most important news of the day. Of course, it has nothing to do with sports. We’re all sports fiends here, but, seriously now, does it ever?

* That’s sarcasm. I’ve found that the chicks really love sarcastic nerds. They do.

Update: No More Squid for You

barrymcbride — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:29:00 GMT

Listen up, people.

The other day I worked in a reference to a giant projected squid into a blog post* and no one commented. No one.

Granted, other than the squid, the blog was basically just a rushed expression of vacant 21st century short-attention-span rambling. Still, you people clearly don’t know how difficult it is to combine giant squids and football.

You would think it’s would be easy, but it’s not, especially since Tony Siragusa retired. Rick Reilly can’t get squid into his shiznit, and he gets $70 a word or something.

So, now you will just get a bunch of links to about stuff I found all over the internet today and there’s no squid in it anywhere. Other than the picture above, because a squid fighting a dinosaur and a whale is just freaking awesome.

No real Browns news of note, either.

Links of greatness:

Apparently Brady Quinn’s likeness is being used without permission in an ad for things my parochial mind can’t fathom. I do like the comment on KSK: “Find other men who want what you want?"... What, nachos?
Pro Football Talk says it’s sorry for tossing out all kinds of unverified crap just so it could get page views. Sorta. Mike Florio wants credibility now. Ex-Browns owner Randy Lerner or the Ghost of Dead Terry Bradshaw liked the old PFT better.
A blog called 18to88 feels that ex-Browns front office guy Jeremy Green, now a football expert for ESPN's Insider service, is the dumbest man alive. He also calls the Browns front office from Green's tenure "one of the all-time worst front offices in history". This is why no one takes bloggers seriously - as if Jeremiah Pharms, Paul Zukauskas, Andre King and Michael Jameson wasn't a sweet day two in the 2001 draft.
Ah, the wonderful things you get when you mix the Dolan family and pro sports ownership. You get the New York Knicks, for example, and the classy way that the Indians organization is dealing with the city of Buffalo. Speaking of which, why does Larry Dolan get a free pass in Cleveland? Other than owning the channel that broadcasts his own team and having a friendly deal with sycophantic radio station WTAM? Other than that, why?
I’ve been talking for a while about the tanking of the newspaper industry and that it's bad news for sports fans. Not to mention readers concerned with things like politics and wars and stuff. According to the New York Times, it’s even worse than we imagined, and won’t bottom out for three or four years. Get ready to be blogged to death as newspapers try to become snarky internet sites.
WOIO’s Carl Monday is what Will Leitch remembers as he leaves Deadspin. Cleveland TV news: Bad enough for the Daily Show, bad enough to gain national fame. Maybe the only way the local media would criticize Larry Dolan is if he was in a library and... Best not to go there.

* Actually, I had it in the post, then I removed it because it was stupid. Then I put it back in. But still.

Matt Jones? (Heavy Sigh)

barrymcbride — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:19:00 GMT

Late June is the time of year when just about any Browns-related story can get heavy play on the 'net, no matter how thin it happens to be.

Case in point would be the recent mini-buzz of interest in WR Matt Jones and a possible fit with the Cleveland Browns.

Any buzz about Jones and the Browns at this point is merely a combination of typical-but-acceptable mainstream journalism combining with fast-and-dirty headline ripping by fantasy sports services. Nothing more.

In this case, the Browns and Jones were linked by Rotoworld after they read one of those team report recaps on the Sporting News.

This all started because Jaguars beat writer Michael Wright noted - as a number of others have before and after him - that Matt Jones may be the odd man out in Jacksonville following the team's off-season WR acquisitions. Jones, despite having eye-popping measurables and an intriguing background as a signal-caller, still hasn't developed the ability to run precise routes.

The story here is less about a wide receiver who may or may not be of interest to the Browns, than it is about how rumors can get started on the internet with absolutely nothing behind them.

SQUARE PEG, MEET ROUND HOLE

I don't think Matt Jones would make sense for the Browns at this point.

Do the Browns need a big guy with impressive measurables, but who is unproven as a receiver and has never learned to run accurate routes?

Only if Wes Chandler thinks he can create something out of Jones as a long-term replacement for Joe Jurevicius, and do so fast enough to get value out him this year. It would be akin to the Browns trying to suddenly turn Tim Carter into a receiver rather than a track star last year. And we see how well that turned out. If the Browns could get him for practically nothing and Chandler wants to give it a shot, then anything could happen. The Dallas Cowboys may be thinking the same thing.

