Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
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[00:01:15] Speaker B: It's time. Time for the Burning River sportscast. To quote the Academy Award winning film for best movie ever, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, the Cleveland Browns in this season are just two people who weren't supposed to fall in love, but did. In one of the fastest, most improbable in season turnarounds ever seen, your Cleveland Browns have themselves in the thick of the race for the AFC North and in a comfortable spot for playoff berth. Kevin Stefanski has quelled the haters and has positioned himself firmly in the Coach of the year race after winning games with three different quarterbacks while losing some of his biggest playmakers week after week, dustin Hopkins has adorned himself a cult hero as his consistent and clutch leg have come through time and time again. The Dark Knight himself and Jimmy D also returned in a reunion that would turn out to be a most glorious affair. And this defense, they just don't give a shit who they're playing, what time of day it is, or who's playing on their offense. They just want to go out there and eat. So for the first time in a long time, put on your stupid face, lock yourselves into enjoying what's the rest of the season, which is sure to be wacky and hellacious. Finish to the Brown season and let's see how far they can go. For now, I've only got one question for you and it's have you been hard for the last 24 hours? Because if not, you're wrong. Then the rest will break all down for you. Next, right here on the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: What do they call this? Contact mating or cloakal kissing.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Okay, so kind of like sharks or dolphins?
[00:02:55] Speaker C: I believe so, yeah, I've heard that's how they do it, so it doesn't sound that satisfying.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: He was like, I like to watch bats bang. Yes.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: I gotta admit, when you said bat porn, that was not the first thing that went through my mind. I was thinking like Batman video.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: I was thinking baseball bats. So we're all in a different place.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Keep your head out of the gutter. He just keeps making big kicks.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: I mean, if you just under the desk, you just hear it hitting the bottom of the desk all the time.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: He's the Dustin Hoffman of the NFL.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: It might be the greatest he's the.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Dustin Hoffman of the NFL.
How so? I'd like to hear you elaborate here.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: It gets to be hard.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Here's the deal. They are indeed trash, almost. They are who we thought they were. They are phonies.
[00:03:40] Speaker D: If you'd have told me that we would be seven and three going into the game against a local franchise, that we'd be seven and three, I tell you well, I do a citizen's arrest on you because you because at least 24 hours beforehand, you had the greatest hallucinogenic ever in your pocket somewhere to tell me that you're seven to three. And we don't have Nick Chubb, and we don't have our starting quarterback, Deshaun Watson.
[00:04:14] Speaker E: One of those things I tell young people know, even though you think you've done all you can do, there's always some more in a trunk.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Three keys. Continue to play dominant defense. Protect the ball on offense.
Two keys. That's it.
Count it. Run. That's all of them. That's all they got to do. If they do those two things, they'll win.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Burning river sportscast.
Welcome into the Burning River sportscast presented by Tapping Media and brought to you by Seaside events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and the organizer of the Browns fan cruise, I'm Kenny Thunder, the man with the world's most powerful sleep apnea, joined by Korean Olympic handball prospect and civil War reenactor red hot Ronnie Jams. And on the board today, Vin Diesel's biggest fan, the big bone man. Bone, how many letters have you written to the big Benny D?
[00:05:08] Speaker C: I usually write a letter about once every Christmas.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Just once a Christmas?
[00:05:13] Speaker A: That's it. I thought it might be every day.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: You're the biggest fan?
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Yeah, it's once a year, you guys.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: On, like a first name basis, so it's like it's only special occasion.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: When did the first Fast and Furious come out?
[00:05:24] Speaker A: I don't know. There's ten of them. Ten or eleven of them?
[00:05:27] Speaker C: I'd say I've written about 20 of them.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: There you go. Okay, back to your red hot. Two questions. Okay, on the next episode of the Burning River Sports guest, brought to you as a partner to Seaside Events, who's putting on a glorious fan cruise with our favorite team's favorite players? Who, pray tell, are you looking forward.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: To hearing from next, the next episode or this episode?
[00:05:46] Speaker B: This episode.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: This episode.
Who should we talk to next? I would like to hear from Reggie Langhorn.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Mr. Reggie Langhorn. And number two, where can all of our listeners and Korean handball enthusiasts find all of the Burning River Sports guest exclusive interviews with former Cleveland Browns players all season long in preparation for what is going to be an absolutely enormous and sensational boat ride this spring?
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Well, first of all, handball is a lot harder than you think. And second of all, they can find our podcast. Wherever you get your podcast. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, Spotify Stitcher, google Podcasts, amazon Music, pandora. iHeartRadio podcast. Castro good pods, and so many more. One of which they're probably listening to right now. You can also find the video version of that on YouTube, which don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube, the only place that you can find our video podcast, as well as those video. The interviews. Yeah, the interviews.
And check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Our handle for all those. And YouTube is at Burning River Sportscast. And we are on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter. People still call Twitter sometimes twitter? X.
That handle is at Burning River Pod. And while you're at it, check out our merch WW Thetappinmedia.com Backslash Shop. We got all kinds of stuff in the shop. We got the cruise line, the Chub line, cold weather gear. It's all here.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: It's all here.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Make sure you check it out. We're adding things all the time. Buy something.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Buy it.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Help support the show. Help support the show. Speaking of the show, today's show is big.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: How big?
[00:07:12] Speaker A: It's big.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Well, big.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: We thought we felt good after last week's game. We were just getting started today. This is what we got for you. We got the week eleven recap of the win over the division rival and Tommy Two gloves. The schittsburg squealers. Can't even say their name, they're so stupid. And we also have an interview with the Mile High Browns backers. Another interview with the Browns alum that will be joining us on the Cleveland Browns Fan cruise this week. You mentioned it already.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Mr. Reggie Langhorn.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Mr. Reggie Langhorn. And finally, we round out the show with week twelve preview for the game against the Denver Broncos and our board man's boy, Russell Wilson.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, he's back.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: I know who you're picking, so we're not there yet. So grab your guitars, we're about to rock your world. Let's get things started like we always do with the Burning River news story of the weekend.
