OBR Newswire Bloviation Header
Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
As I explore every morning's allotment of Browns stories, I often begin with 300 or more links to peruse. This last weekend has been slow, reducing that number to about 150 or so between direct links and search engines like Google. To find stories, I must explore the "middle" between the high-end (and those wishing they were) subscription-only sites and the mass of aggregators who permeate the stream. The objective is to provide readers with the latest information without bashing them into paywalls or giving them regurgitated stuff.
As time passes, that "middle row" becomes narrower and narrower. Aggregation has spread wildly as a last refuge for sites, with former high-end domains losing much of their luster as they turn to aggregating content to keep the lights on. Aggregation is an easy way to make a margin in volume, as content creation costs near zero, and the resulting fast-food media product can capture looks with enough distribution and clickbaiting muscle. It's great that they can survive, but I ignore what they produce, since it's just another layer on top of the original writers. You guys don't need a flood of "writer says this" and "radio guy blathers that" stories to wade through.
I think there's a niche for higher-end mixed sub/free local sites like the OBR. After three years of devastation due to the Deshaun Watson debacle, I have had moments of weakness when I've thought about jumping onto the aggregation bandwagon, albeit with more humor, insight, and "keeping it real". This Massive Morning Missive is the closest we'll get to that, as I am the only one among the OBR staff willing to wallow in nonsensical stories with no on-field impact.
To wit, I'm going to link stuff about Shedeur Sanders being a celebrity and Aaron Rodgers being whatever he is.
THE DAILY SHEDEUR: Sanders continues to be a focal point, and will be up at least until the time he takes a seat on the bench for the Browns behind someone else. There's speculation that the starter might not be Joe Flacco. Bleacher Report ran a listicle this morning about "Best Players Who Could be Cut from Every NFL Roster", and Flacco was on the list. Uh oh, Joe! Best not buy green bananas.
Mary Kay Cabot wrote yesterday about Kenny Pickett being the leader in the clubhouse for the starting job, which has been the speculation for a while now on these pages and elsewhere. This has resulted in about a half-dozen exercises in regurgitation amongst the aggregators, such as this Shedeur-referencing article from the New York Post. I could link a bunch more, saying the same thing.
Meanwhile, Flacco and Pickett are considered potential trade bait with the Saints.
Soon to come in the form of another dozen stories about Shedeur from aggregators will be this little story of Sanders turning down a jersey swap with Cam Ward, jokingly saying he had to sell the jersey because he's "so far behind" thanks to his draft fall. Meanwhile, Sanders' uniform number change has him asking his followers to call him 12 instead of 2.
Kurt Warner tells us to get used to it because he believes that Sanders is the cream of the rookie QB crop.
Last but not least, Cam Heyward thinks the number of quarterbacks in Cleveland is a funny, funny joke in what aggregators call a "roast" of the team. Hilarious stuff, I guess.
MEANWHILE, IN PITTSBURGH: As much as it would be beyond hilarious to see Aaron Rodgers turn down the Steelers and leave them saddled with Mason Rudolph, his biographer believes that he'll be joining the Steelers soon as he works out his personal issues, whatever those are.
Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers looking entirely stable (Photo: Getty)
Whatever is written on my tombstone (most likely "The deceased requests you pour bourbon on the grass here"), at least it won't be "Aaron Rodgers' biographer." Yeah, sure, he's been a great quarterback and an interesting, er, character, but I'd pivot to doing biographies of Winston Churchill or something before the epitaph gets written.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! That's not enough, oh no! This Newswire has more, more, more! Here are some free articles that made their way through the Barry Filter:
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
Newswire Bloviation Archive