I'd be dubious, however. A quarterback like Derek Anderson who is known to throw the ball into coverage could probably use Jones' size and strength to rip the ball away from defenders, but a quarterback like Brady Quinn would probably be ill-served if Jones was in Cleveland, and continued to run poor routes.

One of the key differences in the Browns passing game between 2006 and 2007 was that Braylon Edwards started running better routes. He improvised less, and was where the quarterback expected him to be. That meant less interceptions and a breakout season for Edwards.

I'd be very worried about putting an interception prone-quarterback on the field with a receiver who might not be where he's supposed to be at the right time.

I would suspect that what the Browns need as we head toward training camp is a veteran presence who could match up well against linebackers. If they want a project to groom as a future number two receiver, they can add one next year, although Paul Hubbard and Travis Wilson probably already fit that particular bill.

To this extent, the recent story about Eric Parker makes a lot more sense to me as a summer acquisition for the Browns. Parker is a veteran, a good route runner, and could come right in and contribute right away on a team looking to make the playoffs in 2008.

Jones? Not so much. It's risky, and the Browns don't want to be taking a ton of risks in a year that they expect to go to the playoffs and make some noise.

The Parker rumor is also sourced to a member of the Chargers organization, although what we have there may be no better or different than a simple phone call being relayed to a press as a way to drum up interest. The rumor makes sense, however. and it's been sourced to the Chargers front office. The Browns and Jones rumor, however, has been sourced to exactly no one.

This is why we put the Eric Parker story on the front page, and haven't done anything with the Jones "story".

SO, WHY ARE WE HEARING ABOUT THIS?

Starting in the late 90s, fantasy services like KFFL, Rotowire, Rototimes and half million others discovered that they could make a business model out of surfing around the 'net, reading other people's work, snipping little bits of it that have to do with players and putting it all in a database.

This is not that different from what I did in the early days of this website back in 1999, although the focus was entirely on the Browns and on long-term hopes involving high volumes of free beer provided by grateful readers. The OBR started pushing into original content almost immediately, however, while fantasy services focused on providing fast updates, databases for their information, and partnerships to get exposure. For our part, we backed into a slightly more reliable non-beverage-oriented business model at Scout.com's prodding in 2001.

Over the years, these fantasy services discovered that fans would use them not only for tracking individual players, but as a way to keep up with the latest football news on the web. Since hard core fans like the ones who read the OBR are constantly looking for the latest news and rumors, these pages get a lot of traffic and repeat visits.

The constant refreshing of frequently-updated web pages means more page views, which means more ad views, which means money. I'm not sure if advertisers get their money's worth since the pages tend to be scanned rather than read, but that's another issue.

So, a variety of these services have sprung up. Some them "break" their own news by getting press releases from teams, but most simply sit on top of RSS feeds, search engines, and bookmark lists waiting for new stories to break, tearing information out of them, and then posting it. The better ones, like Rotoworld, are honest about where they get their information, and post links.

The nature of these sites are why I can often be found making snarky remarks on the OBR forums whenever someone titles a post "(Fantasy Service X) reporting (Thing)!!". These services don't report squat, they just swipe it from folks who do. They don't have reporters, they don't have credentials. They simply centralize news they find on the web as a convenience. We've had OBR stories snagged and relayed within 10-15 minutes of publishing.

Unfortunately, there two things about these services which cause problems, other than their getting credit for other people's work. The first is context, and the second is analysis.

Context: Some articles are a series of facts simply bullet lists of facts, which can be easily chopped up and paraphrased as factoids, but many aren't. Generally, the writer provides some background and analysis for the news he's relaying or the opinion he's providing. When 20-word snips are lifted out of that, context is often lost, and the snippet could be misleading. We've seen this constantly on the forums with these fantasy news services, where the person surfing-and-posting may have misunderstood the point or taken something out of context.

Analysis: Lifting items of sources by hand, especially during busy times of year, can be a time-consuming task. Some of these services rely on interns and other forms of cheap labor. What this means is that there is little time for analysis, and that those who might be doing the analysis aren't well-versed in the needs of a specific team. When some quick analysis is thrown into these factoids, the readers might be fooled into thinking that it came out of the source article. In many cases, like this one, it isn't.

