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Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
It's easy to jump to conclusions about new Cleveland Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger from watching him. To me, he looks like a surfer, with his curly blond hair all over the place. Of course, looks can often be deceiving, despite what David Byrne said.
Let's hope that's not the case, as Fred Greetham watched him in camp and saw a little Clay Matthews in him. Those are some big footprints.
Still, beneath the mop of hair lies the brain of a bioengineering major and a player who somehow emerged as the first pick in the second round after not starting until his senior year.
He's matched up with his linebackers coach, Jason Tarver, in today's feature story from Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon-Journal. Strangely enough, his linebacker coach was also in a similar field, biochemistry, at the same school, UCLA, where he taught classes while pursuing his master's degree, albeit many years before he would have met Schweshinger.
Somehow, both wound up on the same team in 2025, and it seems like a providential match. Check out the ABJ story for more, as Schwesinger made a strong impression during camps.
Carson Schwesinger
LB Carson Schwesinger (Photo: Getty)
Like Tarver, I taught classes while pursuing my master's degree, although this was back in the 1980s. Unlike Tarver, who was lauded for his teaching efforts, I wasn't a very good electrical engineering teacher because I wasn't a very good electrical engineer.
Anyhow, reading the story brings back a memory of conducting a huge mid-term test for multiple "Introduction to Electrical Engineering" classes because the professor wasn't available. It was a large but crowded lecture hall at Ohio State, and way in the back sat Buckeyes center Kirk Lowdermilk, squeezed improbably into one of those small lecture room chairs, who had some question or another which I helped him with.
I felt like I needed to help him, because it was my responsibility while monitoring the tests, but also because he could have squashed me like a bug if I refused while screaming "NERD!!" very loudly. Lowdermilk studied mechanical engineering and was selected as a third-round pick by the Vikings, ultimately leading to a successful 12-year NFL career.
This story means that Jason Tarver and I are almost identical. Except that he's a successful and fast-rising coach of the Cleveland Browns and, in contrast, I'm the dorky manager of a website on the same topic who recaps articles each morning, even during June, when there isn't squat to talk about.
Honestly, I'm not quite sure how a nice article about a new Browns linebacker led me to offer up my brush-with-fame episode about briefly interacting with a future NFL offensive lineman. But here we are.
If you're lucky, someday I'll tell you the story about how I once sat next to Buckeye star Eddie George for an entire plane flight, saying nothing to him because I'm not the type of person who bugs the guy seated next to him on a plane. I do remember that the steward gave him an ENTIRE CAN of Diet Coke, while I just got one of those little cups, which I found very offensive.
More to be found in my upcoming book, "The Absurdly Boring Chronicles of an Overqualified Webdork".
BUT WAIT!! THERE'S MORE!!!
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!