Dawgs By Nature
The discourse around sports has been on a steady downward spiral ever since the advent of the Internet.
It is not that fans and media never had an opinion before; as long as games have been played, people have debated various aspects of the contests. It just used to be that if someone had a strong opinion, the general expectation was that they would back it up with actual facts.
Those days are long gone, unfortunately, where now all someone needs is a microphone or a laptop, and they can spew anything they want as long as they follow a few simple guidelines. Say it loud and try to say it first, and then you can pat yourself on the back and claim, “Job well done.”
This isn’t unique to sports, of course, as this recent article in The Guardian asked the important question of whether or not we are all currently living in a golden age of stupidity.
As it relates to sports, and more specifically the Cleveland Browns, there were two examples on Friday that underscored how far we have all fallen.
The first came in the wake of quarterback Joe Flacco leading the Cincinnati Bengals past the Pittsburgh Steelers in a nationally televised game.
Because Flacco had been in the cockpit of an ineffective Cleveland offense for the first four weeks of the season before a desperate Bengals front office initiated a trade, his three-touchdown performance set off a daylong diatribe filled with cries of dysfunction, malfeasance, fractured relationships, and a fear of smart people that revealed levels of insecurity.
But anyone who has watched the NFL for more than a minute knew this type of performance from Flacco was coming at some point. We’ve all seen it for seven years now; Flacco is still good enough for 2-3 games where he can still bring it, but he has not been the full-time answer at quarterback since at least 2017.
Rather than spend a few moments actually thinking about how this whole scenario works, far too many chose to scream with disgust about those “bumbling Browns and their voodoo analytics.”
Not comfortable letting Flacco hog the spotlight, defensive end Myles Garrett said “hold me beer” on Friday afternoon and, in response to a question about the level of frustration among Browns fans, Garrett pointed out that the season has been no day at the beach for the players:
“Well, hell, we are frustrated too. It’s not like they can be any more frustrated than the people who are out there putting their body on the line and not winning. They wear the colors, they come and support us, and we’ll be forever grateful. But you can never be more frustrated than someone who’s actually in that ring on that field. And hoping that they continue to support us, and we’re going to continue to put our bodies on the line and give everything till we can find a way to start winning and winning in succession....