So, what you get in this case, is some unnamed person surfing around the web, seeing the article on the Sporting News, remembering somewhere that the Browns might need receivers, and linking the two.

But there's no sourcing behind it, and the analysis isn't very strong.

It just goes to show that fans surfing the web need to be cautious and savvy readers. Always go to the source article - the guy who did the reporting - to see if there's anything "real" there.

NFL Network Going Bye-Bye?

barrymcbride — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:07:22 GMT

The NFL tried to run an end-around on TV networks by starting up their own, but got slammed into the turf by cable operators.

The game may now be over, as the Wall Street Journal reports that the league is in talks to partner with ESPN to run the network.

The NFL Network, while appealing to hard-core fans of the type who frequent the OBR, simply couldn't get past cable operators who had their own opinions about the network's value.

Incidents last year when games weren't broadcast to Comcast and Time Warner cable subscribers didn't make the league look fan-friendly, and their transparent attempts to gin up fan protest to benefit themselves didn't take off like they hoped.

I'm guessing that another factor may be at play with the NFL Network as well.

Thanks in part to downward price pressure from cable operators, the Network simply isn't going to make the type of margins that NFL owners expect. This is a league where every franchise can be profitable based simply on network TV revenues. How much effort can they be expected to invest in a lower margin business?

The NFL's dabbling in the TV business reminds me a bit of watching the Big Five firm I was a part of back in during the first internet boom try to get partial ownership of net-based enterprises.

There was always a lot of enthusiasm for these enterprises as the firm's partners became enamored of the notion of "making money while we sleep" on per-transaction fees and so forth.

Turns out lots of other companies had the same idea. As a result, competition pushed margins down. Suddenly, businessmen who had become used to 30% or higher margins on high-rent consulting services were seeing their people pulled into projects that were making much, much lower margins.

The enthusiasm for most of these projects quickly dimmed.

The NFL, by a similar token, has a business where it enjoys a veritable monopoly, with huge payouts coming from broadcasting rights and taxpayer-subsidized stadiums.

Outside of areas where its monopoly can be exploited (TV, video games, licensing), the league has a much harder time being successful. Exhibit One: NFL Europe.

In this case, cranky cable operators held their ground and refused to underwrite the network's development. Partnering with ESPN could be a decent way to tiptoe away from the business.

Of course, people who have been reading my various rants for years know I'm not going to cry myself to sleep over this development. I feel team and league-owned media enterprises, on the whole, are bad for fans, and bad for independent and objective media outlets who cover the sports.

But I doubt that the NFL owners care much about that. Getting them out of owning their own cable TV network, however, is probably good long-term news for fans.

Insane People Predict Super Bowl Winners

barrymcbride — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:38:00 GMT

Yes, I wrote a little bit of the Fox season preview and fantasy guide thing, and they demanded predictions of me. Still, I just want to go ahead and get it on record that anyone who predicts Super Bowl winners at this point is congenitally insane.

It’s like those seven-round mock drafts you see in March, but slightly less needy and desperate.

Anyhow, people with severe mental conditions resulting in a desire to be completely wrong on the national stage have now taken to predicting how the 2008 season will turn out.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Dr. Z, who clearly can’t self-diagnose delusional visions, offers his opinion that the Minnesota Vikings will win the Super Bowl.

He might have a point. The Vikings have assembled a lot of the component parts they need. McKinnie and Hutchinson are clearly the best left-side of a line west of the Cuyahoga river, and Jared Allen may put some fear into opposing offenses.

Anyone pointing and laughing at the notion of QB Tavaris Jackson taking the Vikings to the promised land, I have two words for you: Trent Dilfer.

A Minnesota vs. Cleveland Super Bowl would give fans a choice between teams that have never taken home the Lombardi Trophy and, almost as good, cause nightmares among whatever TV network owns the Super Bowl this year. It would also create a lot of cross-traffic between the two biggest NFL sites on the Scout network. Dare we dream?

WHATIFSPORTS.COM: By contrast, WhatIfSports.com's mathematical simulators and supercomputers came up with New England 33, Dallas 31 as the final score of SBXLIII.

Please, Daniel Stern or whoever controls these things, don't let that happen. I can't imagine living through five months of football for that result. Can I just go into hibernation now and avoid the boredom of Patriots/Cowboys hype? Ugh and double-ugh.

