Automatik;520172 wrote:wtf are you the fandom police?

Yes.

They are going to have to throw the ball even to keep the game respectable.

THE4RINGZ;520186 wrote:They are going to have to throw the ball even to keep the game respectable.

Agreed, in this day's NFL, you simply can't get away with not throwing it.

Getting back to my question. Anybody know the rule on this. I was thinking that the starting qb could not reenter the game once leaving, unless for an injury.

I know most people think this is going to be a blow out but I have my doubts.

Commander of Awesome;520157 wrote:LOL, ND/NY/Syarcuse. Yeah you're right, not all over the country....good excuse what ever helps you sleep at night. Its like being a Jets/Reds fan. Bandwagon loser.

I see that you know as much about geography as you do about the history of your hometown team. All of my teams are in Pittsburgh, New York state and Indiana. It's not like I have teams way out West and far down South that I root for.

But that's right, just continue on with your self-righteous parade since you're so much better than everybody else because you cheer for your hometown teams (who you spew false info about).

I guess when your team(s) suck....all you have left to do is label those who cheer for teams who happen to be more successful "bandwagon" fans.

Whatever helps those losses go down a little easier and make you feel better about your "fanhood."

Killer is right Commander. With all due respect, you sound like the guy at a party with an ugly chick and you're pissed at the guys who are walking around with hotties.

If we can get the running game going, and pick up the blitzes we will have a very good chance to win this game. Our defense has to be able to contain big ben when he gets out of those initial three reads. I'm not worried about him in the pocket as much as him making the scramble and keeping the play going so that the receivers can get open. Obviously in my unbiased sports side, I see the Steelers by at least 2 touchdowns. But in what I have seen this year with the browns, they play close games and have had a chance to win every one of those. For that reason alone, I'm going with Steelers in a close one in which the browns blow a lead, 30-24.

DeyDurkie5;520303 wrote:If we can get the running game going, and pick up the blitzes we will have a very good chance to win this game. Our defense has to be able to contain big ben when he gets out of those initial three reads. I'm not worried about him in the pocket as much as him making the scramble and keeping the play going so that the receivers can get open. Obviously in my unbiased sports side, I see the Steelers by at least 2 touchdowns. But in what I have seen this year with the browns, they play close games and have had a chance to win every one of those. For that reason alone, I'm going with Steelers in a close one in which the browns blow a lead, 30-24.

With all due respect, those are pretty big "IF's." The Browns do a pretty good job of protecting the QB so maybe they'll keep sacks to a minimum, but I seriously doubt they'll establish any running game against the Steeler defense. Wildcat with Cribbs or straight up with Hillis.......it won't matter IMO.

DeyDurkie5;520303 wrote:If we can get the running game going, and pick up the blitzes we will have a very good chance to win this game. Our defense has to be able to contain big ben when he gets out of those initial three reads. I'm not worried about him in the pocket as much as him making the scramble and keeping the play going so that the receivers can get open. Obviously in my unbiased sports side, I see the Steelers by at least 2 touchdowns. But in what I have seen this year with the browns, they play close games and have had a chance to win every one of those. For that reason alone, I'm going with Steelers in a close one in which the browns blow a lead, 30-24.

Is Hillis playing? Last I heard he was hurt. No way you score 24 points. (unless cribbs takes every snap)

He practiced today and is expected to play.

I'd expect Hillis to play. I wouldn't expect him to be overly effective running the ball. He could be dangerous on well-executed screens where he's already gained some momentum before receiving the ball. Cribbs in the Wildcat could be tricky for a short while, but I can't see that being an "all day long" sort of thing. If he was more of a pure QB, I'd be more worried about it. If Cleveland is going to have a chance, Pittsburgh would have to implode offensively (which is a possibility IF Ben tries to force things to be a conquering hero in his return) and the Browns will have to do something positive offensively...which I think would have to involve McCoy's arm, as the running game is what a healthy Steelers defense is best against.

Commander of Awesome;520157 wrote:LOL, ND/NY/Syarcuse. Yeah you're right, not all over the country....good excuse what ever helps you sleep at night. Its like being a Jets/Reds fan. Bandwagon loser.

Just read where rookie Emmanual Sanders will return kickoffs.

Yeah, they want Sanders to be active because he has a lot of promise as a receiver.

But by doing that they have to deactivate Antonio Brown and use Sanders on returns.

Is there any chance the Steelers kick to Cribbs?

grodt;520426 wrote:Is there any chance the Steelers kick to Cribbs?

