OBR News-o-rama

OBR News-o-Rama: 11/27 PM Posted: 27 Nov 2007 05:52 PM CST According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association, each team's athletes "will be given every Tuesday off to attend to personal matters"*. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Scout.com websites and the International Federation of Webdorks, "It's Tuesday, and you'll sit at your computer, spew your drivel, and like it, bub". Fine, fine, fine. Beats workin'. Plus, I have to give the local Browns writers story ideas. They pan through the News-o-Rama drivel looking for the occasional drop of wisdom like a 49er panning the Ohio River for gold nuggets. And about as successfully. At the very least, it's clear that Tony Grossi reads the OBR News-o-Rama, because about five hours after I spewed old memories about how Butch Davis was infatuated with Sean Taylor, Grossi goes and writes an article about it. See, I said it in once sentence and Grossi has to pad his with "quotes", "facts" and such nonsense. I get +1 for economy of wording. Grossi gets +5 for having a real job. Elsewhere on the newswire (rss) this afternoon, there are some of those Power Polls (already documented as the "easiest articles to write, ever"). Yahoo (Cole): Browns stay at #7 Yahoo (Robinson): Browns go to #7 from #8 Sporting News (Dillon): Browns go to #9 from #10 CBS (Prisco): Browns go to #7 from #8 Folks in the Watercooler have a bunch more they've collected. By the way, Robinson, I still remember your column where you said it was a "done deal" that the Browns were going to take Broderick Bunkley in the 2006 draft. I mean, it's okay to take a shot in the dark sometimes, but if you're cocky about it, you get nerds making fun of you for it one-and-a-half years later. Neener, neener. Lastly, the media packet for this weekend's game at Arizona has been uploaded to the Muni Lot. * Or something like that. You think I'm actually going to read the CBA to find out? It's boring and legalese gives me a headache. YOUR SPONSOR PATRONAGE VOTE COUNTS It's time for the NFL to grab more internet ad views by playing off fans pride in their teams. I once asked if we could put these polls on independent sites as long as they fed into the NFL's official tallies. The answer, of course, was "no", because the NFL is more interested in getting people to look at Fed Ex and Pepsi ads than to increase involvement in these things. Then I said "Sheesh, fine. Whatever, ya know, no biggie. Stop looking at me like that. I'll find my way out myself, thanks. Don't be so grabby. No, I won't want to be flung out the... ouch." The Browns have two players up for (CORPORATION)(THING) of the (WEEK/MONTH/YEAR) awards this week. To vote for Jamal Lewis as (FED EX)(GROUND PLAYER) of the (WEEK): CLICK HERE His competition is Frank Gore (cough *stiff* cough) and Justin Fargas (named after a cartoon teacher on Family Guy). If either of those two guys won, it would be an injustice. (Discuss) To vote for Brandon McDonald as (DIET PEPSI)(ROOKIE) of the (WEEK): CLICK HERE I didn't even bother to see who his competition is. They all stink, I'm sure. Go vote for Brandon, so he wins a free cell phone or whatever. He'd vote for you. (Discuss) By the way, when you go to that DIET PEPSI thing, there's an ad at the top which talks about a "Diet Pepsi Mix". If I was more suspicious, I might think they're trying to plant the suggestion that you should mix Diet Pepsi with booze. They want you to mix it with rum, gin, vodka or something, I guess. Unfortunately, as an experienced drunk guy, I know that the only thing that really goes well with booze is more booze. And vomiting, headaches, and the occasional arrest. Oh, and vague memories of hurling goats at passing cars. Perhaps that's just me. I digress. Vote for these things, if you want. BROWNS PLAYERS TALK ABOUT SEAN TAYLOR Some quotes released by the team today. There's nothing remotely funny about this. TE Kellen Winslow on the death of Sean Taylor: "My thoughts and prayers go out to Sean Taylor's family," said Winslow. "The University of Miami is one big family and we lost a brother today.  Sean and I had a special bond. We came in to college together, we left for the NFL the same year and were drafted right next to each other.  Sean's future was taken away from him by a senseless act of violence. I am at a loss for words to describe the pain I feel for Sean and his family right now." QB Ken Dorsey on the death of Sean Taylor: "I am deeply saddened by the loss of my friend and former teammate, Sean Taylor.  Sean was an intense competitor and a great teammate at the University of Miami.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones."