The news story this week from our unsolved mystery file is brought to you by Bone Man, who has a story about bones.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: I thought it was about bats.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's about both.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah, a little bit of both. So there is a mystery that has been solved, and it involves the serotine bat. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, so I'm just going to refer to it as the bat for now on.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: What is the big mystery?
[00:08:43] Speaker C: So, researchers have observed that the penis is super long when it is erect for this bat. So it is about seven times longer than the vaginas of the feet, the female bat.
And even weirder, the head of the penis expands into the shape of a heart. This article says it's a love bat, and it's wider, so it's physically impossible for it to have penetrative sex with this female bat. So researchers were just stunned by this, and they've never recorded this bat having sex, so they didn't know how it happened.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: They're baffled, like us right now, thinking about this.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: So this researcher in Switzerland, his name's Nick he got an email about bat porn.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Apparently.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: So some guy in Norway filmed these bats in the attic of a church and sent him these videos.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: You create the house of God.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: The mystery has been solved, apparently.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: So how do they do it?
[00:09:44] Speaker C: So, this penis acts like an arm when it's a wreck, and it wraps.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Seven times the size of the exactly.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: So, basically, the male bat hugs the female bat. They embrace each other as they're, like, holding onto something, and it wraps around, and it ejaculates onto the female.
That's how it happens.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Just onto the female? Because there's no penetration just anywhere on the female? Or is it around?
[00:10:13] Speaker C: It's in a certain spot.
Whatever.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: It'd be like if I ejaculate on your face versus your bum, like, I'm.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: Closer to one way or another, the female utilizes it and makes babies.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Man.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: So it ejaculates in an area near the genitals?
[00:10:31] Speaker C: Yes. But that's kind of what I gathered.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: From does not penetrate the canal from the story.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Your genitals, what do they call this?
[00:10:39] Speaker C: Contact mating or cloakal kissing.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Okay, so kind of like sharks or dolphins?
[00:10:45] Speaker C: I believe so, yeah. I've heard that's how they do it. So it doesn't sound that satisfying. But.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: Imagine don't imagine this, actually. Imagine if humans, every time they gave someone a hug, they're just banging it out.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: Even more so than the story is enlightening us. There's people out there that are just watching bats having sex.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: What's he doing?
[00:11:12] Speaker C: It's his job. He works for a university. They pay him to do this.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: I got to admit, that guy, the guy that sent him the video, like, what's he doing?
[00:11:18] Speaker C: He's just a retiree who likes bats.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: He was like, I like to watch bats bang.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: I got to admit, when you said bat porn, that was not the first thing that went through my mind. I was thinking, like, Batman video.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: I was thinking baseball bats. So we're all in a different place.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Get your head out of the gutter. This is science happening right before our wow.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: So is there any other crazy facts in this? I know off air, when you were telling us the bat porn story, casually bringing up bats having sex with seven foot I mean, there's seven times. Whatever.
[00:11:56] Speaker C: Here's kind of a strange stat in their observations. The average session for these bats was 53 minutes, but the longest went for 13 hours.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: That's way longer. Stamina way longer than the 30 seconds. We've got chew, pump, jump. Yeah. Who isn't?
No, but there was one other one bone that you mentioned is the females have the ability potentially, yes.
[00:12:25] Speaker C: I believe this is speculation, but they say that the females could potentially mate with multiple males and then choose the sperm that they want to make babies with. So let me wait and be very selective.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Let me get this straight.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Incredible.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Let me get this straight. I'm a bat.
I'm hanging upside down, my vagina is too small for anything to get inside a bunch of male bat suitors come and suitors cloakally, hug me, ejaculate all over my body and my genitals.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: And then I choose what I want to put inside me?
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Yes. This is speculation, but that's what these researchers are saying.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: So it's like a bat ice cream sundae, and they pick out the top that they want inside.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: It says that they can hold on to the sperm for several months.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: It keeps getting crazier.
Oh, my God. Just like my turtle. One time when I was like, 15 years old, I saved a turtle and I named it Frank.
No, I saved a turtle who had been hit by a car. Its shell was cracked, and I still have this turtle. So that's a feat in itself. It's been almost 20 years, but this turtle had a cracked shell, so I took it home and named it Frank. Well, it laid eggs the following summer, so I found out that it was a lady turtle, and now its name is Francesca. It laid eggs for three summers in a row. And I found out that Eastern box turtles can hold sperm for up to, like, five years. Whoa. Yeah. Isn't that crazy?
[00:13:56] Speaker C: Yeah, that is crazy.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So we went from bats to turtles. They both carry salmonella. It's fine.
No, but it's just wild. And I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers.
I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: It's Mother Nature.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: It's science.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: But with that, let's go ahead and get into the week eleven recap biology. Browns defense dominated again, and the offense did just enough to protect home field advantage and helped Dustin Hopkins do what he does best and win the game. The Browns almost walked this one off again. It was with 2 seconds left on the clock, 13 to ten. And so we'll do what we do every week, and we'll start with our opponents. This week, it was the Pittsburgh Steelers, and we'll start on the offensive side of the football. Kenny Pickett. He is trash. We can confirm it. Contrary to popular belief, up until this week in Pittsburgh, he is trash. Kenny Pickett was 15 of 28 for 106 yards. No touchdowns, no interceptions, four carries for nine yards. He's just trash. He's just trash.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yes.
