CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! If you're missing the links to various stories of interest (mostly free, mostly original and not clickbait aggregator crap), you can find them in the somewhat-new OBR Daily News Ticker. This article is produced daily by a demented webdork and updated several times throughout the day. It's all for free, no charge for Browns fans.
DAILY BLOVIATION
You may think these daily bloviations are just the random spewing of Browns' opinions by an early riser, winging it in an amateurish fashion, daily risking any credibility he might have had in the past. You would be surprised to find that you are (to a small extent) wrong! No, these bloviations are instead something the composer of this Massive Morning Missive actually thinks about ahead of time as he sees news pass under his nose the previous day. Three things caught my attention yesterday.
TURNING IT BACK ON THE PRESS
It's well-documented that I used to cover the team in Berea regularly, but I decided not to do that for various reasons: the travel time back and forth, my inability to judge the success of stretching exercises correctly, and a simple lack of aptitude for shouting out questions over other people.
Over the past few years, I've developed another reason for not participating in the interview scrums prevalent at media opportunities: The fear of being verbally slapped around by the subject of the interview. As "hot takes" and aggregated "clickbait" dominate, by volume at least, the NFL news cycle, a popular line taken by athletes who don't want to answer specific questions is that the reporter is "searching for clicks" and such.
Shedeur Sanders
Shedeur Sanders talks to the press (Photo: Getty)
It's become more accepted for athletes and coaches to fire back when asked a question they don't like, which, as a spotlight-avoiding individual, would probably be traumatic for a person like me. The last thing I would want is to make myself the center of the story.
I feel bad for the reporters caught in this crossfire. While there are always some click-hungry reporters, they are often simply asking the questions their readers would like to see answered. Shedeur Sanders' reaction to Dillon Gabriel's comments last week is another example. It's a legitimate question. To see Sanders react with "you're trying to start something" was a misstep. Sanders is usually really good with the press, open and informative, and I hope he learns that this isn't the best way to approach it.
THE BENGALS ARE RIDICULOUS
The Browns have embarrassed their fans at times over the years, mostly by losing games with regularity, but at least Browns fans don't have to deal with a stingy organization or owners trying to conduct their own 1950s version of contract talks, like Jerry Jones is doing in Dallas. Jimmy Haslam has learned to leave these sorts of things to the professionals, regardless of how well some fans feel about the job those professionals are doing.
Nope. Browns fans can be happy that Haslam spends money freely and doesn't do ridiculous things like not paying travel costs for a distinguished alumnus to see his own Ring of Honor ceremony. But that's what Mike Brown and crew are doing in Cincinnati. There's an old saying that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". But with Mike Brown and Paul Brown, the apple has apparently fallen to the opposite side of the state.
It's absurd in this day of multi-billion-dollar franchise valuations that the Bengals choose to do business this way. In some ways, Browns fans don't have it the worst in the NFL.
ESPN RIPS DOWN SOME PAYWALLS
I prefer to be able to run the OBR like I did back in 1999, with the site being completely free for all Browns fans. There's a tricky bit, though, in that if you want to run an excellent website and not just spew fan opinions in your free time – it costs money. Advertising only covers a little of the cost, and if you want the best, original content, on-site reporting, good customer service, and so forth, you need to pay for it somehow. I decided a long time ago (when this site started, in fact) that I wanted to build something that competes legitimately with the existing mainstream media.
To do that, we rely on subscriptions from readers who enjoy getting more than our free stories. We've generally tried our best to make subscription a good investment. These days, renewing your subscription at full price means you also get Paramount Plus. Beyond that, though, subscribers receive additional benefits, including premium forums and articles, as well as new premium video events, coming soon. Subscriptions are a key source of predictable revenue, enabling us to pay for full-time web webdorks and the content we create. Ads don't come close to paying the bills.
This is why it came as a surprise to me that ESPN is starting to tear down some of its paywalls. Does this mean that subscriptions are fading from view as a means to pay for good content? Not at all, if anything, people putting their content behind paywalls is increasing rapidly, with dozens of Patreons and Substacks popping up from individuals looking to monetize their interest in covering the Browns. Some sites now put virtually all their valuable content behind a paywall.
ESPN can go in the other direction because they're about to release their for-pay direct-to-consumer streaming app with all of ESPN's content. It's another reason to walk away from the cable bundle, but more importantly, it will provide ESPN with a massive source of revenue that can help offset the cost of content on ESPN.com. Oh, and something to do with truckloads of greenbacks going to the NFL. It's a smart move on their part, but another example of the enormous advantages that big companies like ESPN have over smaller outlets, such as the OBR.
It's thanks to our loyal subscribers that we've been in this business for a quarter-century or so. Without you, we would be even more desperate for revenue. We would likely find ourselves in the same position as others, restricting most of our content behind a paywall and excluding fans who can't afford a subscription. That's not the way we want to do business. This is a site that prioritizes fans, and we back that up by making as much of our content as possible free.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
Newswire Bloviation Archive
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Sense of Smell May Be Restored Using Radio Waves-Without Need for Surgery - (goodnewsnetwork.org)
Scientists continually improve their understanding of how the brain functions. Being able to recognize that this set of neurons does this or that is already enabling some cures that border on the miraculous. Take, for example, research in South Korea that suggests radio waves can non-invasively restore the sense of smell in people who lack it. Just amazing.
Now, if they figure out how to make that technology work to take out tinnitus, sign me up. I have a constant buzz in my ears due to the loss of hearing specific frequencies, and my brain compensates by creating an omnipresent hum for me. You learn to ignore it, but I sure would prefer not to deal with it.
So, if you're a researcher from South Korea and reading this article because you're a fan of the least successful team in the US version of football, take this as a request to consider my suggestion. I'll sit here and wait for the cure. Thanks.
WRAPPING UP
When not playing loud music in his headphones to cover up the hum, 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.
CONTACT Barry to sponsor the OBR. We have plans for nearly any budget!
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