Where'd everybody go? You guys drinking at some other fine establishment? Or did you guys just start the New Year's celebration early and can't see straight enough to type?
*DRINK* Happy New Years, Irish! If the rest of you don't stop by, I might not be back tonight. So to the rest of you................ Phuquing ingrates!!!!!!! Couldn't even stop by, like Irish did, to wish everybody a Happy New Years!!!!! *ROSE* I just may have to wizz in your beverages the next time you stop by. Seriously though, may 2015 bring the Browns closer to a Lombardi trophy and health and happiness to all here in the lounge. *DRINK*
Thanks Doug, I echo the sentiment... Happy New Year everybody! My 2015 be the year the Cleveland Browns return to the post season.
gimme one Duff ..getting ready to head out the door ..live band is what I need tonight . forecast for the rest of the evening ......its gonna get drunk out ...yes we have a DD to get us home . HAPPY NEW YEAR LOUNGERS .........Lets hope we Browns fans have some good fortune ..we deserve it . thanks all for the well wishes ..means a lot *DRINK*
? ? Provided by Bleacher Report ? ? Provided by Bleacher Report ? ? Provided by Bleacher Report ? ? Provided by Bleacher Report ? ? Provided by Bleacher Report ? ? Ken Blaze/USA Today Images ? ? Provided by Bleacher Report 1. Did Manziel fool the Browns? I saw this point first made by Chris Mortensen of ESPN this week. He said, effectively, that teams like the Cleveland Browns were fooled by Johnny Manziel during the draft interview process. It was a really smart point and one that I ran by several NFL scouts. Those scouts agreed. Go back in time, to the scouting process, specifically to teams interviewing Manziel. Reports out of the combine were that Manziel interviewed well with many teams during the formal interview process. Manziel didn't interview with the Browns at the combine but did later and supposedly did well in all of his interviews. This Manziel exchange, reported in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback after the combine, was typical of how Manziel handled himself, I'm told by scouts: On Friday night at the combine, the Jacksonville Jaguars had a 15-minute session with Johnny Manziel, the Texas A&M quarterback. Manziel hadn't met anyone in the room. When he walked in, all the Jaguars coaches and officials stood. Manziel went to owner Shahid Khan and shook his hand. 'Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Khan. I'm Johnny Manziel.' Then to his son Tony Khan, a team senior VP. 'Hi Mr. Khan, Johnny Manziel.' Then to coach Gus Bradley. 'Hi Coach Bradley, pleasure to meet you. Johnny Manziel.' Then to GM David Caldwell, and then to offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch. All the same: handshake, look 'em in the eye, refer to them by name. He knew them all. Now, he didn't know the scouts in the room, but he knew five men by sight that he'd never met. 'That was impressive,' Caldwell said. 'He did a really nice job in there. He was prepared for the interview, very prepared.' Manziel came off as a total pro and genuine. He came off as polished without being rehearsed. I can tell you, after his interviews, some teams felt Manziel had turned over a new leaf. They felt convinced he was going to put his party-boy ways behind him and be a professional. Here's some of what Manziel told King he said to teams: I've tried to be completely honest with the teams. I was in college. I did some college things with my friends. I had fun, and the thing that I told some team tonight is, my Mom always told me, 'There's a time and a place for everything.' There were points throughout the last year maybe I was a little bit out of that saying. I did things too much and maybe overly aggressive. At the same time, things progressed fast for me. A lot of things were thrown on my plate and pushed into my life, and I really ran with those. To get back to that saying, there's a time and a place for everything. There's a time to have fun, there's a time to work. As rapidly as everything came along, having to learn from my mistakes, through all the trials and errors, learning from that, and at the same time, I had different obligations than really most anybody has had. I