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On the other side of Rushmore …

By Sean McClelland | Saturday, July 5, 2008, 10:17 AM

Let me first say I agree with the comment about why the sports-talk show on Dayton radio station WONE-AM (980) would bring disgraced Bengals receiver Chris Henry on as a guest. Obviously, it was a ratings grab, although I can’t imagine why anyone cares what this miscreant has to say, especially since he never says much of anything.

What you can’t do is submit questions in advance for approval, as if the repeat offender Henry, of all people, had somehow earned the right to a concession that is seldom, if ever, granted by reputable news services.

OK, that’s over, and it’s a pretty good sports-talk show for the most part, well worth a listen on your way home from work or over the Internet if you’re out of town.

TODAY’S TOPIC: Since Dayton Daily News Bengals reporter Chick Ludwig took it upon himself to identify the Browns’ “Mount Rushmore,” let’s see what’s on the other side. Who have been the top 10 disappointments in team history? I know, it’s pretty easy, but indulge me.

To save time, we’ll limit this to individuals as opposed to moments such as “Red Right 88,” “The Drive,” “The Fumble” and Art Modell selling Browns fans down the river.

1. Carmen Policy. Best thing about this former co-owner was that he talked a lot. He was a lawyer, so he thought he could weasel out of any situation with a few well-chosen words. My favorite line came after fans threw beer bottles and other stuff on the field in response to a bad call against Jacksonville. “Those plastic bottles,” he said, “don’t pack much of a wallop.” Of course, some of them were filled and, let me tell you, they seemed to pack a wallop when they hit the ground a few feet from where I was standing. After five years, Policy cashed in his shares and ducked into retirement, not a minute too soon.

2. Willis Adams. This fast wide receiver was a first-round draft choice in 1979 but never made much of an impact. You knew something was up when the laces of the football caused an injury to his hands. Somehow that never happened to Ozzie Newsome or Dave Logan.

3. Mike Junkin. The first clue should have been that he was a linebacker from DUKE, which isn’t exactly Linebacker U. Marty Schottenheimer saw this guy under a pile of weights and decided he must become the No. 5 pick of the 1987 draft. Scout Dom Anile carved a permanent niche in Browns lore by using the phrase “Mad Dog in a Meat Market” to describe Junkin in action. Turned out to be more like “Playful Kitten in a Meadow.”

4. Clifford Charlton. Undaunted, the Browns tried again the next year with a linebacker in the first round as quarterback Bernie Kosar, hoping for an offensive upgrade, silently seethed. Hard to imagine two bigger mistakes by one team at the same position in back-to-back years. Just devastating.

5. Mike Phipps. Modell fancied himself a football man, so it made sense to him to trade future Hall of Famer Paul Warfield for the right to draft this Purdue quarterback in 1970. Of all the fine Purdue quarterbacks (Griese, Dawson, even Jim “Don’t Call Me Chris” Everett), the Browns end up with this guy. Of course, they had Dawson and let him go, so maybe this was cosmic payback.

6. Tim Couch. First overall pick in 1999, the quarterback became the face of the new franchise, for better or worse. Though not all his fault, it was mostly worse.

7. William Green. Running backs often have short shelf lives, but this guy’s career expired in record time. Last I heard he was attempting a comeback but wasn’t exactly being besieged with offers.

8. Butch Davis. He wasn’t supposed to be a “college coach.” He was supposed to be, as John Madden put it, an “NFL coach who had coached in college.” His rah-rah act soon wore thin as the losses mounted following some early success. What he needed was a personnel department that went beyond longtime bobo Pete Garcia.

9. Courtney Brown. Injuries ruined the Penn State defensive end, but even when healthy, there was something slightly off-kilter about “The Quiet Storm.” As cornerback Corey Fuller put it, “It’s good to be quiet, but we need killers.” Brown was never a killer.

10. Bill Belichick. Did a competent job as head coach, leading a playoff run in ‘94. But considering what he went on to become in New England, Spygate aside, Browns fans are right to feel cheated.

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Browns’ radio affiliate drops the ball

By Sean McClelland | Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 10:16 PM

Shame on WONE-AM 980, the Browns’ affiliate in Dayton, for giving disgraced former Bengals receiver Chris Henry a forum Wednesday to spew the usual nonsense about what a good guy he is.

And double shame on the radio station for caving in to the Henry camp’s demands and submitting questions in advance for approval, as Dayton Daily News Bengals beat writer Chick Ludwig revealed in his “Ludwig at Large” blog.

Henry, as if reading from a script, says the same things every time someone is dumb enough to put him on the air. And Wednesday was no exception as he blathered on about how he’ll never get in trouble again and how, if only we all could get to know him better, we’d all be more inclined to give him a break.