So here's how I know he's trash. If you go to NFL passing leaders and you look at the list of NFL passing leaders whoa.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: I have a whole segment later of shitting on the Schittsburg Steelers. So if you want to save this, you can.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: No, I don't want to save it. I want to say he's trash because he's at the very bottom of that list.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Oh, he's the worst.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: He's just the worst.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: We had a fifth round rookie playing.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Literally and figuratively the worst.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: We had a fifth round rookie playing and he vastly outperformed the first round quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: The only team that has a worse quarterback than the Pittsburgh Steelers is the Cleveland Browns. Because they don't have a quarterback that qualifies for passing leaders because they've just had so many quarterbacks this year.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: That's incredible.
Yeah, he was really bad. I mean, I don't know what these people and they're not even thinking anymore. And like I said, we'll get into that here in just a little bit in the show. But I don't know what everybody was thinking earlier this year and leading up to this game. Because if you look on Twitter and everywhere else, they've officially turned on Kenny Pickett. But pretty much everybody in Pittsburgh thought he was like he was the next Ben Roethlisberg. He was going to be the guy that really does it for him and apparently is going to win MVPs and be great and all this stuff. And now all of a sudden, the Browns, all it took was one great game from a Browns defense to shut them down, hold them to 106 yards, and they are all off the bandwagon.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Here's the guys that are right next to Kenny Pickett. Just for comparison's sake. Let me hear it. So right ahead of Kenny Pickett is Desmond Ritter. And right ahead of him is Zach Wilson.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Perfect. Zach Wilson is better than somebody. He just got benched this week. We'll talk more about that, too.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah, just for context.
That's the kind of class he's in.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: I'm surprised we haven't got the news that Kenny Pickett is benched yet this week.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Well, they're still in the thick of the playoff race.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Well, let's move on. Jalen Warren, nine carries for 129 yards. One touchdown, three receptions for 16 yards. Did not see this one.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Where'd that guy come from? And why is he not just their starting back?
[00:17:12] Speaker A: I don't know. He made Naji Harris look like the B team.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Like Grandpa Harris. He's fast. He's strong. He's built like a shithouse.
But yeah, he did work.
He was the one bright spot on that offense.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: I feel like any NFL fan that has watched a Steelers game this year has seen that. And even in the first game against the Steelers, I was thinking like, why aren't they giving this guy the ball more? Because he is freaking destroying us.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Don't get me wrong. Coming into this season, I would have agreed with the Steelers. Najee Harris is a decent back, but I don't know if he's just lost a step already or what the deal is. But Najee Harris, he never even had a mean. He put up decent numbers the last couple couple of years. Though. And then all of a sudden, it's like he fell off a cliff.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: It's almost like they're just slowly bringing him on. So it was like, well, we picked this guy in the first round, was Nigeria. She was a first round pick.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Correct. I think it was late first round. Yeah, maybe second.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: But I think he got a lot of carries those two years. It was kind of like the Trent Richardson game. I mean, yeah, you have 1000 yards.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: The only reason he looks like he has good stats, because we keep giving him the Rock 400 carries, even though he's averaging 2.8 yards of carry or whatever. Yeah, maybe. And speaking of Naji Harris. Twelve carries for 35 yards, one reception for one yardness. So he did absolutely nothing.
I mean, Jalen Warren literally did all the damage for their offense against the Cleveland Browns. George Pickens, even four receptions for 38 yards. Not much there. Alan Robinson, three receptions for 20 yards. Literally, their offense did nothing except for Warren.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: George Pickens is another one of those stories, man. I mean, unless Pittsburgh does something about that quarterback, he should get the hell out of Pittsburgh.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: He's got to go team up with.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Justin Field somewhere because he's a tremendous athlete and is serious wasted there and.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Then on defense, for know, this was the one thing they could kind of hang their hat on. Even though their defense wasn't necessarily elite, it wasn't in the top of the NFL. It was towards the top, but not quite at the top. This is what they could hang their hat on as a team. And their defense didn't really do anything. One sack and one turnover forced is all they got out of.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: I mean, the game dictates that the defense played better than those stats, right? I mean, the game was close all throughout. It was a struggle to get to move the ball between the 20s.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Well, to be fair, they were playing a team full of backups.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Sure. But I mean, the thing is about their defense, like we said, all like their defense has some real legitimate players on it. And then it's kind of backfilled with some guys that really aren't so they can play out of their mind if those top tier guys play really well.
And this was one of those games where TJ Watt really was kind of neutralized.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Our boy big thanos who we'll talk more about here soon, really locked him down. But no on special teams.
Chris Boswell, one for one field goals, one for one extra point. So he didn't have a lot of opportunity in this one. Their punter was probably trotted out there a lot. I didn't even write his stats down, but he probably punted a lot.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Percy Harvin.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: What's the kid's name? Harvin. What's his name?
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Percy Harvin.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: There's a name.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: He was a receiver once. His name percy.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: What's his last name?
[00:20:12] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Nobody really cares. He's a punter. That's fine.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Don't talk about punters like that.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Dave Zastadil is great, and any Browns punters are phenomenal. The rest of the punters, nobody cares about.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Not Derek Frost. He wasn't very good.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'm just saying, Browns punters.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: The only one is Derek Frost the one that got run over by AB, got ninja kicked in the face?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: I don't know. His brother Robert wrote a lot of poems. Good one.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Anyways, let's move and we've lost the liberal viewers of our show.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Let's move over to the Cleveland side of things here. We'll start with the offense and let's address the elephant in the room before we get started here. Deshaun Watson is done for the season.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So this was news that we didn't.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Have a chance to no, we recorded our episode last week before that, so we were just as shocked as everyone else. And if you listen to our episode, obviously that news wasn't out there yet because our episodes come out on Thursdays. You're probably thinking to yourself, don't these guys know?
