CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
Everyone wanted to talk about Browns roster cutdowns and the emergence of Adin Huntington, along with Dillon Gabriel's solid perf... wait, who am I kidding? Yesterday's output, mainly from the national media, was all about Shedeur, Shedeur, Shedeur. Let's quickly address that and move on to the usual silliness.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
LET'S MOVE ON: Everyone and their brother felt the need to write about Shedeur Sanders yesterday, either attacking the Browns for whatever the Browns are supposed to be doing to him, or trying patiently, even paternally, to explain what the real deal is with the player's development by the Browns.
I've never seen anything like these upset Sanders fans, who have apparently been harassing beat writers for trying to report that he's simply not ready to start in the NFL.
The comparisons to Dillon Gabriel and charges of favoritism are absolutely ridiculous. If you want numbers, turn to Brett Kollman, who puts the kibosh on rumors that Sanders was somehow victimized by the Browns using actual numbers. Gabriel got the ball out faster and made good decisions. Sanders took/had almost 5.13 seconds to throw the ball over Gabriel's 2.62.
Sanders' upside may be higher than Gabriel's in the long term, but Gabriel brings with him a ton of experience against top-flight competition over a long college career. That gives him the advantage for now. Even experts from Sanders' school agree.
Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders
Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders prior to Saturday's game (Photo: Getty)
I'm so done with this. What the Browns are doing is what they consider best of Sanders' long-term development, and Lane Adkins has been explaining it patiently for weeks and weeks in Ask the Insiders and elsewhere.
NON-ANSWERS FOR JUST $700 A POP: College and professional teams have been playing games with press access for a while. Who they choose to let in and why remains kind of a mystery.
But, apparently, there's a market for it. The Oklahoma Sooners are now charging money to allow dedicated (and financially well-off) fans access to post-game press conferences. For $700 a pop, you can sit quietly in the room as the reporters ask the actual questions of coaches and players, who respond with the least-controversial replies they can come up with.
There's so much wrong with this. I don't know where to start. Sooner or later, there will be some fan interference with the process, as emotions overcome the ability to sit quietly and observe the process. Monetizing press access has already become a part of the process, with teams/sites releasing the information gained by questioning without regard for the person who asked the question. Sites publish transcripts or videos of reporters asking questions, taking advantage of their work.
How many sites and so forth gave credit to Fred Greetham for asking the question that caused Kevin Stefanski to announce that Adin Huntington made the team? Exactly none. However, a significant number of clicks and video views resulted from it.
Charging fans to sit and watch reporters do their jobs is simply a more overt means of others monetizing the work done by beat reporters working for outlets often struggling to survive. I'm guessing there will not be royalties handed to reporters by teams like Oklahoma or Illinois State, which is selling access at a bargain price of $461.61 per game. Teams cash in while journalism collapses all around us.
THE BENGALS ARE STILL CHEAP: The other day, I relayed stories about how the Bengals are being cheap as they invited Boomer Esiason to attend a Ring of Honor ceremony with a discounted hotel room and no compensation for travel costs. Esiason may or may not participate in the event. Usually, when financially bloated NFL teams want former stars to participate in these sorts of things, it's with all expenses covered. I know it's hard to feel sorry for Esiason, but we do feel for his travel woes.
Fortunately for Mike Brown and crew, Chad Johnson attempted to ride to the rescue and save Brown from his own stinginess on one of those horrible Shannon Sharpe shows. It didn't go well, as "Ocho Cinco" was forced to admit that he paid his own way to games, and the hosts discussed how the other 31 teams do the opposite.
It's just amazing to me. At least, as I've said before, we're not Bengals fans. The Browns owner will spend whatever it takes... It's just that (unlike MLB), NFL teams can't spend their way to the Super Bowl.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS! Newswire Bloviation Archive
OBR STUFF
VIDEOS
Browns 3D- Cleveland Browns finish preseason undefeated, some thoughts - (youtube.com)
Two-Minute Check-In: Pre-Season Game 3 - (youtube.com)
ARTICLES
Cleveland Browns 2025 Week One Roster & Practice Squad Prediction - Jack
Cleveland Browns News Ticker 8/24 - Barry
Cleveland Browns Initial 53 Roster Projection: It Could get Weird - Pete
Cleveland Browns Initial 53-Player Roster Projection: Who's In and Who's Out - Fred
Cleveland Browns News and Rumors 8/24: There Are Positions Other than Quarterback -Barry
Browns Ethan Pocic "Potentially Ready" for Bengals; Kevin Stefanski Updates Shedeur Sanders, Kenny Pickett - Fred
Browns Start Process of Trimming Roster to 53 Players by Releasing 21 Including QB Tyler Huntley - Fred
FORUM POSTS
Why is it worth holding onto Sanders ?(VIP)
Kicker(VIP)
Eric Dickerson(VIP)
David Bell(VIP)
First cuts(VIP)
It's a Pipe Dream(VIP)
Footwork?(VIP)
Benefit of the Doubt for Pickett?(VIP)
Worried about running game?(VIP)
Why in the World?(VIP)
Practice squad(VIP)
Kenny Pickett(VIP)
OL Depth
Factual ranked list of modern Browns QBs
They are rookie QBs, 3rd and 5th round candidates
Browns Preseason QB Stats.
LiveWire Thread for 824 - Twitter, Video, Articles
OT: Lamar Jackson was released, any interest?
Young Player Paralyzed
College football rankings
Stefanski Sabotages Shedeur
Cuts
DTR cut by the Eagles
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Retooled Cancer Drugs Eliminated Aggressive Tumors in 'Remarkable' New Trial - (goodnewsnetwork.org)
In this section of the Massive Morning Missive, I try to provide something uplifting, whether it has anything to do with football or not. At the very least, I try to link something interesting to me that I hope will interest others.
Today, there's positive news from the world of medicine where long years of experimentation and trial-and-error have resulted in an improved version of a class of drugs called "CD40 agonist antibodies", which resulted in some cancer remission in a batch of 12 subjects, including two who had complete remission of their melanoma and breast cancer specifically.
There's going to come a day when personalized cancer treatments will be available for individuals (up to 30% of us) who will have to face down the scourge. Science advances, medicine advances, life gets better.
WRAPPING UP
*When not saving up money to attend an Ohio State press conference someday, 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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