am the only person I know of that had a schedule directly tied with our director of football operations to do whatever it was the school was asking of me. And really I'm incredibly loyal to Texas A&M. It was the school that gave me an opportunity when not a lot of other places did. But I feel like with the media attention I had, the scrutiny, and everything that I went through last year, it directly prepares me for this. See what Manziel did there? He invoked his mom, talked about learning. It was gorgeous PR. This is nothing against King, to be clear, who is a great journo; this is about Manziel's ability to be a chameleon, to say what he knows people want to hear. This is the Eddie Haskell Phenomenon. EHP. You sure look lovely today, Mrs. Cleaver. Then, just after saying that, Haskell would go and steal some kid's lunch money. That's an exaggeration, but you get the point. That's Manziel. We saw the EHP last week with Manziel. "I'm not the guy that I've always been," he told reporters. "I'm not the Johnny Manziel that came in here a year ago. It's been a year of growing up for me." See what Manziel did there? He invoked learning, growing up. Key words. Buzzwords that he knows have worked for him in the past. Words he knows will fool. Then came the kicker quote: "This is a job for me now, and I have to take it a lot more seriously than maybe I did at first." Oh, he's good. Really good. Of course, just a week after he said that, Manziel was late for medical treatment. It should be noted that when Manziel interviewed with teams at the combine, some saw through him. They didn't believe him. They were able to see through his act. Teams like the Browns could not. He suckered them. So here we are. Whenever Manziel says he will try harder or be more accountable or be more mature, just remember the Eddie Haskell Phenomenon. The EHP. Just remember Manziel can't be believed. Oh, and remember, this wasn't the first timeManziel "overslept." 2. Browns almost certainly will look for another quarterback The Browns are leaning heavily this way. What I can say with great certainty is the coaching staff doesn't trust Johnny Manziel. Not saying they never will, but it's to the point that coaches there don't want to put their careers and livelihood into Manziel's hands. Can't say that I blame them. Browns general manager Ray Farmer said at a press conference Tuesday: #Browns Farmer said Manziel will be given a chance to compete, but agreed they'll leave no stone unturned to find the right QB and upgrade ? Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) December 30, 2014 Translation: They will be looking for a franchise thrower. So don't be stunned if the Browns make a move in the draft to get a quarterback?even picking one high in the proceedings?and add yet another name to this infamous jersey:
God it sucks to be right on this guy. I had hoped I was wrong, but honestly, he'd have to come back and knock my socks off, before I could even begin to "believe". I just don't see it. None of the good and lots of bad to chew on. If I am a coach, I'd be lobbying for the team to trade him, and get someone with some talent and lots of heart, who understands what it means to work for your supper. Yeah, yeah,yeah, it's a small sample size, but it sure supports why Pettine kept putting off making the move: he wasn't ready. Some guys aren't "practice guys", but a QB? Gotta have the head for it, and most importantly, the commitment. Didn't know about the interview summary, but it doesn't surprise me one bit. He's great in front of a microphone, not so much behind center, in the film room, after the whistle blows. The question to me is: do we let him waste 2 years of our rebuild, or cut our losses, take our medicine, and accept we made a mistake. The first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem. I'll recognize that I didn't like Johnny, I don't like Johnny and with 95% certainty, will never like Johnny. Not that anyone cares, but there it is. I reserve the 5% for the incredibly unlikely thought that he is "all that and a bag of chips". We have no QB. Again. Damn! Happy New Year to all. Let's howl at the moon, and dream of championship years yet to be imagined. Hey it could happen.
