Cleveland Browns: Excuse-Free

By: Luke Florence

Excuses are like ass-holes. Every one has them, and they all stink.

The world of professional sports acts as an excuse-factory, recycling old justifications with a shiny new wrinkle on it. Too many injuries, several horrific calls by the referees, or not enough team chemistry are just some of the routine excuses we hear in sports.

Some are justified, some are not. That's not the point. The point is what happens when you don't have an excuse? What happens then?

Malcolm Gladwell (might just be my favorite author ... birthday hint-hint, nudge-nudge) wrote that Americans tend to be lazier than other cultures due to self-preservation. In other words, we think it's better to be lazy than a failure.

Think of a college student getting ready for an exam. She can prepare by studying, reviewing her class-notes, attending a study-session, etc. Or she can not study, not review her notes, and not attend a study-session. Come test day, if she's fully-prepared and still fails, then she has no excuses. She tried her best, and still failed. But, if she didn't study, she will fail, but only this time she has an excuse ... she didn't try her best. She has an out, and at the end of the day, Gladwell writes, between those two options most of us will choose the latter. Hard to argue.

That brings us to the 2009 Cleveland Browns. They are the college student who stayed in all weekend to study for the Monday exam. No parties, no drinking, no girls. Strictly books. They came to the exam thinking they did everything possible to ace the test. Well, the results are in. The Browns are failing ... and failing ... and failing again. On top of that hard-to-swallow notion, they have no excuses. None.
To completely understand this team, we have to look at last year. Expectations were high - albeit unrealistic - and everything came to a crushing halt midway through the season. Browns fans know the numbers. We know we finished the last six games without scoring a single offensive touchdown. We know we started four different quarterbacks (Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Ken Dorsey and Bruce Gradkowski) the last month and a half. We know we went 4-12. Tell us something we don't know.

2009 was supposed to be different. New coach. New coordinators. New starting quarterback. New brown pants.

Two weeks in and nothing is different. They've scored one touchdown and it was utterly meaningless. They're still settling for field-goals. They're still allowing long runs for scores. They're still committing stupid penalties that stall drives. Same song ... different verse.

There is one huge difference between 2008 and 2009. This time around, the Browns have no excuses. Blame Romeo Crennel for his inability to get creative on offense. For his inability to create defensive schemes designed to get pressure on the quarterback. For his poor clock management. For his silly looks on the sidelines. Blame Phil Savage for his constant need of attention. For his ridiculous long-term signing of Donte Stallworth. For trading away our entire 2008 draft. Blame injuries. Blame Steve Bartman. Blame anything. There was more than enough to go around last season.
One year later and there is nothing and no one to point our fingers at. Blame can often act as a crutch in times of need. Sure the Browns were awful in 2008, but the thinking was if we got a new coach, a new GM, new coordinators, start Quinn, and have a first round draft pick, we will be better. We have to.

Only that's the thing. We don't have to get better. There are no NFL laws that proclaim this. You have to actually GET better. And that's something - despite all of their changes, personnel or otherwise - the Browns have not done yet. Which actually hurts more than last year's debacle.

LAST year we had THIS year. THIS year all we have is the REST OF THIS year. It's a sobering fact, and has most Cleveland fans counting down the days until basketball starts.

Maybe Brady Quinn isn't an upgrade over Derek Anderson, which really hurts to write. But it may be true. Quinn was a great college quarterback, the best Notre Dame athlete I've gotten the privilege to watch. He had an uncanny ability to lead a team late in games. He took the Irish to two consecutive BCS bowl outings. He came to Cleveland three years ago with a lot of hype but never really got a chance to start until now. He beat out DA during training camp in a competition that gained all of the off-season attention.

Through two games this season he has looked ... bad.

It took me five minutes to pick the correct adjective on the previous sentence. But, as much as I do not want to admit it, he's been bad.

During the games he looks uncomfortable and unfamiliar. After the games he looks disgruntled and pissed off. Successful quarterbacks never look any of those things at any time of the day.
However, Eric Mangini did the right thing today when he told the media he was sticking with Quinn. He has to. This is Quinn's season. If they stink, then look for another rookie QB to come to Berea in April of 2010. If they turn things around, then they will be headed in a positive direction for the next couple of years.

Malcolm Gladwell writes in "Tipping Point" about how epidemics spread. He says there are three reasons, and funny enough, they all apply to the Cleveland Browns.
1) The Law Of The Few - a tiny percentage of the people do the majority of the work to build momentum.

Browns - it's never good when on kick and punt returns you say out loud, "well, here's our only chance to score a TD."

2) The Stickiness Factor - stickiness means that a message makes an impact; it's memorable.

Browns - by not naming a starting QB until an hour before the opening game, Mangini made a message saying, "we're not going to have a leader in the huddle." Not good.

3) The Power of Context - human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment then they seem.

Browns - doesn't seem to matter if you were good in college or good on another NFL team, you come to Cleveland and you will fail. It's a breeding ground for losing.

You beat epidemics with two things. Time ... and a plan. The Browns have all the time in the world, but do they have a plan? Who knows.

What they don't have are any excuses.

Until next time, "read it, roll it, hole it."