Processing Personnel Department

Photo Credit; Cleveland Browns.Com

So, a few words before we begin.

I would like to thank you all for the great response for the last post- Big hit number!
It's amazing what happens when Steve Kim retweets us!!

I've still been lazy in getting things knocked out here and let me tell you why.
I'm working more (it's winter, gotta pay for those trips!) and I am taking a medication that makes soda taste awful, so I am on no caffeine.
Therefore, I'm tired very often- but I'll try harder!

I forgot to post the PPM for the Divisional Playoff round (Sorry Amy Acker fans)  and what I missed was a 1-3 week as I would have gotten only the Patriots prediction correctly.

The Browns continue to clean up the front office and for the first time since the "new" Browns return, I feel really good about the people making the decisions in personnel.
I've written before about liking the hiring of John Dorsey and his background with the Packers and Chiefs, but landing Alonzo Highsmith and Eliot Wolf from Green Bay are huge coups for the team and if they do the job that I think that they will, they won't be long for Lake Erie...

Eliot Wolf, the son of Hall of Famer Ron Wolf and the man that rebuilt the Packers, was thought to be the choice to replace Ted Thompson when Thompson was moved to team president but was surprisingly passed over in favor of Brian Gutekunst instead.
Wolf might become the heir apparent in Cleveland as if the Browns get things turned around quickly, you could see a similar situation, where Dorsey moves into a bigger chair and Wolf becomes the GM for the Browns, which might be why Wolf chose Cleveland over staying with the Packers (who wanted to retain him) and Oakland, where he also interviewed.
Ryan, who is my go-to person for Packer thoughts, thinks Wolf is a great hire for the Browns and wishes that the Packers had chosen him to run the Packers instead of Gutekunst.

Should the turnaround happen and Wolf gets a promotion or go elsewhere, the hot prospect will be former Oiler fullback (and pro boxer), Alonzo Highsmith, who was also a big part of the Packers personnel department and hired to come to Cleveland along with Eliot Wolf.
Highsmith is very well thought of in the game and between Highsmith and Wolf, the Packers personnel department have taken a sizeable hit at the hands of the Browns, who for once seem to have gone after the right people and managed to actually land them!

If the Browns had only decided to remove Hue Jackson as head coach, I'd be feeling really good about the Brown organization right now, but still I'm feeling seeing positive signs in Berea for a change and it's been a while since I have said that!!

Back soon with trades in Pittsburgh and that's right- I said trades-Plural!!!!

Five Fights I Don't Want to See-But I Might Have To!!

As I have written before, 2018 has gotten off to a slow start here at TRS.
I'm uninspired and frankly, I'm not even thrilled with what I'm pumping out and how much I'm doing it-BUT tonight is a different case because I am excited about this idea because it is exactly the type of post that I love to do!
Five fights in boxing between "top" fighters of various levels (as in one man's top five, may be another's top ten or even twenty) that I've considered and thought about.
A parameter or two before we begin.
None of these awful forced mandatories against non-entities (although mandatories against qualified contenders will be mentioned) count.
It may be a fight that could happen.
It may be a fight that has no chance of happening, but I think would be just painful to even think about either in the ring or out of the ring.
In that vein, Enjoy!
Or maybe not...

1) WBA-WBC Welterweight titles.
Keith Thurman vs Danny Garcia

This rematch of a fight that only the true Thurman/Garcia/Haymon believers were really excited about (I was mildly excited, but I like seeing belts get unified-sue me!), but without the title belts involved, I'm not sure there would have been half the interest the first time around and there will be damn sure be less than half of that half for the likely soon to be mandated rematch by the WBC.
"One Time" Thurman (The Nickname isn't for the number of knockouts scored against good competition per decade or times fought per year) has always been a target of TRS as mildly overrated as his hairline wins over Shawn Porter and Garcia have shown in his biggest victories to date, while Danny Garcia was an excellent champion at 140 in fighting top fighters and besting all opponents, but at 147 has been relatively inactive, uninspiring and reluctant to face good opponents ( in six bouts at 147, only Thurman and Lamont Peterson could be considered top notch competition)..
Considering that neither has fought since their first bout last March, each will be facing name fighters that are likely tune-ups for their returns (Jessie Vargas for Thurman will be a far tougher test for Thurman than the faded Zabbie winner Brandon Rios for Garcia) and despite the PBC hype, their first fight wasn't exactly Donald Curry vs Milton McCrory as two undefeated welterweight champions let alone Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns, so I really don't need to see this again at all, let alone this soon!!