Website Sports Cheat Sheet has an article talking about the top 5 teams that NFL players don't want to go to even for double the pay! YES OUR BROWNS WERE #3! Gee I wonder why? Blown pics? coaching changes? never winning? after reading that I see why we had to over pay for almost every free agent we sign. You know what fellas, I think I'm just going to sit back and watch this off season! I have stated who I want in FA and in the draft but after last years fiasco I'm just going to watch what Farmer does! I mean we all knew we needed a WR before we knew about POTHEADS BLUNT PROBLEM! What did we get? Watkins/Evan/Mathews/Lee? NO we got a bum! It comes out Manziel isn't who some teams think he is! Who is the dysfunctional team that drafts him? The Factory Of Sadness! I'm tired gentleman of this bull shit franchise! I love this football team. I'm from Cleveland, never rooted for another NFL team not even when they left. But this team needs to change! It needs to change at the top with Haslam. 1st he's ripping off my union brothers, the teamsters. My grandfather was a teamster for 34 years! My grandmother enjoys one hell of a pension for that! With next years schedule unless they can find a way to bring in Bulaga, Dez Bryant, Damarius Thomas and Julius Thomas this is a 3/4 win football team! I've stayed positive all season long but I don't think it's going to change here in Cleveland. This is a joke of a franchise for 15 years and they are not getting any better. After 15 years they are still blowing drafts. Until that stops this FACTORY OF SADNESS WILL CONTINUE! The joke is on all of us that actually care about this team once called the Cleveland Browns! Guy's this will never be the Cleveland Browns again! I'm done wasting my time on this loser franchise! It's time they show some real effort in trying to get better and not just trying to make money. It was very cool meeting all of you so to speak! You guy's are some football educated cats! Good luck in all that you do! Hopefully one day before we all die............ The Browns finally go to a Super Bowl!!!
A most interesting offseason looms Jimmy Haslam III, Ray Farmer and Mike Pettine had no idea they would eventually be running a school for wayward juvenile football players when they selected Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel with their first two picks in the college football draft last May. They thought they were running a franchise in the National Football League. Turns out after just one season with these problem children, the Browns have come to the realization they drafted trouble. The two wet-behind-the-ears Texans, whose college exploits were strong enough to warrant first-round attention in the lottery, have turned out to be nothing more than gigantic pains in the hind flanks. Both expected ? and were expected ? to be valuable contributors on their respective sides of the football. They arrived in what seemed to be entitlement mode, almost as though it was a foregone conclusion they would log significant playing time. As it turned out, both were loose cannons, players not willing to do what it takes to make the difficult transition from college football to the NFL. The game came almost too easily to them in college. This was entirely different and they weren?t willing to pay the price. Commitment is such a vital ingredient in the development of a football player in such a transition and neither Manziel nor Gilbert seemed willing to make that commitment once they reached the NFL. Now they are paying a heavy price for their casual approach to their craft. Both young men were recently either (a) fined or (b) suspended or (c) both for missing team commitments ? in Gilbert?s case being late to a team meeting before the season finale in Baltimore; in Manziel?s case, not showing up for treatment of his too-sore-to-play hamstring. Throughout the season, they severely underachieved and were rewarded accordingly. Gilbert never nailed down a starting role in the secondary and Manziel failed to improve to the point where Pettine could comfortably and confidently hand him the starting quarterback job. Running a pro football team is hard enough without off-the-field issues. And these two provided more than a season?s worth with their almost casual approach to their jobs. It?s quite clear they need a sizable attitude adjustment. Browns safety Donte Whitner tried to provide one for Gilbert. ?It?s time to grow up and not be a kid anymore,? he said a few days ago. ?He has to look at himself in the mirror . . . and understand what he did wrong . . . and when we return (next season) show everybody you have a good attitude and you want to go out there and be the player they drafted you to be.? Manziel chose to put aside his playboy tendencies temporarily and rely on introspection and self analysis. ?I brought this on myself,? he admitted. ?I brought these cameras. I don?t think it?s fair to