Yeah, we knew when you guys knew, but we had already recorded the show and you guys had to hear what we had to say. So most of the show was relevant. But once we start talking about Deshaun and what he was going to do, it didn't make a lot of sense.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: No sense at all.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: But we will talk a little bit more about Deshaun's injury here in a little bit. But as we were saying, obviously he did not play because he is out for the season with a broken bone in his shoulder. So in his place, Dorian Thompson, Robinson, DTR got the start. They went back to the rookie after spending a few weeks with PJ Walker while Deshaun Watson was hurt the first time around here.
And he looked much better in this one. He was 24 of 43 for 165 yards. No touchdowns, one interception, three carries for 20 yards. He did just enough.
Like I said, he did much better. I don't think he played nearly as poorly as even his numbers indicate in this one. There was a lot of drops, which we'll talk about some more.
But yeah, I don't want to get too far into DTR because we have a whole segment on him here.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah, what I'll say is he was night and day from his first start.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Because the offense was tailored to him. He had a week full of reps to practice with the ones and he didn't look like a deer lost in headlights out there. He looked like he was a serviceable NFL quarterback.
And like you said, we'll talk about more later. I mean, I'm just excited to see A, the progress and like, now, what his true ceiling is legitimately.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: If this is the jump between games one and two, that gives me a lot of hope.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: He should get better and better as the season goes on.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
And then next up here for the running backs, we'll start with Jerome Ford. Twelve carries. Yeah. Seriously, rough day. Twelve carries for 31 yards. He did get a touchdown. Two receptions for eight yards. And I would say again, I got to stop giving Browns players props on this podcast because I gave Jerome Ford props last week. And then he promptly comes back down to earth and rushes for, like, the 2.8 yards per carry that he rushes for if you take away his few big rushes throughout the season.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: First off is a sports cast. Second off, it is a sports cast.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: But it's a podcast that is called a sports cast.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: It's a sports cast.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: It's a sports cast.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: It's a sports cast. Yeah. Jerome Ford was trash in this game. He was missing the one wow. He was missing the one, the only.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Guy with a touchdown for the Browns, and he was trash.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: He was missing the one breakout play that he usually gets that kind of helps his average, to be fair to Jerome Ford and to Kareem both, because they both kind of had a similar stat line.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Twelve carries, 36 yards, three receptions for 1.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Kareem, that front in Pittsburgh is a good front.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Very good.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: They're tough to run against.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Like I said, that's what they hang their hat on over there in Pittsburgh. That's what's been winning them games and kept them kind of in the playoff hunt thus far. I think they are about to fall off, finally come back down to earth and fall off that cliff.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: The thing is, they've already won, what, six games, so they're not far off from hitting 500 again this year with that team.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: But honestly, again, watching this team and knowing the amount of I know it was a close game, but we were down a lot, it's going to be like this for the Browns the rest of the season. They're down a lot of guys, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are not good. Honestly, I would not be surprised one bit if they only won like one or two games the rest of the season.
It would not surprise me.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah, but that's all they need to get back to 500.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: I think they'll end up probably right around 500, even with the hot start that they had.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: We've said all year they're not good. They've been playing above they've been pushing above their weight all year long. They have the worst quarterback in the NFL. So bad.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: He's just so bad.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: And they don't have enough on offense to really do anything. I mean, all they can do is hope that that defense keeps them in games long enough that they can hang around. Hang around. Just like on Sunday when Kenny Pickett got the ball back with three or four minutes left, and you thought, okay, this is how they've won all their games. Like, they get the ball back and they get a field goal at the end of the game, and then they win. Luckily for us, we got the ball.
[00:25:04] Speaker A: Back and we did it, too.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: We'll put an end to that.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Wide receivers for the Browns. Elijah morse. Another good game from him. Six receptions for 60 yards.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: He's just starting to fit in more.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: To a natural offense, I think. Again, they're not trying to force it. I didn't catch the entire game. I missed a few plays here and there. Did we run another stupid reverse to him?
[00:25:24] Speaker B: No.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: So I think that's the key. Just don't run a stupid reverse.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Did run a reverse.
[00:25:28] Speaker C: Did it go to Elijah? I think it might.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: To me.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: I don't think it was Tillman.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: You lied to me. I caught that play on I thought I heard something about it, because didn't DTR get a block on it?
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: And they made a big deal about the rookie getting the block.
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a good run.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: It was for nine yards, in case anyone was wondering. So, again, reverses are going for nine yards.
[00:25:49] Speaker C: There was a point in a game where DTR threw the ball to Elijah and he dropped. It was like a pretty clear drop. And it was actually one of the better balls that he threw.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: There's quite a few drops in this one.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: But then they actually I think it was like the next play, they went right back to him, and he made a nice catch for the first down, which I thought was pretty cool.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: He is starting to fit in. I think it's more natural now. I don't think they're trying to force things to him as much. Six receptions, 60 yards. Amari Cooper had a little bit of a rough day. Four receptions for 34 yards. He had a couple at least one drop that I know of. The interception, it was off his hands, was 100%. Amari cooper's Fault. It bounced right off his hands.