2) WBC Featherweight title
Gary Russell vs Joseph Diaz

On paper, this looks like an intriguing fight.
Russell has lost only to Vasyl Lomachenko (and went the distance) and Diaz is undefeated.
I have always been a fan of Gary Russell's skills and on "Fightheads" I've been quoted many times as saying that I have more confidence in Gary Russell than it appears that his managers and promotional team does-I think he has/had that much potential.
However, his inactivity (three fights since Dec. 2014), only one win over a fighter any type of name at all (an aging and faded Jhonny Gonzalez) and that he turns 30 in June makes me wonder if someone might have already dropped the ball on what might have been a much better career.
As far as the undefeated former American Olympian Diaz goes, Golden Boy promotions has moved him along solidly, but without a real test against even top fifteen competition and his lack of pop bored me to death as the "Co-Feature" on GGG-Canelo night, I don't see Diaz being a match for Russell, assuming Russell signs for the fight.
I just see this as a dull fight with Russell being way too fast for the technically sound, but way too slow and not strong enough Diaz and giving fans another twelve rounds of snoozing...

3) WBA-IBF Heavyweight titles
Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury

This is a fight people think they want until they get it.
I understand why they want it as anytime the current heavyweight champion can meet the lineal champion it's a big deal especially when they are from the same country and the lineal champion didn't lose his titles.
But it's going to stink in the ring unless Anthony Joshua flattens Tyson Fury.
Because really fast- name your best Tyson Fury memory in the ring.
Really fast.
No singing, No quotes, No grabbing the mic or rushing a future opponent-In the ring action.
It's Steve Cunningham knocking him down.
Because his fighting style is pretty dull with lots of leaning, mauling and other than that Fury gives you a lot of what so many out there complained about for so long about the Klitschko brothers.
The buildup will be fun, there will be great quotes all over and the press conferences will be entertaining, but remember this- unless Joshua cleans out Fury, you are most likely to get this generation's version of John Ruiz-Nikolai Valuev because that is what Tyson Fury brings to the ring.

4) WBO Welterweight Title
Jeff Horn vs Terence Crawford

This one is mandated by the WBO, but in a rarity- fiscal responsibility might help boxing fans as Horn has a chance to make more money by ditching his belt for a safer fight at home in Australia against countryman Anthony Mundine,
Now, normally I'm shouting from the rooftops about defending titles, not ducking opponents, doing the right things etc- but there are exceptions to every rule and this is the exception.
Jeff Horn needs to make as much money as he can while the iron is red hot off his win over Manny Pacquiao, Anthony Mundine would make a lot of money for Horn in Australia and Horn would likely be favored to win that fight.
In addition, Terence Crawford isn't going to come to Australia to fight Jeff Horn- especially after seeing the decision in the Pacquiao-Horn fight and let's get real, put the judges aside- no matter the locale, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Kookaburra's Ol' Rum Tree- Jeff Horn isn't beating Terence Crawford, so who really wants to see this fight anyway?
Bob Arum needs to sign some better challengers at welterweight for Crawford to fight and besides Horn can always fight Crawford down the road if someone really deems it necessary to watch a lopsided beating...

5) WBA/IBF Junior Middleweight Title Unification
Erislandy Lara vs Jarrett Hurd

Erislandy Lara might be the dullest fighter in the sport not named Rigondeaux and in his division (154), the problem is that the champions are reasonably strong (Lara, Jarrett Hurd, Jermell Charlo and Sadam Ali) but the challengers are comparatively weak.
The best ( as in fun and exciting) unification bout to be made would be IBF champ Hurd against WBC champ Charlo in what would be a can't miss action fight that could last one round or twelve and would leave you afraid to leave your seat!
And with both fighters being with Al Haymon/PBC/Showtime, a Hurd/Charlo fight should be very easy to make and have a fight of the year and/or knockout of the year possibilities, so what's not to like?
Well, it's boxing and it's PBC, so instead of a guaranteed thriller to unify two belts, we get two belts unified, but it's Hurd and the tedious Lara, which will almost surely be twelve rounds of stick and move as the slick Lara takes the promising, but still learning Hurd to school.
Leave it to the PBC to pass on fireworks to give you a half-burnt sparkler...

