CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! Or, rather, Happy Valentine's Day, for those couples who celebrate it, willingly or otherwise. If you're a husband and were just surprised by my reference to Valentine's Day, you had better get a move on, and fast.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
I'm rapidly drinking my second cup of coffee to try to cut through the haze. There's not a huge amount of actual, factual news going on today, but there are plenty of links currently occupying my browser's tab bar, a sure sign that folks are generating Cleveland Browns news out of nothing.
A day after I wrote about trust being the defining characteristic of the new AI age of journalism, there are desperate sites out there abusing that trust for clicks.
I know this because I use AI to help uncover new stories over the last 24 hours, especially posts from Xitter, where I simply don't have time to wade through all the nonsense to find the occasional fact. I have a finely-tuned prompt that I use to generate a report as soon as I wake up. I look at that, then painstakingly go through news feeds from reputable, credentialed sources to get the actual facts.
There is a sizeable gap between the two.
Valentine's Day
Sniff, sniff. (Photo: Unsplash.com)
Here's an example from a site I won't reference or link. You can go find it yourself if you want to. I wouldn't give them the clicks. The story that showed up on my AI report was titled "Jim Schwartz Will Be Hired as New England Patriots Defensive Coordinator".
This caught my attention immediately, because it was the first I had heard of such a thing, and I was confused because Schwartz is under contract to the Browns. The title sounds like a scoop, sure to get clicks, but it's purposefully misleading. Reading two or three paragraphs into the story, it becomes clear that the title is just a prediction, not a fact.
I'd say the headline was just a mistake, except this site pulls this sort of thing repeatedly. It's deliberate.
That's how desperate it is out there, folks. As Google and Facebook have become less useful to content mills, they'll resort to these sorts of tactics to fool surfers and AI tools into relaying false content.
Here's another example. The AI report I generated this morning summarized that there was a "Cowboys-Browns Blockbuster Trade Proposal" that generated a lot of chatter. It highlighted four different stories from supposedly reputable sources, including the Sporting News. It turns out that all four stories were built around a single tweet from a user offering a hypothetical trade proposal from Xitter.I had already referenced the tweet in a bullet point from yesterday, but at least four sites ran entire stories around it, again fooling AI into thinking that there was a real trade proposal out there, not just a random thought.
Trust. Trust. Trust. As content mills strain due to a lack of click-oxygen, it will become increasingly important.
IN THE NEWS (HOPEFULLY I'M NOT FOOLED)
-- Charlie Bullen isn't going to be the Browns' new defensive coordinator. Named interim DC for the Giants last season, he's now going to be the new run game coordinator for the Giants, adding that title to his current role as outside linebackers coach. He has pulled out of consideration for other jobs, meaning the Cardinals and Browns. In the former case, it looks like they'll retain Nick Rallis as DC. That means Monken can continue to take his time finding the right guy, since there's little competition for good candidates.
-- Another coaching name that won't be coming to the Browns is analytics guru Daniel Stern, who was under consideration to become a role called "associate head coach" under Monken. It turns out that won't be happening as Stern is headed for the Seahawks instead. So, Todd Monken will need to find another walking supercomputer who can tell him if it makes sense to go for that fourth-and-two on the opponent's 38-yard line.
-- Apparently, it's news that the Browns will release Deshaun Watson in 2027, according to CBS, which is exactly what Jack Duffin has been saying since 2024. Of course, most of the readers to this site have known this for a long time, I'd like to point it out just in case you don't know Jack.
-- The NFL won a court case against the NFLPA, which means that the NFLPA team report cards are now a thing of the past. Which means that we won't be seeing the Bengals ranked 32nd again every year. This happens just in time, because the Browns have been upgrading nearly everything to become a better destination for players, but won't get credit for it on future report cards. Yep, that's life in Cleveland. Even J.J. Watt thinks this is a bad idea.
-- For some reason, ex-Browns Jamal Lewis is in the news as he got a pardon for a 25-year-old crime. No further comment.
-- Want further proof that AI is untrustworthy? Here's ChatGPT saying the Browns will go 11-6 in 2026, and someone writing a story about it.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
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WRAPPING UP
When not learning that Jim Schwartz has a new job, really, truly, click here - Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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