How many arrests are you up to now, Chris? Poor baby. Go away.

My favorite part of the interview was when Henry referred to the latest assault charge against him as “a little incident,” which is exactly how he phrased it on Sporting News Radio a couple of months ago, shortly after the Bengals kicked him off the team.

You can’t blame Henry for wanting to plead his case so he can get back to the NFL one of these days. But you can blame a radio station for putting him on the air and letting him call the shots.

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More surgery for Jurevicius

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 04:53 PM

Remember those optimistic forecasts about Joe Jurevicius being ready for training camp?

Well, an obstacle has arisen: More knee surgery.

The Browns issued this statement about a half hour ago:

“In the process of his recovery and preparation for the upcoming season, wide receiver Joe Jurevicius has had ongoing swelling and discomfort in his knee. Joe had a further clean out to help him in his recovery and control his symptoms. The procedure was performed late yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic. No determination has been made on Joe’s status for training camp, which opens July 23.”

Time to fire up those Eric Parker-to-the-Browns rumors again, I guess.

Wonder if Jurevicius was having “ongoing swelling and discomfort” at minicamp when he called everyone over and pledged to be ready for training camp, to say nothing of the Sept. 7 season opener against the Cowboys.

A published report around that time suggested there was a chance Jurevicius would not be ready for either training camp or the opener.

That story caused the Browns to fly into an organizational frenzy that included a stern lecture to the media by head coach Romeo Crennel about how veteran players deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to these matters.

Best of luck to Joe, of course. You won’t find a better guy in any NFL locker room.

But it looks like that report wasn’t far from the truth.

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Where’s the love for Joe Thomas?

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 10:15 AM

At long last we enter the month in which training camp starts.

It’s 23 days away for the Browns and it can’t get here soon enough, frankly.

You just want to see how it all plays out and whether this team truly can be a Super Bowl contender. Training camp doesn’t give you the whole story, but it does offer some clues.

And as if to whet appetites further, Pete Prisco of CBSsportsline.com released his annual “NFL Top 50” last week.

Two Browns made it — Braylon Edwards at No. 34 and Kellen Winslow at No. 44.

This guy rates Edwards the No. 8 receiver, behind Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Steve Smith, Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Chad Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald.

You can live with that, although Edwards did catch 16 touchdown passes last season, let’s not forget.

Winslow, interestingly enough, is the No. 2 tight end on the list behind only Antonio Gates. In the overall ratings, Winslow is two spots ahead of perennial Pro Bowler Tony Gonzalez.

Again, pretty much what you would expect.

But where’s Joe Thomas?

He’s not even listed in the honorable mention category, where Prisco dumps a bunch of guys who theoretically came close to cracking the top 50.

Like Edwards and Winslow, Thomas made the Pro Bowl. And he did it as a rookie. OK, he got in as an alternate, but he still got to Hawaii on the league’s dime.

It’s easy to overlook offensive linemen, but let’s not forget the impact Thomas and left guard Eric Steinbach made on the offense last season. Let’s not forget how they kept quarterback Derek Anderson clean, opened holes in the running game for Jamal Lewis and generally performed better on the left side than anything the Browns have had over there since the late 1980s.

Two tackles are listed in the top 50. Walter Jones of Seattle, widely considered the best at the position, checks in at No. 16 and Jason Peters of Buffalo is No. 27.

You don’t hear much about Jones because, well, he plays tackle and he plays it in Seattle. Nobody’s trying to say Thomas is better than Jones or on par with him — yet.

Peters, who was voted to the Pro Bowl before backing out with an injury that allowed Thomas to get there, is also a well-kept secret. Offensive tackle plus Buffalo, let’s face it, equals obscurity.

All I’m saying is that if Peters is good enough to be considered the 27th-best NFL player, Thomas is easily good enough to be in the top 50.

And I’m also saying that if you polled every NFL scouting director, I’m betting at least half would take Thomas over Peters.

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Is this a Super Bowl contender?

By Sean McClelland | Monday, June 30, 2008, 04:39 PM

My Super Bowl reference, “Allan,” was simply a reflection of how teams sometimes come out of nowhere to play in the sport’s biggest game.

Am I picking the Browns to go to the Super Bowl? Well … no, but I am saying it would not be the biggest shocker in the world considering they won 10 games last season and appear to be a team on the climb.

The New England Patriots, not all that long ago, followed a 5-11 season with a trip to the Super Bowl, remember. And there weren’t many people picking the New York Giants to get there last season, let alone win the thing.

The only reason fans might not like to hear the words “Super Bowl” mentioned in conjunction with their team would be the jinx factor, I’m guessing. Especially since the Browns are one of the dwindling handful of NFL teams never to get there.