Hope you enjoyed this piece.
Boxing fans, look me and Ramon Malpica's podcast "Fightheads" up on the links page to the right and we do the show live on Monday nights at 8 EST,
If you are interested in booking me for your boxing show, drop me a line on Twitter, I'm sure we can work something out!

Parade or Protest? Right or Wrong?

Photo Credi:Cleveland Plain Dealer

I've been back and forth on the parade held in front of Cleveland Browns Stadium yesterday, but here are my thoughts on it.

I think had it been portrayed as more of a protest of the Haslam family's awful ownership record ( and awful is being very lenient on my part), it might have been taken better by casual observers (Read non-Cleveland media/fans) and might not have been taken for the clown show that it became.
I understand the frustration.
I suffer plenty of it myself, but instead of it coming off as an angry fan base with an Howard Beale style "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore " harangue, it came across more as a fan base that found the whole thing funny- which was the last thing that anyone found amusing, but if you didn't know Browns fans, that's what you would think.

Here's an example- I was at work on parade day and they were mentioning on CNN and two of my least favorite people on the network were laughing at the Browns and the town.
Dave Briggs, a special type who has been so good at his job that he has been employed by all three cable news networks, offered that the Browns have no hope no matter what they do so they might as well celebrate something, even 0-16.
Coy Wire, a former player that generally annoys did raise one good point in mentioning that the fan base draws nice crowds in Cleveland to such events to show they care before then ruining it by saying that it's nice to see Browns taking things well with good humor etc.
That's not the message that should have been sent and not the message that I hope was intended.

The fanbase seemed pretty split on the parade.
Some seemed to think it was harmless enough, others thought it needed to be harder on the Haslams and still, others thought it made the city a punch line yet again to the national media.
On social media, a few of the Browns players weren't very happy as Emanuel Ogbah, Christian Kirksey and Danny Shelton all offered tweets criticizing the parade.
I didn't really blame those players for having such a reaction.
They tried hard all season and I don't think the fans really blamed the players for this mess, well except for the departed Kenny Britt, his lack of effort was received about as well by Browns supporters as Britt received many of DeShone Kizer's passes.
The ire of the fan base is aimed at the Haslams, the front office and at Hue Jackson, not the players, although the players should have been far more understanding of what Browns fans have been through,

The Cleveland Food Bank profited and that's always a good thing, so something good came out of this mess, but it didn't reflect well on the fanbase and the city on the overall.
It did show passion, but it also seemed a bit goofy and more than a bit of a vanity project for its organizer, who seemed to be originally well intended and then became a parody of itself and overwhelmed its original intent.
In the end, I wasn't really a fan, but it could have been far worse..

Darnold and Rosen Declare-The Countdown Starts

(Kelvin Kuo | USA TODAY Sports

I've been really uninspired of late.
Post-football comedown, next to no baseball news, no Devils games since my Devils buddy has lost interest without her hero and just not a lot to write about.

I might be writing soon about the Browns season or maybe not because I might just like to forget it and I may or may not write about this ridiculous parade around the stadium to 'celebrate' 0-16, which people are mistaking as a celebration instead of what it should be- a protest against the futility of the Haslam ownership.

The Browns will have plenty to choose from as this looks to be one of the best quarterback crops in years, although as always there are questions.
Plenty of underclassmen have declared with 2016 Heisman winner Lamar Jackson of Louisville joining Sam Darnold of USC and UCLA's Josh Rosen from the youngsters and the 2017 Heisman winner Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, Mason Rudolph of Oklahoma State and early graduate Josh Allen of Wyoming from the sheepskin crew.
It's not out of the realm of possibility that all six of those passers could go in the first round and the Browns picking first and fourth will have the pick of the bunch or at least grab one of the better ones along with another top player.

It's odd that observers,fans and followers each seem to have already latched on to favorites even before combines, all-star games and all the film that needs to be broken down.
I like some more than others at this point, but still, have much more to line up to truly feel comfortable with a final decision.

