More football. But bear with me. Start with bad, end with the good.
One of my favorite posters at my favorite Browns site had this to say about Jamal "Cell Phone Coke Dealer" Lewis. He's in the military and stationed in Germany. He's long been one of my favorites at that site for a long time.
"I love the Browns, I was against this guy when the rumors started to fly. I did not want him, I do not want him, I will not like him.
A man has to be led by his principle and not his preferences. I will not trash the guy, but he will not get my support even if he does mange to earn my respect (which i doubt).
I can translate his desire to retire a Brown for you, he hopes to take a lot of $$$ from Browns fans."
I could not have said it better myself.
That's absolutely brilliant. I wish I had come up with that.
The support for Lewis joining the Browns at that site is overwhelmingly positive on this signing. This isn't a Browns fan deal either. Most fans are homers at heart (including yours truly) and are willing to overlook a player's past indiscretions when he joins their favorite team.
A handful of others, including myself, are not. At least not in this case.
I'd also like to point out that Eric Steinbach, whom we just signed, was busted last year for operating his boat under the influence. Okay, that's wrong. Absolutely. But aside from that, Steinbach's character is solid. While boating and drinking is foolish and dangerous not only to one's self, but to others, nobody was hurt. And it's not quite the same thing as drinking and driving.
How many people would've been hurt had Lewis' drug deal not fallen through? How many people would've overdosed? How many people would've had to been scraped off of their dashboards after being hit by a coked-up driver?
Lewis never apologized. He never owned up to what he did (or tried to do, to be more accurate). His explanation? The government set him up.
Here's a quote from Jamal from his press conference:
"I know you're used to rooting against me, but I hope you'll be happy I'm on your side of the field now. Hopefully you'll welcome me like anybody else. I plan to come in and do my job and entertain the fans, have a good time and win some ballgames."
Don't hold your breath, buddy. I'm NOT happy your on my side of the field, Jamal. It sickens me. You sicken me. You're ex-teammate Ray Lewis (no relation) sickens me. Like Ray, you never stood up and said, "I fucked up. I'm sorry." That would've made this whole signing a cause to be happy. You'll never be a real Brown. Not that you care about that anyway.
Let's move on to one of the good guys of the NFL.
Up until today, we had only two of the original members of the 1999 expansion team left. Now there's only one left, our placekicker, Phil Dawson.
Cornerback Daylon McCutcheon was released by the team today. Daylon's had injury issues the last couple of years and went through microfracture surgery this past season. For all intents and purposes, his career is over.
Daylon's NFL career, if he does indeed retire, will be filled with memories of eight losing seasons and one trip to the playoffs.
Homer alert here: Daylon's from USC.
Daylon shocked his mother last year. He went back to school and finished up his degree. While he was finishing up his schoolwork, he was able to walk through graduation cereomnies.
So what? Lots of people do that, right? Yeah, but........
When Daylon left school to join the NFL, his mother was extremely disappointed. She's a teacher and wanted nothing more than her son to graduate from college. Over the next several years, she nagged and nagged him about finishing up.
So a few years ago, Daylon started taking extension courses with an eye toward graduating. Mom was thrilled. Well, she WOULD have been had he actually told her.
Last Mother's Day, Daylon conspired with some of his mom's friends. They told her that they were all going to lunch. Instead, they drove her to USC, where she saw her son standing on the sidewalk in a cap and gown waiting for his mom.
Daylon mentioned during the news story on this that he planned on teaching after his playing days are done. Well, it looks like that day has come, and our loss is the education field's gain. I personally hope that he can make a comeback with another team and hold off his teaching career for a few more years.
On a sidenote: I grew up as a Rams fan. Back in the day, they had a great running back on that team named Lawrence McCutcheon. Lawrence now works for the St. Louis Rams in their front office. He was a class guy, and I always liked him.
Like father, like son.
(originally posted 3-9-2007)
Update: Daylon, as of this date, hasn't returned to the NFL.
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