[00:26:20] Speaker C: It was behind him. It was kind of high and behind him, but still, he usually comes up with that.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Amari Cooper is one of the better receivers in the NFL. I understand placement and all that stuff, but he needed to catch that. And it resulted in an interception, especially for a rookie quarterback.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: It was Cedric Tillman.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Was on the reverse.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: On the reverse. Okay. So it wasn't to Elijah Moore. So good. You don't ruin his averages. And then finally, David and Joku. Seven receptions for 56 yards. And David and Joku. I will say his stat line should have been more like eleven to twelve receptions for 100 plus yards and a touchdown. But he had four drops in this one that I counted. It may have been more, but to his credit, I will say this. David and Joku didn't back down from it at all. After the game, they asked him before they could even ask him about the drops, they just asked him about the game. And he said that his performance was absolutely unacceptable. And he praised his teammates for lifting him up while having a bad performance. And he added, quote, I'm about to go right home and catch these jugs right now. Now, I don't know if he's talking about football or if he's going to have a good time.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Cloakle kiss.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Yeah, but no, I mean, I like the accountability.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I think we said last week, right. He's just on the edge of the upper echelon of tight ends in this game, and a game like this is why. And to his credit, some of those balls were not right on target. I know there was one specifically that was pretty far behind him that he made a pretty heroic effort to try and get to. And still, I mean, the thing is, if you're a receiver in the NFL, you get your hands on the ball, you have to catch it, especially that one in the end zone.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: The touchdown is the biggest rugs. They hit him right in the hands. And if you catch that, I mean, we're winning 20 to ten, and it's not even really that close at the end there.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Right.
One thing that I'll say, too, just about the running backs here before we move on from Brown's offense, is I don't understand why we aren't getting Pierre Strong more involved in the running game.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Like, disappeared after one of his best games.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: He only had one carry in this game, and God, it only went for a yard or two, but he just.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Went so fast every time he touches.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: When he got the ball, he was shot out of a cannon. And I'm thinking, like, what is this guy got to do to get on the field? Because Jerome Ford just hasn't been great.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Real explosive.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: I don't know. He's a lead back. And if you're going to run by committee, I don't know why you wouldn't have a third guy that can kind of offset the speed of these guys.
Just bizarre to me.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And that'll take us to the defensive side of the ball here. So for the defense, they kept the score for the Me, they kept the score for the Steelers low, as we all kind of assumed they would. Right.
They were all over the place again in this one. Steelers couldn't really get anything going overall. Just another solid performance turned in by the defense, which is what we kind of come to expect week after week, and especially this week against the subpar. We all knew it was a subpar. Steelers offense, they're not very good.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: They're bad.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So miles Garrett. We'll start with him. Two tackles, two stacks. So it brings his season total to 13 through ten games. Firmly in the Defensive Player of the Year talks right now, and I think he's probably actually leading at this point.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: I would say he is leading, in.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Fact, and he should have had a safety in this one, but we did not want to challenge that. We'll talk more about that in a second.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Yeah, the safety that should have been yeah. He is on top right now in sack numbers and actually TJ. Watt fell off. He was behind him. Some guy named Danielle from the Vikings is number two where they got eleven sacks this year.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Hunter. Hunter.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Danielle Hunter. But yeah, I don't know what happened on the safety. That was one of the more frustrating things I get. It was the beginning of the game. You don't want to burn a timeout or a challenge. But man, I've never seen a clearer safety in my life.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: No.
We'll talk about it again a second because it was back to back, but we'll talk about it again a second. Next up OBO. Okoranquo. He had a sack himself. The secondary kind of did their thing. I don't really have a lot to talk about because it's just kind of like it's just commonplace at this point. The secondary did their thing. Grant Delpit once again was all over the place just making plays.
[00:30:26] Speaker C: How about Denzel's head on?
[00:30:35] Speaker A: It was Ben Davis last week. Just talked about how Denzel has a reputation of just mauling people when he hits them. He's a little guy as far as stature, it's an undersized.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Taking on one of the biggest back.
[00:30:50] Speaker C: It'd be like a 50 to 60 pound difference in weight there.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: And what was great about it was it was just a perfect form tackle.
He just laid them out.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Then special teams, Dustin Hopkins, he's missed kicks two weeks in a row. How do you look in this one? Bone?
[00:31:06] Speaker C: Oh, man, he looked good when he was called up. He did what he needed to do.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: He did. He was two for two with field goals, including the 34 yard field goal to win the game with just 2 seconds left on the clock and then one for one extra points.
Bone. Where's the bone meter?
[00:31:23] Speaker C: All right, listen, I feel like he's making game winners every week. So I don't know how else to put this, but the old pork sword the old pork sword was on sheath this week and it's ready for battle. Needless to say, I was excited.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Did you poke your eye out?
[00:31:37] Speaker C: It was close.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Wow.
Yeah, he's starting to get me excited.
[00:31:45] Speaker C: He just keeps making big kicks.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: I mean, if you just under the desk, you just hear it hitting the bottom of the desk all the time.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: He's the Dustin Hoffman of the NFL.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: It might be the greatest.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: He's the Dustin Hoffman. Well, there you have it. There you have it, folks. No, Dustin Hopkins was great again. I almost made him dog of the.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Week this week, but wouldn't have been wrong.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: He just hit so many game winners, I just assume he's going to hit another winners. We're leaking him for another day. Plus I think we had to give some props to the rookie. But we'll talk about it was only.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Because the scoring was so low. If he had hit four field goals, I'd have said, give Dustin give Dustin Hoffman to get the game.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
And then moving on here, coaching Stefanski. He is indeed keeping his name for yet another week. If you follow the show. You know, we call Stefanski Stefanic most of the time due to his questionable play calling and other boneheaded decisions. And there was some of that in this game. I will acknowledge it not challenging two potential safeties on back to back plays. I mean, they were both safeties. If you go back and watch them, they were both safeties. We should have challenged at least one of them and then challenging something that clearly shouldn't have been challenged later on in the game. I believe there was. Was it the touchdown for the Steelers that he challenged? What was it that he challenged?