myself, not fair to anybody in this locker room, the distraction I brought at a point in time.? And then he apologized ? reportedly not directly ? to his teammates. ?I?m sorry to these guys who are veterans in this locker room and know what it takes,? he said. ?I?m having to learn the hard way. At the same time, I?m either going to learn or I?m going to find something else to do. It?s time I look myself in the mirror and really hold myself accountable and start making some deals with my life.? He says all the right words. For such a young man, he is extremely polished and well versed in how to handle the media. At some point, though, Manziel the con man seeps into my thoughts. He?s good, but I have a problem buying his bullroar. For example, he says he needs to take his job more seriously. ?There is not a bit of doubt in my mind that I?m serious about everything I?m talking about,? he said. ?But at the same time, you can talk and say this all you want, but when your actions don?t reflect that and you make a conscious decision to put yourself in that position that you stay out too late and not wake up the next morning, it?s going to cause a lot of trouble.? Then came the kicker. ?There is nothing I can sit here and tell you that?s going to do any good,? he said. ?It?s about action and being accountable and doing what I?m going to say instead of looking like a jackass.? Ah yes, self-deprecation. Less than a day after making those remarks, Manziel was down in Miami having a good time with his friends and hangers-on and football was the farthest thing from his mind. The 2014 season was an immediate distant memory even though it had ended just a few days earlier. That?s one of the reasons Haslam performed an intervention of sorts last Sunday when addressing the problems some of his young high profile players like Manziel, Gilbert and wide receiver Josh Gordon have with commitment, serving notice at the same time that it will stop or else. ?We?re not going to tolerate people who are irresponsible no matter what round they are drafted in,? the owner said. ?We?re going to give them a chance. . . . Hopefully, they?ll grow up. . . . But if they can?t grow up, if they can?t be responsible to their teammates and the coaches and our fans, they then won?t be with the Cleveland Browns.? He hinted at changes. ?Clearly quarterback is an important position in the NFL and we?ve got to figure it out,? he said. ?If you look at the Browns and where they have struggled, they have struggled at quarterback. We know that?s a position . . . we?ll have to address.? Interestingly, he refers to his team in the third person plural rather than first person plural. In his season-ending news conference, Pettine hauled out the talk is cheap card on Manziel and suggested the quarterback situation ?is still very much a question mark. . . . I would say out quarterback situation is muddy at best.? Even former major league pitcher Curt Schilling, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, weighed in and offered his advice to Manziel about a week ago through Twitter after the rookie quarterback made his frank admission about commitment. @JManziel2 Didn?t ask for it, but I?ll throw it out there. If being the best doesn?t consume your every waking thought, do something else. In order for Manziel ? and Gilbert ? to follow that path, each had to do something that was foreign to them this past season. They have to grow up, get serious and start acting like professionals, not jerks. This isn?t college anymore. They?re playing with the big boys now. They have placed themselves squarely under the microscope. Let?s give Farmer the last word here.? I would tell you that words don?t mean anything,? he told the Cleveland media Tuesday in obvious reference to Manziel. ?We?re all about action.? Should be a more interesting offseason than usual. Posted by Rich Passan
That was my wish for New Years, Irish. I just wanted the Bucks to beat Bama and stop all this nonsense that the SEC is so much better than the Big10. Well, the SEC went 2-5 in bowl games and tOSU, MSU, and Wisky all won yesterday. The top of the Big10 looks pretty legit now, don't they? That and Oregon beat FSU so I don't have to listen to that gawd awful Tomahawk chop their band plays at least every other play. Phuquing hate that song! And why aren't the Native Americans protesting them and their Tomahawk Chop if they are so up in arms over the Redskins and Indians?
And after watching Oregon beat FSU, I'm not sure that Mariota is the type of QB I would like the Browns drafting. The ducks ran a bunch of option plays and a bunch of "trickery" plays by moving players around and starting off with what looked like play-action options which turned into passes. Not sure this kid knows how to play out of the pocket and read a defense. He seems to be more of a react to how the play develops. Not sure this will translate well to the NFL.