They won’t be sneaking up on anybody after last season, that’s for sure. Not with the glare of national publicity already shining in their eyes.

But good teams manage the spotlight. And they get through the tough schedules. That’s part of what makes them good. So that can’t be an excuse.

And I think the Browns are getting to the point where nothing is going to faze them. In fact, I think they will welcome and embrace the exposure after so many years of toiling in relative obscurity.

If you subscribe to the notion that the most important ingredients of a Super Bowl team are quarterback, leadership, a running game and defense, the Browns are doing pretty well.

They have a formidable quarterback (or two), leaders scattered throughout the locker room (yes, I’m counting Willie McGinest) and a running back in Jamal Lewis who demonstrated last season that he can control games when needed.

Now, about that defense. We’ll see how improved it is and that will tell us more than anything about whether this team is truly a Super Bowl contender or just another pretender.

My hunch is that “Allan” roots for the Houston Texans or some other team nobody’s talking about.

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Parker still up for grabs

By Sean McClelland | Thursday, June 26, 2008, 12:36 PM

First off, apologies to “Blackbart.” Of course I knew it was you on the Ozzie Newsome thing. But it was “WD” — not “WO” (sorry about that, too) — who speculated about it before deciding he was “too lazy” to look it up.

Oh well, when you get inundated with so many comments (more than one in this case), it’s tough to keep them all straight. I’ll try harder next time.

Meanwhile, we’re less than a month from training camp, and while all appears quiet, this pesky Eric Parker rumor won’t go away.

Parker is a surplus San Diego Chargers receiver who the Browns can acquire for a late-round 2009 draft pick if reports out of San Diego and elsewhere are to be believed.

The Chargers say they plan to trade Parker by the start of camp. The Browns apparently have inquired, based on the recommendation of offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who coached him in San Diego.

Does this team really need another receiver, to say nothing of one who missed the entire 2007 season with a toe injury? Well, maybe. If nothing else, Parker would be insurance in case Joe Jurevicius does not round into shape from knee surgery as quickly as everyone seems to think.

Of course, Parker, a seven-year vet, still has to prove he’s back to normal, too. He sat out minicamp.

But he’s been a solid receiver for years and probably is worth taking a flier on at the right price (or scooping up in the event he is released).

Even after missing last season, Parker ranks third on the Chargers behind Antonio Gates and LaDainian Tomlinson with 170 receptions since 2003. He also returns punts.

As it stands, Jurevicius is supposed to return in time for training camp and he doesn’t foresee any problem being on the field for the Sept. 7 opener against Dallas.

Another receiver rumored to be available is Matt Jones of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Browns have been linked to him, too.

It’s all about depth — and Jurevicius insurance.

As of now, Braylon Edwards and Donte Stallworth are your starting wideouts, and that looks excellent on paper. Throw in a healthy (?) tight end Kellen Winslow and name me the secondary that matches up against that.

Say Edwards or Stallworth gets hurt, though, and Jurevicius suffers a setback. Suddenly, you’re a little shaky at the position, maybe forced to rely too heavily on a Joshua Cribbs, a Travis Wilson or a Kevin Kasper as your No. 3 wideout.

Parker would bring toughness and experience. When you think this is the year you can go to the Super Bowl, it never hurts to add someone with those qualities, assuming everything is OK with his foot.

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Favorite stat about Phipps

By Sean McClelland | Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 05:06 PM

“WO” was right in his comment. The Browns did turn quarterback Mike Phipps into Ozzie Newsome back in the ’70s.

And it’s staggering, considering how truly awful Phipps was, that they were able to get anything at all for him.

My favorite Phipps stat: In 12 seasons with the Browns and Bears, he threw 55 touchdown passes and 108 interceptions.

I thought it was a misprint. I even checked a second source.

But it’s true.

With the Browns, he threw 40 TD passes and 81 interceptions.

With those numbers, it’s amazing he lasted in the league as long as he did, and that the Browns did not turn to someone else (Brian Sipe?) sooner. Of course, they probably kept trying to justify the trading of Paul Warfield to the Dolphins for the right to draft Phipps in the first round in 1970.

In 1975, Phipps threw four TD passes and 19 interceptions. Any wonder that the Browns were terrible that year?

Phipps was still the Browns’ opening-day starter in 1976, if you’ll recall. That’s when New York Jets defensive back Shaffer Suggs knocked him out with a shoulder injury and Sipe came in.

Most amazing is that the Browns were able to get a first-round draft choice for Phipps when they dumped him on the Bears.

Think about it. They traded a Hall of Famer to get Phipps, then used him to acquire another one. All for a guy who threw nearly twice as many interceptions as TD passes in his career.

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