As of now, I like Sam Darnold the best, but he needs to have some time to develop.
I think if he is given that time, he is going to have a really good career.
Darnold reminds me a lot of Brett Favre and that would go a long way with me and the Browns.
Josh Rosen throws a beautiful pass, but he seems to have some issues off the field with the importance of football in his life and doesn't really seem to want to play in Cleveland, although I could more than understand that.
Josh Allen has all the tools, but for every Carson Wentz that pulls off the jump against small competition, so many players fail despite the talent. so I do wonder about Allen and especially his accuracy, which makes me think of DeShone Kizer and that's not good.
Baker Mayfield has his good points, but something makes me leery and needs to be picked by a good culture teams that would be willing to teach the right way to him in a low-pressure environment.
If Mayfield is picked by a team that expects him to step right and lead, he could become an issue right away off the field.
I liked DeShaun Watson last year more than I like Lamar Jackson this year, but Jackson could be very interesting in the right offense.
A team that might be an interesting fit for Jackson? The Bengals...
Mason Rudolph looks the part and someone will take a shot, especially if he looks good in the Senior Bowl, which looks loaded with talent this year and is a must watch for draft watchers this year.

I might be back later with a few words on this "parade" today in Cleveland..

PPM

The PPM returns with the college national title game and the beginning of the NFL playoffs

Last Week:5-4
Overall: 133-63

College
Georgia over Alabama 24-20

NFL
Chiefs over Titans 21-16
Jaguars over Bills 17-10
Rams over Falcons 30-23
Saints over Panthers 28-21

Cleaning out the inbox

Time for a long overdue inbox cleaning and just in time to kick off 2018 in style!

We start with two different articles on Charles G "Lefty" Driesell, who deserves to be, yet isn't in the basketball hall of fame.
Driesell, who built my love of college basketball as a child during his years as the head coach at Maryland as one of the two coaches that made me a true fan of the college basketball game (the other was as a small child when my dad would take me to Ashland College games when the Eagles were coached by the late Bill Musselman) is the only coach to win 100 games at four different schools (Davidson, Maryland, James Madison and Georgia State) and revitalized all four programs.
The HOF is a joke without including Driesell.
SI. com writes of Driesell here and the Athletic discusses his case in this spot.

Eleven Warriors took a terrific look back at the Ohio State career of the recently injured Ryan Shazier of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shazier was always one of my favorite Buckeyes and despite his playing for the Steelers, he remained one of my favorite players, so I was disappointed and saddened with his recent neck injury which at minimum is endangering his career and may be ending it.
Best wishes to one of my favorites for a full recovery in life, whether he continues to play football or not...

A month after the trade that sent Rachel's hero Adam Henrique away from the New Jersey Devils (Rachel has not watched a game since), it's still hard for Rachel to handle.
It's always hard to handle when the reason that you first enjoy a sport gets traded away, so I feel her for her.
I hope she turns it around soon because I miss watching the games with her and the Devils are playing well as the surprise of the early portion of the NHL season.
All about the Jersey writes about the legacy of Adam Henrique in New Jersey with the Devils.

SI.com writes about the "new " Sergey Kovalev who has supposedly made changes to his life outside the ring that included going to a monastery, drinking more water and changes after a near-death experience.
As both a long time boxing fan and a Kovalev fan, I'm still dubious because you hear this type of stuff in boxing all the time, but I do hope Kovalev has made these changes and can make them stick.
He's an excellent fighter and I'd like to see him keep his affairs in order in and out of the ring.

The Ringer writes of life after ESPN as they look at a few of the people that have taken different paths since being released in the great ESPN layoff in April 2017.
A few of the people spoken were baseball writer Jayson Stark, anchor Jaymee Sire and morning host Jay Crawford among others.
It's interesting to read about what so many of us look at as being a dream job is still in the end, just another employer,

We wrap up with 13th Dimension's selections for the top 13 MEGO action figures of the 1970's.
As a child of the 70's,I did have some of these of course.
I won't ruin the order of these for you, but for the record of their 13 best, I owned 9 of the 13.
To this day, it was a sign of a much simpler time that you had a company that had a contract with DC and Marvel with advertising that used BOTH companies characters in the same commercials!!!

Consider the inbox cleaned for now.
I hope to get around to a Browns season (bleech) in review sometime later this week,,

Victory slips through Browns hands in Pittsburgh.0-16 arrives

Photo Credit:Joshua Gunter Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Cleveland Browns looked to have a chance to avoid the scar of 0-16 as the Browns reached the Pittsburgh Steelers 27 yard line for a 4th and two with under two minutes to play.
DeShone Kizer made a great play avoiding the Steeler rush and had an opening that he may have been able to run for the first down through, but quarterbacks aren't paid to run, they are paid to throw and Kizer did just that to Corey Coleman, who was wide open and the ball was thrown right to him.
Or should I say-right through him as in right through his hands ending the hopes of the Browns and sending Cleveland to 0-16 with a 28-24 loss to the Steelers.
DeShone Kizer threw for 314 yards and two touchdowns, one of those to Josh Gordon, who finished with over 100 receiving yards on the day.
No word on who the Browns will open with in September,but they are on the clock for the draft in April...