* * *

SOMEONE FIND MY BUCKET: Brian Billick: Still arrogant, still self-important, still not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Also: Still bald and still fired.

At least, after this fawning interview from NBC Sports, we learn the last time this TV yapper-to-be wept openly. Why didn't Tom Curran just ask him what type of tree he would be?

I've said for at least five years that Billick's fate was to annoy us all on television. For once, I'm not happy that I'm about be proven right.

I still haven't forgotten Brian Baldo's dissing Cleveland and enabling Ray Lewis. Fortunately, TV remotes come with mute buttons and channel switchers. They don't have the sound on the TVs in the press box anyway. I'll be in blissful ignorance of whatever Billick is yammering about. Home viewers will not be so lucky.

* * *

RIBS IS GOOD EATIN: Don't forget the 5th Annual Rib Burn-off this Saturday, hosted by the Lake Erie Islands Browns Backers. They rock. I quote: "Guests will have the chance to meet current Browns starter Antwaan Peek and former Browns safety Felix Wright. The Bone Lady, Dawg Pound Mike, Big Dawg and Mobile Dawg will also be in attendance". No additional comment.

* * *

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG: Our friends at Waiting For Next Year pointed us to this screen grab of Cleveland Browns Stadium as depicted in Madden 2009.

It's pretty accurate, except for the fact that they've rotated the Stadium ninety degrees. Also, they put a river where Route 2 is supposed to be, drowned everyone in the RTA station, and put the railroad tracks underwater.

I'm not sure how I feel about all that.

Plus, they knocked down the Science center for a parking lot. I liked that parking lot. Then again, it was useless for when I want to see a giant squad projected onto a huge curved wall. No, we need to keep the Science Center no matter what EA thinks.

Looks like a nice day, though. Clear skies and bright shiny weather.

Clearly, these people have never been to Cleveland in football season.

Willie McGinest on Sirius Radio

barrymcbride — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:15:12 GMT

I got a heads-up from my friend Jon that Willie McGinest was going to be on Sirius Radio this afternoon, but by the time I was able to tune in, I had juuuuust missed it.

Fortunately, LeHooper was tuned in, and he summarized the interview for us on the Watercooler.

Here’s Hooper’s recap:

Willie: The Young guys are buying into the new program. I don't preach I set by example.

Romeo put in the new system and we've all been buying into it. We're running more then we ever had on defense. We can attack more. We can contain or move depending on D.

We cut down on lot of the checking that equals less thinking.

Romeo been in all the defense meetings where in the past he wasn't. Romeo wants to be more involved with the D.

Shawn Rodgers surpassed lot of people expectations how he opproaching the game.

Tim: Will Shaun have enough gas?

Willie: If we're moving to the ball 100MPH we'll have subs come in and not lose a step. I never say I'm getting old just getting better

We have high expectations, No way do we think its going to be a cake walk.

We are doing the things great teams do. That's the little things.

BTW, Hooper is a tailgating fiend who hangs out at “The Island” in front of the parking booths in the Muni Lot. You can check out his website here.

Newspapers Die First. Then the Internet.

barrymcbride — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:41:46 GMT

There is a lot of recent news that will impact Browns and other sports fans on the internet, very little of it good.

I think we’re at The Empire Strikes Back stage of the internet. There are things going on now that are very, very bad for sports fans.

The Associated Press and others want to remind you who the real bosses are, and they’ll cut off your arm and let you drop into a bottomless tube if they have to.

* * *

As sports fans, we’ve come to rely on having multiple quick, objective sources of news about our favorite teams and sports.

No, I don’t mean sports blogs, which typically just recycle information produced elsewhere and provide some commentary. And I don’t mean team or league-owned sites, which have a need to leave out certain types of stories.

I mean newspaper and print journalists, who cover the team on a daily basis, get the stories right (usually), and provide independent and objective coverage of local sports.

Say goodbye to all that. These will be remembered at the good old days.

According to a job tracker calling itself “Paper Cuts”, over 4,400 newspaper jobs have already been lost in the first half of 2008. Included was this nugget that I hadn’t heard about before:

June 11, 2008 / Plain Dealer executives told editorial staff members that the paper will cut 35 pages per week and 20 percent of its workforce.

