I know everyone is sad that.....

The Cleveland Browns are finished this season. I am too. At least we get to watch the Buckeyes one more time. I wanted to chime in with some Browns talk. Let me first say that I think the fault of this team is in Randy Lerner. The owner has no clue how to run a football organization and is nothing like any other good organization. How many times have you seen the guy? Could you pick him out in a crowd? I could certainly pick out Jerry Jones, Dan Rooney, or Robert Kraft even though. Lerner has no rules named after him. Do you wonder if Jerry Jones connects with the guy in order to rob him of draft trades every year? That being said, it's easy to fire guys like Savage and Crennel when things go wrong.
Savage probably had too much on his plate out of his niche ability of picking talent. There are really three moves that sealed this guy's fate in my opinion.

1. The Derek Anderson saga
I think this selection ruined this team this year after it was apparent that he failed to win the big games last year. The move came too late in the season even after Anderson failed to lead the team in any matter early in the year. It also makes me wonder who made this choice. Savage's hubris led him to always place blame on others. An NFL team is exactly that, a team, not something we throw blame on a coach, or even a few players.

2. Donte Stallworth
He really helped this year. I don't want to look up his 6 year 45? million contract because it will make me puke when I see it. Here are the key stats for Stallworth. 10.0 Yards per catch!! WOW!! Except he had 17 catches for 170 yards and 1 TD. Of course, Stallworth can't be blamed for everything on offense because when Mr. "I'm from MeatChicken" Edwards drops every pass no one needs to double cover him. Ask Leroy Hoard from Michigan how much the fans truly cared about him being from Michigan when he consistently ran people over throughout his career.

3. F U Text
Just search Phil Savage and F U Text if you need more details. This is just unprofessional.

As for Crennel, he's not head coach material. I like the guy and think that he'll be another Super Bowl contender defensive coordinator if given the chance because that's what he does. Some people just don't have head coach in their genes. I wish him the best and if in some dream scenario, we could keep him as a defensive coordinator to give us some continuity, I would be happy.


As for the future, we need a game-changing defensive player at a linebacker position. You know what I'm thinking of too if you ever heard me describe any linebacker I liked in my life. A Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher vicious type that loves chewing on little babies arms. I truly think our offense can get to the right point with both better coaching and leadership from a player like Brady Quinn. I want someone to give the guy a chance to throw the ball down the field and give our playmakers a chance. I know that Derek Anderson has a cannon, but he doesn't have the leadership of an NFL QB. That's what I'm looking for in this team. Leadership on both defense and offense. I think we saw some from the defense before it's backs were broken late in the season by both injuries and the offenses inability to stay on the field for more than three plays. Rodgers was really a great trade in retrospect as he made several huge plays throughout the year.

I'm done with the Browns until the draft comes closer or until other big offseason moves come and go.


I love watching the best team in Cleveland basketball history every night they play. If this team doesn't win a championship, then I can honestly say to myself that we will never win a championship in the city of Cleveland in any sport other than at St. Ignatius.




As for poker, I'm not going to the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure. I tried to qualify, but that didn't pan out, so I'll be back in Vegas early January and ready for the UBOC. That's a big online series on the new Cereus Network of sites. Both of these sites have lots of issues in their past and also with current software updates. I just sent a nasty email because you can't play one table tournaments without having your one table pop up to the front of the entire screen every half second. You can't even type in your bet amount. It's absolutely absurd how poorly that site is run. If and probably when US sites come into the market, that site is going to get blown out of the water.

I'll do a goal update at the end of the year as I still have a couple more days left. Then it's on to new goals for the New Year. Happy New Year!

