After years of being a complete and total dumpster fire, the Browns entered 2019 with enormous expectations. Maybe the expectations were too high, because as things stand right now, the current season has been less than ideal for Cleveland. Baker Mayfield was regarded as a potential MVP candidate and big acquisitions, namely OBJ, were supposed to mesh with homegrown talent and finally form a winning culture. 2019 was supposed to be the year for the Browns, and was there ever a more perfect year for it? Dumpster fire organizations across sports are suddenly winning championships in recent years.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl, the Cubs finally won the World Series and D.C. (which still isn’t a sports town) has witnessed two championships via the Caps and Nationals. It seemed as though the universe was aligning for the Browns to end their misery, but that so far hasn’t been the case.
The team entered last night’s game against Pittsburgh coming off a win, but still with a record of just 3-6. It was a must win game for Cleveland and somehow, they managed to secure it easily.
Baker Mayfield looked solid, OBJ hauled in a deep pass early and the defense made Mason Rudolph look silly. It was the team’s second straight victory andplayoff hopes are still alive, so what could possibly have gone wrong? How could the Browns possibly find a way to pull a Browns in this situation? Enter Myles Garrett.
Garrett got into a scrap with Mason Rudolpf in which he ended up ripping his helmet off then clubbing him in the head with it. Yeah, Brick killed a guy. Jermaine Whitehead wasn’t even brought back for goon duty yet before the Browns started one of the craziest brawls in NFL history. Myles Garrett has somehow pulled off the impossible task of making Ndamukong Suh look harmless by comparison.
He’s obviously going to be suspended, but for how many games? The rest of the season is a total possibility. I mean, assault with a deadly weapon is kind of a big deal, just a little bit. It’s also not a stretch to say that nobody saw the Browns going down like this. But is there anything more Browns than reversing all positive gains over a player committing an on-field felony?
“It does feel like we lost the game” Odell Beckham Jr. said to reporters following the victory. He went on to say that there was “no place in the game” for this type of incident while Jarvis Landry called the brawl “embarrassing”. Baker Mayfield also weighed in, calling Garrett’s actions “inexcusable” when speaking to reporters himself.
So somehow, the Cleveland Browns have managed to turn a comfortable victory against a rival into an absolute nightmare. Freddie Kitchens looks even more clueless than he did yesterday, the team still lacks leadership and the clock is ticking on getting things together in Cleveland.
The dumpster fire appears to still be raging in Cleveland, but at least their rivers aren’t burning anymore, so there is that.