[00:32:59] Speaker B: No.
[00:33:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it was our touchdown.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: He challenged our touchdown, which they changed.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: What was the other? Because we used both our challenges in this game. We were out of challenges by the end of it. There was one I don't even remember what it was.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: I just remember when I was watching just ball placement.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Yeah. When I was watching it, I was like, why did we challenge that and not the safety? What are we doing?
[00:33:15] Speaker C: It was the picket where he got the first down and the quarterback sneak and his helmet came off. I think he challenged the spot.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Yeah. There you go.
We took our last time out with 20 seconds left instead of letting the clock run down and not having to run two more plays to first run the ball and then get back to the line of scrimmage and then line up and spike the ball. I don't know what that was.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Was nervous time.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I was like, why did we when they called the time timeout, and on the broadcast, they said, Timeout has been called by the Cleveland Browns. I was like, nah, they're wrong. Steelers.
No way. We called that. And it was indeed the Cleveland Browns. I really don't know what we were doing.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: And there was another game that ended like that this week. Was it a Thursday night game?
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Yeah. They couldn't get the playoff.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: They couldn't get the playoff.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Because usually when they all pile, were they there and they lay on each.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Other, they got the playoff. But on the initial field goal, the kicker missed it because he was being rushed. Got the playoff, kicker missed field goal. Luckily there was a holding call on the defense. Whatever. They got again. But, yeah, after watching that go down, that was incredibly just anxiety filled moment.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: So, again, I just want to acknowledge that we still see these things and we don't give him a complete pass on these things in fact, we think he should be held the coach just like the players should be held accountable for the things that they kind of do wrong.
But here's the deal. You just took a rookie quarterback that was embarrassed in his first game earlier this year, and you won a divisional game against a team with a solid defense and a six and three record.
So we talked about it last week.
Kevin Stefanski is down multiple offensive linemen. He's down as starting free safety. He's down his franchise quarterback. He's down a generational talent at running back. The Browns are leading the league in turnovers.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Thanks, PJ.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: They have an offense that is statistically worse than the one in 15 Browns team from a few years ago. And somehow Kevin Stefanski has managed to guide this team to another victory in a seven and three record thus far. So once again, we're giving this man some serious credit because this was another hell of a game. And despite all of the small things that he may get wrong, we alluded to it last week. And I really think the chatter on this will start to grow with every single win the rest of the way down the stretch. Kevin Stefanski is a serious contender for Coach of the Year.
And if that happens, then you know what we're looking at in the offseason, we're looking at an extension for him.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the question is, are you going to get an extension of Andrew Barry and Kevin Stefanski at the same time?
Yeah, but I think very clearly, I mean, all the things you just laid out, right? I mean, those are things that most teams adversity, that most teams don't withstand.
It would have been really easy after they lost Chubb to go, well, there's your season. It would have been really easy after they lost to Sean to go, well, that's your season. This guy's out here winning games with XFL quarterbacks who are just turning the ball over like hot cherry turnovers. Like, here, have another one besides Chubb.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: Even besides Watson, some of the smaller things, I mean, it's still a big deal. But when In Joku had the burn his face off the fire accident at home and he came in and even just the fact that he came in like that, and I'm not saying it's terrible what happened to him, but the distraction of this happened. This is our teammate and everybody saw him and saw what happened.
It's just insane the way that he's able to rally this team no matter what the adversity is this year.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think we probably are at a point where we have to acknowledge like, Kevin Stefanski is a good coach in this league.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: As much shit as we've given him, he absolutely is.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: He's going to make mistakes. But I think if you watch every coach in the NFL, they all make mistakes and it's always frustrating every time because it's just a small, elite group of men that get to do this job.
But I think Kevin is kind of firmly placed himself now as one of the better.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: And we said it the entire time that we did give him shit and that we've been critiquing him. We don't want to call him Stefanic every week.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: No, we don't want him to be fired. We don't want to have to turn over a coach and transition to a new offense.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: We want him to be Coach of the Year.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Stefanski, we've been talking to these former Browns players all year long, and the ones that played for the Browns from 99 to 2016 will all tell you, well, I had five coaches in six years. I had four coaches in five years.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Sometimes even worse, sometimes like, four coaches in three years. Five coaches in four years.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: It's impossible to win and be competitive that way.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: Oh, you can't do it. You need stability.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: We want Stefanski to be the guy. It's just he's made a blunder of poor decisions in the past that hurt this team. But it seems like I think a big part of this is the fact that from the personnel side, they brought in Jim Schwartz this season. And for right now, Kevin hasn't had to worry about the defense. He's been able to focus on working with an XFL quarterback, a rookie quarterback, and deshaun when he's there.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: And I don't think you can overstate what and we'll talk about Jim Schwartz here right now in just a second, but I don't think you can overstate what he's meant to this team. I mean, part of the knock on for us with Stefanski last year was the fact that he wouldn't just nut up and understand that Joe Woods was a problem and he needed to get rid of him. He stood behind his coach. He's like, he's our guy until the end and whatever. And it took so long to fire Joe Woods when he was clearly the problem on the defense. I mean, you even had players coming out last year saying, we don't understand our own defense, so what are we supposed to do? And that was what was part of what led to us calling him Stefanic is that you're not reading the room. You're not seeing what these guys you're not hearing what these guys are telling you.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: And that's a good segue, I would say. As far as reading the room, I don't know if this is even in the show later on, maybe not.
The fact that he called Jim Donovan into the locker room yesterday.
