Dawgs By Nature
Did you feel it?
That rattling and rumbling sound. The Earth shifting slightly. What was it? Why did the dishes start to jangle and items on the desk begin to shift a bit? A fallen stapler.
That was Paul Brown turning over in his grave. It seems, on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals made a player trade. It was the first ever in the history of the two-storied franchises.
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Brown coached the Browns for 16 years. He was only a small minority owner for parts of his tenure, but he acted like the team was his and was given free rein to do whatever he thought was best for the franchise. The team was named after him. He alone attended the owner’s meetings and was on various league committees. Under Coach Brown, Cleveland captured seven championships.
In 1962, new owner Art Modell fired him.
In 1967, Coach Brown was approached by the NFL-rival American Football League (AFL) to own an expansion club and was given four cities as options. He chose Cincinnati because he wanted to go back to Ohio; the city had just gotten the baseball Reds, and a new stadium was going to be built that could house both baseball and football contests.
Once the AFL and NFL merged in 1970, the Bengals and Browns were placed in the same division, and have been ever since. But Coach Brown kept grudges, and Cleveland was Number 1 on his list. His choice for uniforms was exactly the same as the Browns, except change out brown for black, and slap some letters on a blank orange helmet.
The unwritten rule in sports is that a team never, ever, ever makes a trade within the division, or conference, if possible. So, with Brown’s disdain for his former home, and the fact that Cincy and Cleveland played each other twice a year, not a single player has ever been made available, or attempted, or suggested.
But on October 7, the ground rumbled. It shook for 16 seconds, one for every year he was the head coach of the Browns. Cleveland and Cincinnati made a player trade: QB Joe Flacco and a sixth-round draft pick to Cincy, for a fifth-round draft pick.
Why did the Browns trade Flacco?
The Bengals lost their starting quarterback, Joe Burrow, early in the Week 2 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The next day, it was revealed he had suffered a metatarsophalangeal joint sprain, commonly known as turf toe, that was described as significant ligament damage. It required surgery, and Burrow was placed on IR.
His absence crippled the Bengals’ season. Cincinnati thought they had a capable backup with Jake Browning, but he has been horrible in the few games he has played. After starting 2-0-0, the team has now lost three straight. With Browning under center, he has already thrown five interceptions in three starts as the team has scored a mere three points...
