THE DAILY BLOVIATION
Yesterday, for me, began with a commitment and ended with a gift.
For all the fun I’ve had working with the OBR team on the new site, not everyone has totally benefited from it. Namely, my family, who have put up with me constantly hovering over a computer screen, pushing off opportunities to spend time together, and generally being a pain in the posterior.
So, yesterday afternoon, I made a long-overdue commitment to put them first and spend time with them on Saturday, particularly with my wife, who understood my work needs and put up with some lonely evenings as I panicked over a ever-nearing release date for the new site. Yesterday, we spent the day together, doing some grocery shopping, watching the Buckeyes, and spending some time on our back deck enjoying a beautiful fall day in Cleveland.
Then, in the early evening, I got a Slack message from Lane, pointing me to check my mailbox to see a note that had been passed to me. It was from a fan, who wished to stay relatively anonymous, but wanted me to know that he had four fantastic club seats - which were suddenly available for today’s game - and wanted to donate them to the OBR to give away. So I cranked up a thread in the Watercooler, offering them up to a random replier. Saturday nights are always really slow, but we had plenty of entrants, and at 11PM we gave away four 40-yard line club seats to a lucky fan.
Some of the replies were the standard “count me in.” Some of them got me. One of you has been a Browns fan your whole life and never made it to an opening day. One of you and your dad haven’t been to a game in a few years because of health reasons. One wanted to surprise his dad in the morning. Another wanted to take his son.
I don’t have the stomach to pick between those. So I did the most 2026 thing imaginable and asked ChatGPT for a random number between one and the number of replies. It said five. Congratulations to CLE440, who is sitting in the club level this afternoon because a stranger decided four seats were worth more as a gift than as a sale.
That’s the home crowd I know. The one that gives away seats to other Browns fans and asks strangers in Kentucky to film the Chubb guitar smash for them.
Today we find out if it’s the home crowd Deshaun Watson gets.
Also: if you’re downtown today, keep an eye out for the OBR’s digital advertising truck rolling around the city. Snap a picture and post it here. I would like to see it in action. Do not ask me about the Adrienne Barbeau tangent in that thread.
LET IT RIP, PART THREE: Scott Petrak lays out the Watson situation about as well as anybody. After 238 yards, two touchdowns, and a 121.9 rating in Tampa, Todd Monken says his quarterback “had his best week” of practice, and his marching orders haven’t changed since we wrote them up earlier in the week: “Let it rip. What do you have to fear? You’ve already had a hell of a career. Let’s just go down fighting, go back, go down swinging.” Watson has turned the temperature way down since August: “I never try to go at war with the fans.” Petrak also reminds us Watson said a month ago he wasn’t sure how he’d handle getting booed again. He’s 31, coming off two Achilles ruptures, and telling Monken to deploy his legs. I’ll give him credit for that one.
TODAY’S LIVE GAME BLOGS: We’ll do a “live topic” for Insiders during the game today as well. It goes live at noon, and you can find it right here.
SHORT KING: Bryce Young is 5-foot-10, tied with Kyler Murray for shortest QB in the league, and he’s second in the NFL with 648 passing yards, first with nine completions of 25-plus, and tied for first with six touchdown passes. Petrak’s preview notes the Panthers are the tallest team in the league at an average of 6-foot-2 and a half, so Young is basically throwing from behind a hedge. Jared Verse says he disappears back there. Quincy Williams has a plan, and I love it: “Blitz him. He can’t see us, we can’t see him. So just get there.” Verse is still looking for sack number one. Seems like a nice day for it.
RUN THE DANG BALL: The Browns are 31st in rushing at 65.5 yards a game, and Quinshon Judkins has 54 yards on 24 carries. The Panthers are dead last against the run, 224 a game and 6.31 a carry, and they’re without linebacker Devin Lloyd. Something has to give.
THE INJURY REPORT: Teven Jenkins (back) misses his third straight game, so rookie Austin Barber stays at right guard. Campbell (ankle, hip) and Delpit (shoulder) are questionable. Judkins, Williams, Mason Graham and Tytus Howard were all full go with no status. On the other side, Carolina put linebacker Claudin Cherelus on IR and elevated receiver Chris Moore and running back Anthony Tyus, per PFT. Jalen Coker (16 catches, 204 yards, two TDs) and Xavier Legette are both questionable. If Coker sits, that helps.
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’: Friday, the sound system cut out in the middle of Journey and the team just kept singing. Elgton Jenkins requested the song because Spencer Fano sang it at the rookie talent show. Monken: “I did not know that was going to be a request, and I didn’t know they were going to start singing it.” Delpit says he heard Chubb is pulling up in a Batmobile. Nick settled for Dawg Pound captain and the guitar. RockyAtTheGym is stuck in Lexington, Kentucky, where the game isn’t on, and would like somebody to film it. Help her out.
TEN TEAMS IN KNOXVILLE: The Browns were among 10 teams with scouts at Texas and Tennessee on Saturday, per Bleacher Report, which means somebody will spend today wondering what it means for the quarterback who just won in Tampa. It means it was the biggest college game of the weekend and scouts go to those. Arch Manning, Colin Simmons and Cam Coleman were all on the field. Don’t read tea leaves in a Week 3 travel itinerary.
A win today puts the Browns at 2-1. I have faith. Be loud.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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Nonprofit Puts Ex-Cons to Work with Paid Apprenticeships as Machinists in California - In a converted machine shop in southeastern San Diego, Rise Up Industries takes men a few weeks out of prison and puts them on CNC machines in a paid apprenticeship, with therapy and case management built in. The shop fills real contracts: aerospace parts, medical device parts and, my personal favorite, fishing lures. Komisi Savaiinaea served more than two decades, had never touched a machine, got a crash course in trigonometry right there on the shop floor, and now supervises the place. Their graduates re-offend at 3 percent. The national rate is roughly 66 percent over three years. Give a man a trade and a paycheck and he tends to keep both. Who knew?
WRAPPING UP
When not outsourcing ticket giveaways to a random number generator, 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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