Brownie Bits

1) Corey Coleman was reported to be distraught in the locker room as he sat by his locker in uniform for 40 minutes with his head in his hands and it was "good" I guess to see that he cared that much.
Still, you have to catch that ball and if you want the most damning indictment of Sashi Brown and his stat-driven drafting style, look at what Michael Thomas ( one of those Buckeyes that the Browns are so averse to drafting) has done in two years in New Orleans compared to Coleman after being drafted a round after him...

2) DeShone Kizer played pretty well, I thought with the exception of the one bad pass in the fourth quarter that was his only interception of the day.
It's funny for the rookie from Notre Dame that his first game against the Steelers and his last game against the Steelers were among his better games in the debut season.
It was the games in between that were much of the problem.

3) The Browns also hopefully saw another highlight of some future stardom as Myles Garrett shed a block, stripped Landry Jones of the football and allowed Caleb Brantley to pluck the ball from mid-air.
Garrett finished the season with seven sacks and never seemed to be truly playing at full tilt.
Next year, Myles Garrett is going to show this league exactly what he is really all about.

4) Jabrill Peppers made his first interception as a pro in the first half.
I've been less than impressed with Peppers this season, although as a safety, that may be more due to Gregg Williams playing him out of position than his talents (at least I hope anyway or he is going to be a real bust), but Peppers has been a real disappointment returning punts.
For a player drafted with "Electric ball skills", Peppers spent more time calling for fair catches than trying to break big plays.

5) Looks like the Steelers have another good one in Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster, who returned a kickoff for a score and caught nine passes for 143 yards and another touchdown.
Why don't the Browns find these guys and the Steelers find the Smith-Schuster's (round two) and the Antonio Brown (Late Rounder) types?
Because the Steelers look for tough guys that can make the tough catches and play with a chip on their shoulder and the Browns like these diva types.
Until the Browns start getting some guys into town that don't mind getting dirty and playing dirty when they have to, things won't change.
John Dorsey has to see this.

6) It was nice to see Rashard Higgins grab his first two pro touchdown passes in the game, one of them a 56 yard score.
Higgins has always been the receiver out of the 2016 draft class that I have thought could be of value even if it's just as a third receiver over time given a chance.
I've always liked Higgins (and not just because he's the only Brown that follows me on Twitter) and I think as the Browns add talent at receiver, Higgins could be more productive in a role as third or fourth receiver.

7)  I'll be writing later in the week with a season in review and I have a podcast in the works with Scott Dryden on the season, but the big story is the unbelievable return of Hue Jackson.
Going 1-31 in two years and 0-16 this season and coming back in just beyond stupid and will set this team back.
John Dorsey deserves the chance to hire his coach and this is how I see this playing out-anything short of a 3-3 first six games, will see Hue Jackson either fired or resigned and the 2018 season wasted.
Jimmy Haslam continues to set this franchise back time and time again.

8) I admit two years that I thought Hue Jackson was a good hire and I will also say that if I had to choose which to keep between Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson, I would have chosen Hue Jackson.
All of that on the table- any normal franchise would remove Hue Jackson and I believe that it still could happen despite Jimmy Haslam's press conference after the game in Pittsburgh to the contrary.
I don't think it's likely that Jackson would go, but the Browns are even more of a laughing stock than normal anyway and keeping Jackson is a HUGE smack in the face to a fan base that needs to be massaged more than slapped.
There is a slim chance that with enough uproar Haslam's mind could be changed.

9) As far as this stupid parade goes, I'd like to see the whole thing canceled.
It started as an idea to give money to the Cleveland food bank, let's just give them the money and not draw any more attention to this disaster than there has to be.
It makes Browns fans look bad and makes light of a bad situation.

10) The Browns will have four of the first 35 picks in the draft as they hold the Texans first and second picks.
The injury to DeShaun Watson sent the Houston season down the drain and for once the Browns caught a break.
The Browns will have the first and fourth picks in round one and the first (33rd ) and third (35th) picks in the second round.
Cleveland also has the Eagles second-round pick, but that slot will not be determined until the Eagles lose in their playoff season...