Cribbs has pretty much owned Pittsburgh. Hopefully we wont have to punt.

I meant on kickoffs

Art Modell;520428 wrote:Cribbs has pretty much owned Pittsburgh. Hopefully we wont have to punt.

I can not see them punting to him. I mean, you know the offense is going to be anemic, so who cares if you only punt the ball 30 yards...as long as it is out of bounds. Cribbs is getting almost nothing this year...can't believe it has taken teams so long to figure it out....he is the best in the game(special teams that is)

grodt;520429 wrote:I meant on kickoffs

Same thing, I think you will see short kickoffs and the Browns will have very good field position....not that it matters.

I'd hope they avoid him. He hasn't been Cribbs-like on returns, but always seems to gash the Steelers. No sense to giving him the chance to give them easy points.

I say Pittsburgh 27 Cleveland 14.

Eric Barr moves to Cleveland to follow the Browns


BEREA, Ohio -- If Eric Barr's story checks out -- and it looks as if it does -- the competition for the most dedicated Browns fan is over.
We have a winner.

It doesn't matter how many December games you've shivered through, how many road trips to Pittsburgh you've made, or how many brown-and-orange tattoos you are sporting. You are not worthy.

Last month, Barr showed up to work at the Kichler Lighting warehouse in East Hartford, Conn., and sat down with his boss.

"He came to me and said, 'Listen, I'm going to live my dream,' " remembers Michael Flanagan, Barr's supervisor. " 'I'm going to move to Cleveland, and I'm going to follow the Browns, and that's it.' "

Flanagan and the other guys around the warehouse had harassed Barr for years because of his devotion to a team in a city more than 500 miles west, a city where Barr had never even lived. They had heard him talk about moving for years.

"I was like, 'OK, Barr, whatever,' " says Flanagan. "We expected him to come back on Tuesday. But he never came back. . . . We were like, 'He's really gone. Holy cow, he actually did it.' "

In East Hartford, the 33-year-old had a job, with full benefits. He had family. He had furniture.

Now sleeping on the floor of his basement apartment in Berea, Barr has none of that: no job, no family, no furniture. His health insurance runs out at the end of the month.

Yes, ladies, he's single.

But before we mock the guy, there is something kinda wonderful about him.

"My ancestors came over from Ireland with nothing," he says. "I have a blanket. I'm already one step ahead of them."

He's knows what you're thinking.

"I don't think I'm on drugs," says Barr, who does resemble a young Cheech Marin with less 'stache, more jowls and eyes that twinkle with mischief. "You can do a psychological evaluation on me. But I'm sure I'll pass."

He also insists he's not running from anything.

"The only time I've been to jail is when I play Monopoly."

Despite no ties to Cleveland, Barr has visited more than a few times. For the past three years, he's driven the 566 miles each way to attend every home game.

Sometimes he did it alone in his 1992 Nissan Sentra E, which recently topped 190,000 miles. The E, says Barr, stands for "empty options."

"No radio, no air conditioner, top speed of 54 mph," he says matter-of-factly. "It's terrible."

He doesn't bother to lock it.

On the rides, he says, in between the middle fingers from other drivers speeding past, he kept himself occupied by chanting "Here we go, Brownies" or counting down 99 bottles of beer or singing "Eye of the Tiger."

"It was kinda tough," he adds. "I'm not going to lie to you."

He'd sometimes sleep in the car, settling in for the night at a grocery-store parking lot. Other times, he says, he'd spend Saturday night in the legendary parking lot by the stadium.


"If I parked in the muni lot, they would knock on my window and say, 'You have to pay money.' " I said, "OK, I guess it's time to get game-ready."

Watching games in the freezer

Barr's love of the Browns came from his father, who never lived in Cleveland either. But the elder Barr was a blue-collar guy, says Eric, a machinist, and he identified with the toughness of the glory-days Browns.

Eric and his dad watched games together. When the Browns left in 1995, a teenage Eric cried.

When the team returned in 1999, he'd take breaks from his job at Sam's Club and sneak into the freezer to call his dad or watch the game.

"We were pretending to stock frozen chickens," he remembers. "It was 30 degrees below zero in the freezer."

Eventually, he began going to the games, first once a year with the Southern New England Browns Backers. Then in the spring of 2007, he bought a pair of personal seat licenses on eBay.


