THE DAILY BLOVIATION
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Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
The countdown to the Great Newswire Hiatus is on, and this is the third-to-last entry before I disconnect from the internet (for the most part) for a week around the Independence Day holiday.
As I do most mornings, I face a key decision as I sit down to write the Newswire about what topic to address. Probably the biggest "story" was how badly the Browns fared in a survey on how well teams treat the families of players, including whether players are helped with childcare, areas to meet families after the game, providing food, and so on. Browns fans can at least take solace in the fact that the Bengals finished worst in this department, by far.
While I appreciate the logistical challenges of managing a young family, I also recall traveling 4-5 days a week as a consultant, leaving my wife to care for our two young children alone. My wife also worked as an engineer, hauling the kids to day care every day and picking them up, and then watching over them all night. I would arrive home on Friday afternoon, be handed two kids, and be told, "It's your turn." I'm not sure how we managed to survive it all.
There were no child care services provided - we had to pay out the wazoo for them. There were no peaceful spaces to meet family after work, just the chaos of a family in a small rented home with multiple children.
Baby
Those feet are small.
So, I guess I'm saying that, while I can appreciate that family services provided by teams are a competitive advantage for teams that provide them, I'm also somewhat taken aback at how differently professional football players expect to be treated compared to the rest of us. My empathy with players on this issue is slightly muted, I'm afraid. Live what my life was as a young parent for a day, fellas.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA: In the Watercooler thread for yesterday's edition of this Massive Morning Missive, my old friend T-Dog asked if I missed a piece of clickbait, likely knowing I'd go off on a rant about it. This piece of clickbait came from Newsweek, a once-respectable publication that (in the sports arena at least) has learned that aggregation and clickbait are a way to scratch out a small profit doing the same thing 2,391 other sites are doing.
As I've mentioned before, I consolidate all Browns stories I can find in a modified feed reader that brings in hundreds of Browns stories a day for my perusal and selection into this article. I'm very familiar with what's going on at many sites that once presented great content. Newseek is one among many, joining sites like Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, Athlon and others in presenting this type of content.
To illustrate the extent of the issue, here is a screenshot from my feed reader showing eight Shadeur Sanders articles that originated from a single site within an eight-hour period.
Clickbait 1
Here's another screencap of another single site that pushed out ten stories yesterday, all of them aggregating what other people said.
Clickbait 2
The Browns' mediasphere is afloat in this sort of literary sewage while sites producing legitimate analysis and opinion fight for a space in now-useless Google feeds. There were over 160 stories in my Google news feed alone this morning. I pressed Shift-A, marking them all as read. There was no point in wading through that mess.
Trust me, I don't miss out on seeing clickbait. I instantly discard 90% or more of what shows up begging for my attention each morning. Ending my rant. You have no idea how far the independent media has fallen over the past 25 years.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!
Breaking down the Browns' quarterback room | Position Preview - (clevelandbrowns.com)
Browns WR Jerry Jeudy aiming for more after breakout season - ESPN - (espn.com)
Mike Bloomgren brings head-coaching perspective into job leading Browns offensive line - (beaconjournal.com)
NFL training camp preview: 10 preseason position battles to watch - (pff.com)
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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