[00:39:13] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
We'll talk about it more. But yes, I mean, that was a touching moment and a good thing of, like you said, reading the room or the awareness of exactly what Jim Donovan means to the Browns organization from the.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: Head coach and to the fans.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So next up, Jim Schwartz. The defense looked elite yet again. Although it wasn't that hard to do because Pittsburgh sucks, especially their offense. It's complete asshole. But it was a divisional game, and weird things tend to happen in these games. I mean, they beat us the first time around. I know there was some weird circumstances in that that probably made us all lose our train of thought in that game.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Well, Nick Chubb died.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Yeah. But again, kudos to the D for never really letting Pittsburgh get anything going throughout this entire game.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: Look, you're running out of things each week to say about it's.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: True.
This segment gets shorter and shorter for Jim Schwartz because he's just a phenomenal coach. I don't know what else to say.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: I've never watched a Browns game where I don't question anything jim Schwartz could coach upside down in a clown suit wearing a bucket hat each week.
I'd be like, yeah, this is innovative.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: This is good.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: This is good stuff.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: It's so great watching a Browns defense where when they occasionally do know, the opposing team occasionally does break one and gets a touchdown. You're like they got us. It's not like, oh, here we go again. It's like, they got us that one time. But you're confident to your point that the next time we come out on defense, we're going to dominate you once again.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: For my entire life, I've been an offensive guy. I love watching backs and receivers make incredible plays. I love watching and analyzing quarterbacks. This is the first time in my life that you look forward to the defense. I'm more excited when our defense on the field than I am when our offense is on the field, because it is fun to watch.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: Yeah. But I've been a defensive guy, so I've just been enjoying the show from the get go this season. It's been awesome.
But moving on here, Buba Ventrone special teams did fine in this one. Proche averaged 12.3 yards per punt return, which is pretty solid. Bajoraquez had three punts inside.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: The 21 of those was a monster.
[00:41:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think he averaged, like, 48 yards a punt in this one on eight punts, so that's pretty good. And then DHOP hit a game winner again, so you can't ask for much more than that overall in this game. Total yards pittsburgh 249, cleveland, 259. 1st downs Pittsburgh twelve, cleveland, 20. Time of possession pittsburgh, 28 33, cleveland, 31 27. Penalties. Pittsburgh Six for 46. The Browns won for ten yards, which was awesome to see. And turnovers. We lost this one again, though. Pittsburgh zero, Cleveland one.
So, yeah. So a couple of notes from the game, specifically, more Cedric Tillman sightings in this one. As you mentioned, the reverse went to him, but I just hope we continue to see him work his way into the lineup, because the few times that I've seen his name called, it's exciting.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Well, the thing is that this wide receiver group hasn't done a whole lot. I mean, you have Coop and you have in Joku, and Elijah Mitchell has been finding his way.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Elijah Mitchell.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Elijah Moore. Sorry. Has been finding his way. But that's three guys. And we threw the ball 43 times this week. So there's room in this offense for another one.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. Especially if that's the game plan, if we're going to continue to let most of it was dinking and dunking, but if we continue to let Dorian Thompson Robinson throw the ball that many times this season, I mean, there's room, like you said.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: Well, their whole offense, even with Sean, was screened, so he can do that.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Next up, corner, Mike Ford, after the game, ran up to a Steelers fan and held up two towels, a Browns towel and a Steelers terrible towel. He proceeded to gift the Browns towel to the Steelers fan, and then he threw the terrible towel on the ground and then he picked it up and simulated the act of wiping his ass with it as he ran off the field. So last week you asked who Mike Ford was. This week, I say we sign him to a lifetime contract.
That dude is a dog. He gets us. He absolutely gets us.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Look, I'm here for it. Mike Ford is my dude.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: And then one more funny moment in this game. Miles Garrett picked up a helmet that you mentioned bone had fallen off a Kenny Pickett. And as soon as he picked it up, he kind of just held it in his hand and stared at it. And then the Steelers offensive linemen all ran over to him and took it out of his hand. And they all started kind of joking and shaking their heads, like, not again, not again.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: I wasn't going to do anything.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: You could tell in the broadcast that they were all kind of joking about it. It was just a funny moment, like even though they're rivals, that they could laugh about that a few years later and make it turn it into a joke.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: Plus, I think everybody on that Steelers team knows exactly what Mason Rudolph said.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It's weird. That play is actually a perfect example because I believe they played the audio from that play of them all talking. So that play, apparently there's audio from the NFL, but nobody has the audio of Mason Rudolph and what he said to Miles Garrett. That so oh, yeah. Strange. Yeah.
[00:44:16] Speaker C: Too much culturally going around at that time. Couldn't put that audio out there.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: No.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: Oh, no. Mason Rudolph would have been killed oh, yeah. In that locker room.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So in other Browns news here, as I mentioned earlier, deshaun Watson is now done for the year with a broken bone in his shoulder. That's super disappointing, obviously, because we were just starting to see glimpses from him. So now we have to wait until next season and potentially talk about Rust yet again, which is not what I want to do, but if what he gave us in the Ravens game is a taste of what we're going to see going forward, then I'm excited for it.
[00:44:48] Speaker B: You want to taste him?
[00:44:49] Speaker A: Okay, here we go.
And he will get Nick Chubb back. So next year, this offense may be just absolutely. We may be going from, like, one of the worst offenses in the league to one of the best offenses in the league.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: Or hear me out.
[00:45:04] Speaker A: Let me hear it.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: DTR. Wins the Super Bowl, and he's your quarterback next year. And deshaun Watson. We got to figure out how to get some picks back.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: If DTR. Even makes a playoff run, like, I'm talking like, we win one or two games.