OBR News-o-Rama: 11/27 AM Posted: 27 Nov 2007 11:00 AM CST Get yourself to the Gameballs and Goats voting booth! Pronto! Voting ends today.   FROM THE OBR NEWSWIRE (rss) RAC gave the players off Monday, as he usually does after a win (and even some losses), so all that's going to come out of Berea are stories which spin off of his usual innocuous comments. There's no media available on Tuesday, so don't expect much in the way of news throughout the day. Here's an item that flew under radar, for the most part: the Browns had another player snagged off their Practice Squad. This time is was big Richard Angulo, who was snatched by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Further signs that the Browns roster is improving, and that there's high regard for bottom-of-the-roster players being acquired by Savage.  Jamal Lewis is Back! The OBR  Associated Press  Official Site  Tribune-Chronicle WTF? The Defense Getting Better? ABJ  Official Site  News-Herald  Chronicle-Telegram  PD Cardinals Coming Up The OBR  Arizona Republic  Canton Rep HELPING OUT From a Browns Press Release: Lift Up America and the Cleveland Browns are teaming up with Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN) to help bring the gift of food to the area's less fortunate on Nov. 27, 2007. Players will be on hand to help unload a truck containing more than 30,000 pounds of protein products to be distributed among hunger relief agencies in the Cleveland area. The event will be held at the Cleveland Browns Stadium at 100 Alfred Lerner Way at 10 a.m., beginning with a press conference followed by the food distribution.   Browns' players scheduled to participate are: FB Charles Ali, K Phil Dawson, DE Simon Fraser, LB Antwan Peek, DE Chase Pittman, S Brodney Pool and WR Syndric Steptoe (subject to change). OUT OF THE BLOGOSPHERE Some good stuff in the blogosphere today. Not to single anyone out, but Ace Davis' poking fun at Mo Carthon's bio on the official Arizona Cardinals site, Brian Tarcy's usual hilarity (plus an epic blast at Greed-Off 2007), and the DZ's neutron bomb on the Plain Dealer's sports commentary are all worth a look. Lying: a Cardinal sin - Ace Davis NFL Picks: Week 13 - WhatzGonnaHappen How Bill Livingston Failed Cleveland - The Disappointment Zone 7-4 Cleveland, Yep, 7-4 - J-Beanie Did the Defense Find Help? - Cleveland Sports Perspective Note to Self: Don't Drink & Blog - Dawg-Pound.net NFL to Adopt BCS Bowl System - Cursed Cleveland Born and Raised on the Cleveland Browns: Week 12 - Mistake by the Lake ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB I'm sure the grass would grow better if they didn't leave cars "Weun gyun fix up right sumday" on it... Then again, what sort of vegetation actually flourishes under those smog-filled skies? They're lucky to grow algae on the stuff in that place. Way to represent, Pittsburgh. What a mess. The only way Yinzburgh could improve on things is if someone flushed a bag of pork rinds down the toilet during a Kenny freaking Chesney concert and caused a humongous backup that flooded out the stadium. Oh, wait. Nevermind. OTHER STUFF: BigDaddy79 posted a recap of The Point After in the forums... Speaking of the forums, there are a bunch of Browns fans who will be at the Cardinals game shouting out to each other via a thread in the Cooler... I still remember with some tension how enamored Butch Davis was with Sean Taylor during the draft. Fortunately he was gone one selection before we picked TE Kellen Winslow. Apparently the folks at The Big Lead aren't familiar with Cormac McCarthy, but my guess is that they wouldn't like the book either. I'm not sure "a cool gun" is what McCarthy was going for there. Anyhow, I still haven't seen No Country for Old Men, but plan to as soon as my wife and I get a free evening. Like a lot of Americans, we both work two jobs, so free time is hard to come by...

You are subscribed to email updates from OBR News-o-rama To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner
Inbox too full? Subscribe to the feed version of OBR News-o-rama in a feed reader.
If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: OBR News-o-rama, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610