I’m not sure how accurate that is, but similar stories are appearing all over the place.

For anyone wondering why newspaper reporters of all stripes have a sudden fascination with blogging and interacting with web readers, it isn’t because they suddenly care what you think. It’s because they have to move to the internet to survive.

But survival on the ‘net is tough. They’re replacing dollars with pennies.

These are the good old days for local news. Enjoy them while you have them.

* * *

The good news, I guess, is that the print business isn’t sinking so fast that professional sports leagues can’t step on their necks to speed up the process.

Last year’s stunningly restrictive media policies for web sites are in effect again this year, with the mild change that the laughable 45-seconds of audio and video that sites can post (for 24 hours with a link back to the team site and no advertising allowed) has been extended to a just-as-laughable 90 seconds. There is no value now in providing this sort of multi-media coverage - another life preserver is yanked away.

As I predicted before, the NFL is also following the steps of the MLB by wiping out live blogs or other means of communicating in-game status outside of strict guidelines which render it nearly useless.

A recent notice sent out by the Dallas Cowboys reads as follows:

While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates, fewer than 10 photographs during the game) so that the Accredited Organization’s game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts.

What this will do is wipe out anything like a live blog for credentialed outlets, while fan blogs will likely continue to run wild because NFL teams have little leverage or ability to track them. This will just hasten the fall of local sports coverage as pro sports leagues tilt the playing field against them.

* * *

Just in case you were concerned about internet sites not having their own threats to worry about, you can rest easy.

Two trends are developing in the industry as powerful old-guard industries try to control the internet. Both are very, very bad for sports fans or anyone else who likes the flow of information brought to them by the internet.

The first is the Associated Press, which is attacking the notion of “fair use” by going after bloggers who quote snippets as short as 39 words from their stories. I’ve tried – and failed - for a long time to help fan sites and forums try to understand the concept of “fair use” (versus the concept of “just stealing what you want”). That usually resulted in interesting combinations of four-letter words and emails so angry you had to get a towel to wipe off the spittle.

What the AP is doing is a response to that sort of constant content theft, but it goes way too far.

The blogosphere relies to no small degree on commentary which spins off of news items. With more newspapers cutting back and relying on AP stories, the newspaper service wants to bring the hammer down. The AP now wants to charge you $12.50 to quote five words from their stories.

Insane.

The initial response from the blogosphere is “To Hell with the AP”, and a number of sites are no longer linking AP stories. If the AP takes this to court and wins, or lobbies for legislation which enforces their restrictive view, it could have a significant cooling effect on the web and bloggers in general. Linking or accurately citing sources could get reduced dramatically.

Newspapers and others already use phrases like “published reports” or “internet reports” to avoid crediting competitors. It frightens me to think of an entire internet that behaves that way because an organization like the AP wants to pound dollars out of bloggers.

* * *

Even more insane are recent trials among ISPs to throttle types of services (bittorrent, usenet) and begin metered service. Time Warner has started with a trial in Texas where they are charging users more if they go over 40GB of data transfer a month.

How much data have you transferred this month?

Don’t know? Join the club. I assure you that plans like this will dramatically slow the adoption of multi-media and video on the web. People will use the internet less as they are uncertain about their ‘net usage. Just not knowing will instill fear about watching that video on Hulu or Youtube.

With the efficiencies introduced by the internet one of the few good things happening in the US economy, ISPs like Time Warner and Comcast want to shake the web for pennies and crush its growth.

This, you may note, is also insane.

I wish I had some good news to report, but the powerful now want to cripple the internet to profit themselves at the expense of the weak.

If we let them, we’ll have no one but ourselves to blame.

Decision Time on Bentley: Monday

barrymcbride — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:43:15 GMT

If you give the Cleveland Browns a few million dollars, it's amazing the interviews you can get. For example, WTAM, the team's official broadcast partner and OBR photo recycler, gets to talk to Browns GM Phil Savage every Thursday morning.

Yesterday, Savage appeared on the Wills and Synder radio program for about five minutes, half of which was spent pimping ticket plans and corporate charity events that I'm too poor to attend.

In any event, during the interview, Savage did say something of news value regarding LeCharles Bentley.

The Browns and Savage continue to downplay the return of one-time free agent savior LeCharles Bentley. In our view, that's the wise thing to do, since it will be so difficult for Bentley to make a comeback on his repaired knee.