The 1994 NFL wild card round has its own little corner in football lore. This was the round where the Packers held Lions great Barry Sanders to minus-1 yard on 13 carries in a 16-12 Detroit loss. The round also saw Don Shula win his last playoff game as Miami knocked off Kansas City in Joe Montana?s final NFL appearance. And Minnesota?s Warren Moon would make his final postseason start as the Vikings fell to the underdog Bears. The ?94 wild card round also featured the one ? and only ? Browns playoff win in Bill Belichick?s tenure as head coach. On New Year?s Day 1995, the Browns bested New England 20-13 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. In victory, Cleveland picked off the Patriots? Drew Bledsoe three times. Meanwhile, the Browns? Vinny Testaverde was sharp, connecting on 20-of-30 passes for 268 yards, including a TD pass to Mark Carrier. The following week, the Browns fell at Pittsburgh in the divisional round. Since then, the Browns have just one playoff appearance in 17 seasons, and they have no postseason wins. Of course, the Browns aren?t the only club to have played in the ?94 wild-card round still sitting on a playoff winless streak. The Lions haven?t prevailed in a postseason game since 1991, and the Chiefs haven?t advanced in the playoffs since 1993. (And, as some have pointed out on Twitter, the Bengals haven?t won a postseason game since 1990.) Detroit, of course, gets a chance to snap its streak on Sunday at Dallas. And Cincinnati can break through with a win at Indianapolis on Sunday. The Chiefs and Browns, meanwhile, are left to look ahead to 2015. Both have some talented top-line players, and both were serious playoff contenders at points this season. And would they ever like to leave the recent past behind with a playoff win . . . or four.
Free wings & drinks for NC Game ......... Clip the Quackers . also no more undersized bony narrow ass system QB'S ...PLEASE ! Marriiota is a class act at least but last year he wilted when Stanford got physical with him ..... No Winston !! we already have one problem child at QB
The Morning Kickoff ? One of my responsibilities as chronicler of the 100 Years War is to recount at the conclusion of each Browns season the issues that shaped the past year. More times than not, these issues are without logical answers and thus qualify as great mysteries. I am sure that every NFL team?s season contains a set of mysteries that defy reasonable explanation. I don?t imagine, however, that any NFL team has more unanswered mysteries than a typical Browns season. And so, here they are ? the unexplainable, head-scratching mysteries of the 2014 Browns season. 10. What happened to Ahtyba Rubin? Mike Pettine said early on that no tackle had better skills for his system than Rubin. Pettine returned Rubin to his natural nose tackle position and bumped Phil Taylor to end. Rubin proceeded to have his least productive season since his rookie year in 2008. The easy answer is that Rubin was bothered by ankle injuries throughout the year. There were whispers that Rubin had something going on in his personal life affecting his season ? a relationship turned sour. It drove home the reality that players are people, too. The sad thing is Rubin?s poor year came with his contract running out. Wouldn?t surprise me if Rubin leaves in free agency to rejoin former Browns coach Romeo Crennel with the Houston Texans. 9. Why did Ray Farmer give up so quickly on Charles Johnson? Johnson was the receiver the Browns poached off the Green Bay practice squad in 2013. He showed up with a torn ACL, causing the Banner-Lombardi Browns further ridicule, and his 2013 season was shut down after surgery. After eight months of dedicated rehab, Johnson was active in training camp, but clearly not up to full speed. In need of receivers, the Browns declined to save a spot on the regular roster for the 6-2, 215-pound Johnson. He was re-signed to the practice squad. In Week 3, the Minnesota Vikings poached Johnson from the Browns? practice squad. By December, Johnson surpassed Cordarrelle Patterson as Teddy Bridgewater?s No. 1 receiver. He finished third on the team with 31 receptions for 475 yards and two touchdowns. 