Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
I took a job back in 2011 to run FOXSportsOhio.com, which was part of a FOX Sports initiative to build regional sports news outlets. The job was fun at times, but it was tough because FOX had contractual agreements with nearly every sports team in the state. This meant that whenever we said something that one of our sports partners didn't like, they could call up the station General Manager and complain, threaten, etc, and had some leverage when they did so.
From the General Manager's perspective, it was nice that FOX Sports was trying to do something, but the digital operations were mostly just a pain in the ass to him and something that could get him into trouble. Eventually, I got tired of not being able to do "real" reporting on the teams we covered, so I left.
But while I was there, we searched for fun or funny features we could run that wouldn't offend anyone in our purview. One of the things we came up with was "Tweets from Last Night", in which we featured weird or otherwise fascinating tweets from the Twitter network before it went to hell.
Jim Irsay was a key contributor to TFLN because he was always outspoken and often a little outside the box with his words. A regular feature of Tweets From Last Night was something I called "The Jim Irsay Might Be Insane Tweet of the Day". It was an attempt at humor that, like most of my attempts at humor, totally failed to catch on. I enjoyed doing it anyway. Jim Irsay was a kick.
Look, I swipe at NFL owners pretty frequently here. Jim Irsay owned a team because his Maryland-backstabbing Dad, Tiger Bob Irsay, owned a team. But Jim Irsay had a personality and was a force of nature. No matter your opinion on NFL owners, Irsay was at least himself. He'll be missed on the sports scene.
Jim Irsay
Jim Irsay (Photo: Getty)
THE DAILY SHEDEUR: Today's updates from Shedeur World, which we all live in whether we want to or not.
CHRIS OLAVE AIN'T WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR: There's been some speculation that Andrew Berry might resort to his old tricks and trade for a wide receiver this offseason. Chris Olave was a rumored potential successor to Jerry Jeudy, Elijah Moore, and Amari Cooper. It turns out that he's not on trade block although the Browns did make the expected phone call about him.
TUSH PUSH AIN'T OVER: I hate the Tush Push. I hate the name, I hate the hype, I hate watching it. As I've said before, if I wanted to watch rugby, I'd watch rugby. I don't. This isn't a football play to me. Still, it appears that the Cleveland Browns disagreed with me (they often do) and were one of the critical votes against the rule to ban it, which barely failed. Because of the close vote, it's like that this won't be the last word on the matter, and teams will be asked at some point to vote on a modified version of the rule.
STADIUM FIGHT: I hate writing about the stupid Stadium anger pouring out of the Cleveland and Cuyahoga County government offices. It smacks of attempting to salvage a bungled operation. To show how serious they are, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County pulled out of the "Greater Cleveland Partnership" because they support the inevitable dome, saying the support was "an affront". As far as invective goes, this is pretty good. But ultimately pointless.
Joining the GCP in supporting the dome were local building and construction groups because, well, duh.
It's just getting silly (in my opinion). Rather than accepting the inevitable due to logistical and business factors driving the Haslam Sports Group and working together to redevelop the lakefront, local politicians are swearing revenge and uttering statements like "Don't come back and ask us for things".
I'll put that next to Mike Holmgren's warning not to ask for Super Bowl tickets in upcoming encyclopedia of stupidest things I've ever heard about the Browns.
NATIONAL LISTICLE OF THE DAY:
16 AFC teams, 16 offseason awards: Sizing up each front office's past few months with one superlative - (espn.com)
BUT, WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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