When asked about Bentley's return, Savage talked about how important it was for the Browns to ensure that they and Bentley are "protected". This was to be done by making sure the player was truly fit to play before he stepped onto the field. Savage said that the physical will take place on Monday, which the point where the decision will be made. The team starts practicing on Tuesday morning.

The team has been low-key about a Bentley return ever since he was hauled off the field with a patellar tear in August 2006.

Savage also said that the Browns "have been told" that Kellen Winslow would be at camp but that the team "isn't sure at what level he will participate", since Winslow hasn't gotten a physical done by the team.

The Browns GM also continued to speak glowingly of Brady Quinn, and compared him to other quarterbacks who came into his own in their third season. Interestingly, next year will be Quinn's third year, and current starting QB Derek Anderson has a huge roster bonus due somewhere around 3/15/2009.

Message Board Troll Owes Browns $18,000

barrymcbride — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:01:43 GMT

Some things you can understand only if you spend waaaaay too much time on the Internet.

Back in 2006, there were rumors going around that terrorists were going to strike at a number of NFL stadiums, including Cleveland, in a coordinated "dirty bomb" attack. It didn't take long to discount the rumors, and most of us went on with our plans to attend the game, which was against the Denver Broncos.

It turns out the most dangerous thing one display during that game was Mo Carthon's offensive game plan, which mustered only seven points. The Browns offensive coordinator "resigned" soon thereafter.

The terrorist hoax was largely forgotten until reports came across the wire earlier today that a man in Wisconsin had gotten six months in federal prison for creating the rumors and spreading them on an internet message board.

Thanks to the scarce nature of Browns news this time of year, I intended to blog about this as soon as I heard of it. Based on what I knew, I prepared myself compose a post which made liberal use of the phrase "moonbat" and pondered the weirdness of a culture where causing a public disturbance equates to celebrity status.

I put that blog post on hold when I read a much more detailed account of the sentencing in an out-of-town paper.

Something important was buried in the article, but people who don't spend a lot of time on the net will never realize it: Turns out that the guy posting the bomb threat was doing it on 4chan.

Why is this important? Basically, most people who have been on the 'net for any period of time know that one of the primary purposes of 4chan is to troll, shock, and offend.

Unlike the OBR forums, where users have to register and post under a particular username, 4chan is structured for nearly complete anonymity, and much of the communication between members occurs through doctored photos. This allows people to indulge in what one hopes is their absolutely worst behavior, letting their inner id shine forth without constraint.

Out of the bubbling cauldron of offensiveness and strangeness which results, some internet "memes" have emerged which have spread over into the general consciousness. The "LOLCats" and "Fail" memes of photos with text seem to have originated on 4chan, and a group on the forum called "Anonymous" has made news because of its campaign against Scientology.

Of course, the group is called "Anonymous" because it would be impossible to call it anything else. Just about anyone there posts anonymously.

Anyone with knowledge of 4chan realizes it's ridiculous to take anything at face value there.

Putting something on 4chan to communicate urgent information would be like trying to interview for a job by dressing yourself in a Goofy costume and then lighting yourself on fire.

Of course, the nitwit didn't help himself by posting it ten times a week for four weeks.

What I'm guessing happened next is that someone saw the posts on 4chan and then reposted them on sites where things are taken seriously.

Apparently, the people who then read them didn't have any context for the messages, and things spiraled out of control.

The man who started the rumors apparently still thought it was a joke as the police cars rolled up and officers came to talk to him. He was declaring it an "epic win" before he realized that the authorities didn't find it funny at all.

So, the dope who trolled 4chan with the terrorist hoax is being sentenced to six months in federal prison. Not only that, but the ex-grocery store clerk now has to repay the cash-loaded Cleveland Browns - whose franchise is worth close to a billion dollars, supposedly - a settlement of $18,000 for the extra costs involved in security.

Wow.

The internet is sort of the Bounty Paper Towel of stupidity. It can soak up a lot of it.

Still, this incident shows that there are some things so amazingly dumb even the internet can't contain them.

If I were the Browns, though, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that $18,000 check to arrive.

Browns Work Out Another Famous Name

barrymcbride — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:15:23 GMT

Browns GM Phil Savage appears to be a strong believer in the genetic nature of football ability, because the progeny of another Browns Hall of Famer is going to work out for the team on Thursday.