8. Why didn?t the Browns throw more to their backs? Of 274 completions by the Browns? quarterbacks, only 32 went to their backs. Terrence West led the backs with 11 receptions; Isaiah Crowell had nine. The simple explanation is the rookie backs didn?t know how to release into pass routes after their initial blocks. But there was little enthusiasm to throw to the backs when veteran Ben Tate was the starter. He had only nine receptions. Every time I asked coordinator Kyle Shanahan about this, his answer was the same: ?We want to throw to our backs.? OK, fine. 7. Why did Justin Gilbert never get the chance to return kicks? I spent half the season explaining to fans that Gilbert did not return punts after his freshman year at Oklahoma State, only kickoffs. Still, how hard is it to teach a professional football player to field a punt and run with the ball? OK, we know that the disciplines of punt and kickoff returns are different. So why not utilize Gilbert?s skills as a kickoff returner ? he had six touchdown returns at Oklahoma State ? as a means of getting the enigmatic rookie incorporated into the speed of the pro game? I understand that early on, Pettine wanted Gilbert totally focused on learning the cornerback position. But after seeing Gilbert run with an interception in the Indianapolis game ? his lone defensive play of the year ? it became obvious that the coaches totally blew the chance to exploit a potentially dangerous returner. What if Arizona had done the same with Patrick Peterson as a rookie? 6. What pile of dung did Josh Gordon fall in during his 10-game suspension? Instead of returning from his self-induced, 10-game suspension for failing another marijuana test ? his fifth as an NFL player ? committed to repay the Browns, Gordon came back as a pouty malcontent seemingly determined to undermine the goals of the team. Somehow during his suspension, Gordon transformed from quiet, humble, unassuming, immature, emerging star into a paranoid, self-entitled, spoiled, diva wannabe who didn?t know the plays. This did not reflect well on the Browns? new director of player programs, Jamil Northcutt, whose No. 1 priority, it would seem, was to babysit Gordon during his suspension and bring him back in the proper frame of mind. 5. Why did Pettine create a quarterback controversy? Some believe the season turning point occurred when Pettine opened the door to a quarterback change after the Atlanta game. Brian Hoyer had laid an egg against Houston the week before and sputtered in Atlanta before pulling out a win with a final drive to go to 7-4. Pettine had a chance to set the agenda when questions arose about Hoyer?s job security. Instead of staying true to his convictions and declaring that Hoyer would remain the starter through thick and thin, Pettine succumbed to pressure inside the Browns? building and opened the possibility of Hoyer losing the job. Hoyer?s play descended and two weeks later he was demoted. The Browns didn?t win another game. 4. Why was Hoyer so unloved inside the building? According to sources, some coaches considered Hoyer a ?know-it-all.? Outside of the coaches, Hoyer was never embraced once Johnny Manziel was drafted. It?s almost as if the owner, his inner circle and Farmer's football operations held it against Hoyer for being better than they expected and winning longer than they anticipated, thereby forestalling Manziel?s debut on the field. The disrespect Hoyer received was palpable. 3. What did the Browns have against Josh Cribbs? If ever there were a perfect match of a popular player rejoining his former team for one last go-round to fill a short-term need, it was Cribbs and the Browns. Yet the Browns were obstinate in refusing to let it happen. Farmer probably thought Cribbs was a pulled hamstring waiting to happen and was trying to latch on for an easy pay day. How wrong. Yes, Cribbs looked slow, old and out of shape when he arrived for his third game with the Colts on Dec. 7. But in six games with Indianapolis, Cribbs averaged 32.0 yards on 19 kick returns and 6.6 on 19 punt returns. Cribbs? 125 yards on punt returns were two fewer than Travis Benjamin had all year. 2. Who was responsible for drafting Manziel? Quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains, the point man in the Browns? scouting of college quarterbacks, said in his infamous radio interview in May that when he took the Browns? job he knew ?that our owner liked Johnny a lot.? On draft night, Loggains relayed Manziel's seductive texts and said owner Jimmy Haslam ultimately gave the instruction, ?Alright, pull the trigger, we?re trading up to go get this guy.? Nowhere in Loggains? recounting of that night did he indicate Farmer made the call. Yet that became the team?s narrative. In his post-season press conference, Farmer disputed Loggains? account, but did not take accountability for drafting Manziel. 1. Who was responsible for starting Manziel in the second Cincinnati game ? the biggest game of the year? The only explanation from Pettine was that Hoyer?s descending play left him no choice. All week, Pettine and other coaches said they had no idea how Manziel would respond in his first NFL start. Reports later surfaced that Manziel had a bad week of practice. Only the team and coaches knew this, of course. He proceeded to have arguably the worst debut of any Browns quarterback in history. This was a case of the organization failing its team and its fans. It put a player on the field in the most important position wholly unprepared for the biggest game of the season.