Joshua Gunter, The Plain DealerEric Barr, who recently moved from Connecticut to Cleveland to be closer to the Browns, sits in his empty apartment in Berea. Until last week, he slept on the floor. Barr now has an air mattress.
"I was the only bidder."

He made friends with some of the regulars in the muni lot and on Cleveland Browns online forums. Soon, Barr -- who is known by the nickname "Ice Cube" after his favorite former Browns player, Gerald McNeil -- didn't have to sleep in his car. He and a bunch of friends now share a half-dozen seats together, in the upper-deck of the stadium in section 537. "It's up next to Saturn," says Barr. "That's where the real fans sit anyway."

He and some of his friends wear orange jumpsuits to the games. "This is not a costume," he insists. "This is actually what they wear in the prisons in Connecticut."

As his devotion to the brown-and-orange grew, he began planning to move to "where the action is." He even had a job transfer to Northeast Ohio in the works, he says, before the economy tanked.

"People move to Florida because they like palm trees, they like sand, they like beaches," says Barr. "I like being in the muni lot at 4:30 a.m."

This year, the move could wait no longer.

"I'm getting older and older," says Barr. "I'm missing out. I told myself, 'Just do it. You'll survive.' "

He set his sights on one suburb, obviously.

"I moved to Berea because Berea is where training camp is," he says. "It makes sense because it's only a half-mile down the road."

As he began to telephone landlords, he realized he had a problem. The calls, he says, all seemed to go like this:

"I'm interested in a one-bedroom apartment."

"That's great. So you've got a job lined up. Where are you working?"

"I don't have a job."

"Why are you moving here?"

"Well, I love the Browns."

"You're moving here because you love the Browns? [click]"

Finally, after what he estimates as more than 50 calls, he talked to Sandy Jaycox, resident manager of the Riverview Apartments in Berea.

"I thought at first he was joking," says Jaycox. "I really did. Nobody just up and quits their job to move here.

"I thought, if he doesn't fax back the application, then we'll know," she says. "Then when he did, it was like, 'Oh, OK, I guess this guy is serious.' "

Barr promised to pay the first year of his $480-a-month rent upfront. And a background check came up clean.

On move-in day, Sept. 17, Barr showed up with only the old Sentra.

"I was like, 'Where's your stuff?' " says Jaycox, laughing.

Turns out, Barr brought only what he could fit in the car.

"His first question," says Jaycox, "was, 'Where's the best place to buy some furniture?' "

Barr is actually not that far along. When a photographer and reporter visited his place two weeks ago, the apartment was still bare, save for some suitcases, a shower curtain and the mayonnaise, cheese and Hot Pockets in the fridge. Barr sleeps on an air mattress covered with a Browns blanket. Next to the "bed": his season tickets.

"If you come in here, you can take anything you want," he says. "Just don't take my season tickets."

He says he went to the grocery store not too long after moving in and bought cereal. He came home and realized he didn't have a bowl.

He spends part of his days at the Berea library applying for jobs and shining up his resume. The rest of the day he's at the rec center shooting hoops.

There have been some pleasant surprises -- "You can buy beer on Sundays!" -- and some criticisms -- "Too many deer."

He's gone on a few interviews and is confident he'll find something.

"I don't have furniture. I don't have a TV. I don't have a computer," he says, serious for a moment. "You do a lot of soul-searching. The first couple nights, I just sat here, it was cold. I just had my blanket and I'm sitting here and I'm like, 'Is this really worth it?'

"You know something? Yeah," he says. "I'm going to make it. It's just going to take a little time. . . . I will survive. Because I am determined. That's what's good about Browns fans. We're resilient. When you knock them down, they keep coming back for more. Why? I don't know."

Barr likes to compare his new start to the team's. Both don't seem to have much now, but the foundation is there and things -- seemingly -- can only go one way.

"One day, I'm going to get a job, some furniture," he says, "maybe a bed."

Priscilla Barr, who lives in New York City, insists her brother is not crazy.

"I didn't think it was stupid," she says. "Actually, I thought it was kind of smart. He's going out there every other weekend anyway. He might as well move there. It's his dream city.

"He's always loved Cleveland, and he knew that was where he was supposed to be," she adds. "He's so happy when he's there. I'm really proud of him for leaving. It takes guts to go somewhere without a job."

Eric is confident he won't be jobless for long, partly because he isn't picky.

"I'll do anything," he insists. "I just can't work Sundays."


cleveland.com

Typical Cleveland fan: Luvable loser with a mental condition.

That's the dumbest story I have ever read, no matter who the team is