At 2-6, the Cleveland Browns need to pull in the reins a bit on the free speech that goes on in Berea.
Freddie Kitchens needs to send a message to his team. It doesn’t have to be given harshly and it doesn’t have to be given through the media, but he needs to make sure every single player on the roster has one thing in mind: Winning!
Let’s stop discussions about getting the ball to Odell Beckham Jr., and what shoes he is wearing and getting fined by the wardrobe police.
No more talk about Baker Mayfield’s facial hair and how many times per day he shaves.
Can the discussions about who is calling the plays and who will call the plays going forward.
Kitchens likes to say if you don’t wear orange and brown, you don’t matter. Well, you know what else doesn’t matter? Any of this crap.
Someone needs to step up and tell everyone not to feed into the media’s obsession with some of this stuff.
When Beckham speaks during the week and is asked about his targets? He should reply with touches don’t matter unless a victory comes with it. The same for Jarvis Landry.
Mayfield needs to have the same mantra. Tell the reporters that he doesn’t care if he throws five passes in the game as long as they win.
And any questions about anything else should be met with the response of “I’m here to talk about football”.
We have a new appreciation for Bill Belichick and his “we’re on the Cincinnati” speak. There is too much talking about the previous week and other topics that have nothing to do with winning.
Notice the media doesn’t talk to Nick Chubb a lot, and the running back is probably the best player on the offensive side of the ball.
Why don’t they talk to him? Because he doesn’t say anything.
We think about the movie Bull Durham when Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) talks to Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) about his fungused shower shoes. Davis tells him when you have shoes like that and win 20 games in the major leagues you are colorful. In the minors, it’s just gross.
If the Browns were 6-2 right now, Mayfield’s facial hair would be fun, Beckham’s uniform violations would be rebellious, and no one would be questioning who should be calling the plays.
But they are 2-6, so maybe, just maybe it’s time for everyone to just shut up, play football, and win some games.
When John Dorsey took over as GM, one thing he wanted to do was keep things in house, meaning no more leaks to the national media. Kitchens should do the same with the locker room.
With the record they have, the Browns need to get back to basics. Think about how many exotic fakes and motion packages they used last week in Denver.
Defensively, they seemed unwilling to blitz at QB playing in his first NFL game.
We have said in the past that sometimes the obvious thing to do is also the right thing to do.
For the Cleveland Browns, everybody should be on the same page and they clearly are not. Winning cures a lot of evils. That’s what every single person in the Browns’ organization should be focusing on from here on out.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 