If one recalls, Todd Delamielleure briefly captured the attention of the Cleveland media as he tried out for the Browns. Now it's another Hall-of-Famer's son who will get a shot.

The Baltimore Mariners, a franchise of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA), announced on Wednesday that defensive back LeRoy Kelly will be working out for the Browns.

This may come as a surprise to Browns fans, most of whom have managed to live their lives without being aware that there is such a thing as the AIFA, or that they have a team in Baltimore.

Something Browns fans are keenly aware of, however, is the legacy of Hall-of-Fame running back Leroy Kelly, who just happens to LeRoy Kelly's father.

The AIFA and Mariners are playing up the invite for all it's worth, using it to claim that the CFL and NFL are keeping a sharp eye on the league's players. The Mariner's web site refers to Kelly as "lead(ing) a defensive unit that ranks fourth in the league in pass interceptions".

The team's season-to-date statistics, however, show Kelly without an interception and as having appeared in just five of the team's eleven games.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A "mariner" is defined as "one who navigates a ship" or someone who "serves as a sailor".I know, because I researched the matter. Namely, I surfed to some online dictionaries which said exactly that.

The logo of the Baltimore Mariners, however, appears to be some sort of desiccated pirate. While we can safely say that pirates are a sub-class of mariner, the logo seems to degrade the accomplishments of legitimate nautical adventurers. Nearly all of whom had less interest in plank-walking and rather more flesh and skin.

If I was a law-abiding Mariner, this would upset me. But there are only so many battles one man can wage, and I am not foolish enough to take on a skeletal pirate.

The Long Delayed Official Sayonara

barrymcbride — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:04:06 GMT

I suspect future generations will be able to use the phrase "Junefirst" as a synonym for an anticlimactic event. For example, "I just saw that Indiana Jones movie, but it was kind of Junefirsty to me". Or "In Junefirstian news, Barack Obama just clinched the Democratic nomination".

Even though the NFL has figured out the salary cap well enough to make the June first cuts a non-event of Y2K (Oh no! We're all gonna die!) proportions, there is often some actual news that comes out on that day. Travis Henry getting cut, for example.

Another thing that happens is that goodbyes become official for undrafted free agents.

Teams have until June 1 to give qualifying offers to free agents. They can basically offer UFA vets something 10% greater than the money they made the year before. If the player is tendered, then they have until July 22nd to sign with a different club. If they don't sign with another club by then, the club has exclusive rights to the player. If the vet doesn't sign with his previous club by week 10 of the season, they can't play football at all that year.

What a weird rule. There's no telling how many dramatically overpriced Floridian resort gin-and-tonics went into coming up with that one.

If nothing else, though, the lack of a qualifying offer by June 1 sends a very clear message to player about how very, very little the team cares if they come back.

So, say an official goodbye to the following free agents who didn't receive qualifying offers from our Brownies: LB Keith Adams; OT Nat Dorsey; DE Bobby Hamilton; NT Ethan Kelley, and nose tackle / media relations advisor Ted Washington.

See ya, fellas. Hope you weren't holding your breath for a phone call from Berea.

There are lots of players who are in the same boat and may be seeing the end of their careers.

Here are some other free agents were officially not tendered squat on 6/1. The list was fairly long, but here are some old friends and some of the bigger names.

One-time Cleveland Browns are in italics:

S Gerome Sapp (Ravens), LB Mario Haggan (Bills), TE Stephen Alexander (Broncos), RB Ron Dayne (Texans), WR Aaron Moorehead (Colts), NT Grady Jackson (Jaguars), OT Stockar McDougle (Jaguars), PK John Carney (Chiefs), WR/KR Eddie Drummond (Chiefs) OL Gene Mruczkowski (Dolphins) S Lance Schulters (Dolphins), S Travares Tillman (Dolphins), WR Troy Brown (Patriots), CB Chad Scott(Patriots), LB Junior Seau (Patriots), QB Daunte Culpepper (Raiders), WR/KR Tim Dwight (Raiders), Verron Haynes (Steelers), FB Dan Kreider (Steelers), WR Eric Moulds (Titans), QB Tim Hasselbeck (Cardinals), QB Tim Rattay (Cardinals), PK Morten Andersen (Falcons), TE Christian Fauria (Panthers), OG Ruben Brown (Bears), DT Antonio Garay (Bears), OT Barry Stokes (Lions), WR Troy Walters (Lions), S Mike Doss (Vikings), QB Jamie Martin (Saints), DE Renaldo Wynn (Saints), LS Ryan Kuehl (Giants), DT Kimo von Oelhoffen (Eagles), C Andy McCollum (Rams), S Hanik Milligan (Rams), OG Larry Allen (49ers), QB Chris Weinke (49ers), LB Jeremiah Trotter (Bucs), WR Keenan McCardell (Redskins), C/G Mike Pucillo (Redskins), S Omar Stoutmire (Redskins).