The Cleveland Browns

Too often on the shores of Lake Erie, we end up complaining. We end up disappointed and heartbroken at another blown season, another blown playoff game, another embarrassing performance in front of a national crowd. Finally, we have a moment that makes Cleveland proud. The Browns beat the Super Bowl champion New York Giants in front of a home crowd and a national television audience as a huge underdog going into the game. Not a single sane person would have picked this team to win after the tough start to the season and anemic offense led by Derek "just playing catch with DBs" Anderson. All those sane people, however, proved to be wrong. The Browns made a statement during this Monday night game. It was a statement that should ring loudly through Cleveland and the entire NFL. The Cleveland Browns can play some football. While everyone in the league was ready to cut the cord on Anderson and Crennel after the 1-3 start, the team didn't panic or give in to outsiders and came away with one of their best performances in 5 years. It was a moment where as an avid fan, I finally started to understand the genius behind the team. The offseason moves to bring in some lineman that can actually hold their own and cause trouble for defenses finally paid off. The Browns rarely got to Eli Manning, but their defense caused trouble enough to force Manning into looking like that good old fashioned Gomer Pyle rather than the Super Bowl MVP. The highly drafted secondary made big plays to inhibit any momentum from building against the team. The lineman protected Anderson brilliantly and gave him time to throw. The offensive plays showed creativity and even a rare simplicity that allowed Anderson to succeed. It proves that you don't necessarily need an all star behind center, but just someone who can manage the game and not make any mistakes. The lines on both side of the ball played tough and made a highly touted defense look like an average NFL defense. As far as the Browns go for now though, this is the team that the fans wanted. This is the team that we love. The underdogs, the doubted, the team that no one really cares about in the NFL is a team that is dangerous. Of course, any NFL coach with the talent that Crennel has behind his roster should be able to prepare and put up a good showing against anyone with two weeks between games. What really matters though is that from the opening kickoff to the last snap, the Browns played like a team that cared about each other and a team that wanted to win. Since they have had that attitude, they are 2-0.

Have No Fear

Have no fear people, I'm ok and mentally stable. I appreciate all the concern from people, but that blog was a frustrated, candid vent. Any random poker player can tell you lies about how great they do all the time, but it's impossible to always win in a game that has so much chance involved. Looking over the long term is how you must view your success. Some days are extremely tough, but others are a lot of fun, challenging, strategic, and refreshing. When I wake up in the morning though, I always have the desire to try another tournament. Today though, I didn't play until late into the night when I decided to play only one solid tournament on Pokerstars. I cashed in the tournament, so I can't complain although I just lost a big race in the money for a lot of chips. I'm playing the first event of the Wynn Classic tomorrow if I can get the computer guy to fix my computer quickly.


I've watched the show In Treatment on HBO and all the episodes over the past week. I've really enjoyed this show. If you haven't watched it, I would recommend it for a few reasons. First, I think it's very believable and realistic. Secondly, it's intense, but not in the usual manner of today's shows. It's extremely intimate conversation about 4 different patients on each day of the week, then the fifth day is the shrink seeing a shrink. They have been playing every day and are on HBO On Demand.

So far my favorites are in this order (patients)
1. Laura
2. Sophie
3. Alex
4. Jake and Amy
5. Paul and Gina


Derek Anderson's deadline to sign before free agency is quickly approaching. From all I've heard, there has been very little progress. The Browns are facing 3 year and 6 year deals and I think we all know that a 6 year deal is a drastic mistake. Having two quarterbacks on the payroll for starting QB money is not the way to build a franchise, especially one that is lacking defensively. That leaves the option of a 3 year deal which to me is just too long to sit Brady Quinn out. I'm really hoping another team makes a big offer at Anderson. I don't think he is worth what he is asking. The offensive line has made him and failing to beat one of the worst secondaries in the league in Cincinnati when it counted most is still lingering. Father/Son combinations can't play catch as well as DA did with the Cincinnati secondary. Also, I believe Quinn will be a very good NFL QB when it is all said and done. He is smart, a hard worker, and there is nothing this team needs.

Is everybody getting ready for March Madness? I don't know how a sport could be so terribly boring 4 months, and then all of a sudden take over the world of every sports fan. All I know is that I'm looking forward to it.



Jay, who finally figured out how to post questions, asked "How will Ralph Nader affect the overall Presidential race?"

I really just don't like this guy. I probably agree with some of his opinions, but if he is promoting an agenda that's Green, he knows he's hurting the Democratic party. I can't remember where I heard this quote, but someone said, if it weren't for Ralph Nader, we would have had the most green President in the history of the USA (Al Gore). I don't see his entry into the race as a positive development for Democrats. Since I believe this race will be very close, it basically means a Democrat will have to gain 1-2% more of a margin to win. I'm interested to see how the Democrats fair in Southern states this election. Howard Dean made it very clear that he believes taking the Democratic message to places where it hasn't been heard is a goal of his as DNC Chair. When I heard him speak at Miami University, he was thrilled to take the battle down South.


The Cavs looked decent tonight, but failed to win after a miraculous shot by Michael Redd. They are sloppy and I expected this for 10 games or so. So far we are 1-1 and I would think it's positive if we go 5-5 here. I don't think the playoffs and the seeds really matter at all. We won't get 1 or 2 and we're going to have to play both Boston and Detroit. The rest of the season is more about Mike Brown finding the rotation, guys playing with each other, and Lebron figuring things out.