A Little Help, Please

barrymcbride — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:45:32 GMT

There's nothing wrong with a GM wishing for less controversy to appear in the press.

Savage's comments about the media's handling of the Kellen Winslow story make sense from his perspective.

Of course, there's nothing that the team or the media can do about the simple fact that people are more interested in reading about potential controversies than reading about people just going about their jobs.

That's just human nature. We rubberneck on the highways when there's an accident, not when there's a car simply driving along at the speed limit.

Still, speaking as someone who runs a print and internet site focusing on the Browns, I can assure the Browns GM that we love running positive stories, like the one we ran on Antwan Peek the other day. Sure, we run stories that are newsworthy and may not be things you prefer fans be reading about, but we do the others as well.

Browns fans can't read enough about this team. For what it's worth, there's not a member of the OBR staff who doesn't want to see the team succeed.

However, if Savage and other members of the team hope for more coverage of positive stories from the independent media, here are some things that they may choose to do:

1. Tell player agents to be straight with the media when they ask about their intentions. The sole reason the Winslow story came up is because he signed with an aggressive agent who didn't give a straight answer to questions back in February. If he had, there would never have any catalyst for speculation about Winslow's intentions.

2. Instead of allowing the media access one day a week for OTAs, allow the media in more frequently. With only one day of access, the media has to go after the hot story, and in this case that was K2, just as last year it was Braylon Edwards. They have to do what they can in the time available. Perhaps with greater access to players who are there and working, more stories would be written about these individuals. You see more of these types of stories during training camp, simply because access exists.

3. Help all media members keep a positive attitude about the team by not playing favorites with media entities. Of course, we know the team has financial relationships with WTAM, WKYC, Plain Dealer and one of the cable networks. Still, you should try to be responsive and fair to all legitimate media outlets. Believe me, that impacts attitudes towards the team and can effect the tone of coverage.

4. Understand that the sports media is going through a transition. Newspapers are struggling in the internet age, and a lot of folks think their jobs might be in peril. At the same time, the team limits their ability to monetize their coverage of the team by banning audio and video from camps, tilting the playing field to their own internal coverage, and so forth. It makes a tough situation worse. Again, this can influence the tone of coverage.

5. On the web, especially, journalists look for unique stories they can write. The team's own staff often write these sort of positive stories about athletes, making them less valuable for independent journalists to write. When teams control media coverage either directly or through partnerships, it pushes the "outside" media towards more controversial topics.

Just some things to think about. The media are doing their jobs, and may not always do them in the way that you might prefer. At the same time, teams and the NFL should consider how their own conduct might spin media coverage in a positive or negative way.

- Barry

Joy! We've Got a Browns Story!!

barrymcbride — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:26:40 GMT

Looks like the local news has a story it can really get behind.

Apparently ex-Browns cornerback (and all-around nice guy) Hanford Dixon has been picked up for "OVI", which I guess means "Operating a Vehicle under the Influence" or something.

You would think that someone with my familiarity with alcohol would know that sort of thing, but, no. You get to witness another Webmaster Fail moment.

Hanford has written for the OBR in the past, and has been the subject of many more stories in our archives. Our best wishes go out to him and we hope that he can quickly put this matter behind him.

Anyhow, this will give some of the usual local crime blotter folks something to get all excited about. Here's Channel 5 and The Plain Dealer going at it.

Just wait until the local sleazoids get ahold of this. Oy.

Coming up on Action Channel Tabloid News! A Browns player runs into trouble with the local police. Does this mean your children will suffer horrible grisly deaths by AIDs-infected ravenous tigers on crack roaming the streets of (... dramatic pause...) YOUR TOWN?? Watch our exclusive report at 11!