[00:45:13] Speaker B: You win a divisional game.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, there's probably a quarterback controversy next year. I'm not even playing.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: And as much as I'm excited to see what Deshaun Watson can mean at that point, saying, okay, well, DTR. Did enough to win the rest of the season to get us into the playoffs. Look, and we won a game.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: I don't want to get ahead of myself here because DTR. Is a fifth round pick. Whatever.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: He's a rookie.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: I just think we're not saying this.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Is going to happen, but we're saying.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: If it does, that this team keeps winning regardless of the circumstances. And if DTR Is behind center look, right. And if DTR Is behind center.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: If he wins and leads this team to the playoff and wins a lot of a decent amount of games, he's going.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: To end up well enough to win.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Think about it, though. He's going to end up with more wins this season than Deshaun Watson had. Right.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: And his play is going to have to be better than what he did probably this week.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: I mean, you kind of have to talk about it. And again, we're not saying this is going to happen. We're not talking quarterback controversies into existence right now. But this team is great. And all he has to do is play decent, and all of a sudden you're like, well, their numbers look kind of the same, so what do we do?
[00:46:21] Speaker B: He's kind of like the same skill set. He's just younger and faster.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: Bottom line here. Bottom line here, we got to keep the defense together in the offseason. We got to make sure everybody stays.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: At least all the key players fire.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: Steal anyone else you need to.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:34] Speaker C: Including Jim Schwartz.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Yeah, Jim Schwartz gotta stay. I hope nobody signs him as a head coach.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Lifetime contract.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: It's going to be the most heartbreaking thing that's ever happened to Cleveland Browns ever.
Besides Nick Chubb getting hurt, it has.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: To be a head coaching gig, right, to be, like, released.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Oh, I would think upward. Yeah. I think it's going to be a head coaching job if he leaves.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: And the good news is, hopefully this Browns team makes it deep into the playoffs, and a lot of those head coaching positions will be filled before they have a chance to interview him because at that point, they're asking for permission to interview head coaches. And if you're in a playoff run, you're like, no, we're not doing this right now.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Continuing here with other Browns news, with this win, the Browns now have an 81.7 chance to make the percent chance to make the playoffs, according to ESPN. Don't know how you actually come up with those numbers, but those are the chances the Browns make the playoffs. So we're feeling pretty good here.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: I have no idea where those numbers come from either because what if DTR gets hurt this week and PJ. Walker comes back? What if PJ Walker gets hurt this week?
[00:47:28] Speaker A: Well, 74.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: I think CBS gave the Browns a 67% chance.
[00:47:36] Speaker A: Oh, so much lower.
[00:47:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: Margin of error.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: I may be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure that's what I heard.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: I heard Trump's going to be the president again.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Here we go. I don't know.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: Who knows?
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Next up. I've mentioned it a few times, but our offense is statistically worse this year than the one in 15 year. In fact, it is the second worst offense the Browns have had in the last ten years, second only to the Owen 16 year.
So hopefully, as we were talking about, DTR can kind of figure things out here and the offense can start playing a little bit better.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: There would have been, what, the Notre Dame kid?
[00:48:08] Speaker A: The sean kaiser.
On the flip side, though, the defense are allowing the least amount of yards per game since the 2000 Baltimore Ravens led by Ray Lewis. The 2023 Browns are giving up 242.6 yards per game, and the 2000 Ravens through ten games gave up 241.6. So 1 game difference between the two.
Also, in another facet of the game, dustin Hopkins has been responsible for 93 points scored this season for the Browns. To put that into perspective, the single season franchise record for a kicker is 120 by Phil Dawson in 2007. The single season franchise record for any player is 126 by Jim Brown in 1965. Dustin Hopkins may legitimately have a chance to be the all time leading scorer in a season for the Cleveland Browns this year.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: How many more field goals is that?
[00:49:07] Speaker A: I don't know, but we have seven games left.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: I mean, ten is 30. So it takes you to he's got.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: 93 through ten and we've got seven games left.
[00:49:17] Speaker C: It counts extra points, right?
[00:49:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: Extra points. Yeah.
He could be right in that mix, for sure.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: Well, you figure with our offense playing the way it has, we're going to settle for a lot of field goals.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: I mean, it's just wild to think that Dustin Hopkins, who we signed the week leading up to the first game, may break the franchise record for points.
[00:49:36] Speaker C: 15 more field goals, I don't think is out of the question.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: No.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: He's kicked a lot already, though.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: I mean, you look at some of these other kickers when they get up to kick, and they're like 16 to 18 on the season. I feel like Dustin's already well over 20 kicks this year.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Bone man, get on that.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: Let's I'll get on it.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Next up here, the Browns have signed Joe Flacco officially signed to the practice squad as of now. Supposedly, according to the Browns, he's going to be in a mentor role to DTR, and we're going to continue to roll with DTR. However, I believe if DTR starts to struggle, then Joe Flacco will indeed be our starter at some point this season.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Yeah, this is a weird move altogether. Look, I'm not saying I don't want them to have another quarterback on the roster. We've said that since really since Josh Dobbs left. Like, they need to bring another quarterback in as fragile as Deshaun was. So it's weird because it's a weird fit with DTR, right. Because you're going to run a totally different offense with Flacco than you were with Know. You totally lose the mobility aspect of the game there. What was weird was they had met with Flacco this week before the game or last week before the game and left without a contract. And they kind of said, we'll see what happens Sunday. Because I think the conventional wisdom was if they lost Sunday and he looked bad again, DTR looked bad again, then they would bring Joe Flacco in to start.
And then if what happened on Sunday happened, they win the game and DTR leads game winning drive, then you bring in a guy in a mentorship role. Weird to me that Joe Flacco at this point in his career, wants to come to Cleveland and be a that.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: Was my number one thought. I couldn't believe that he was willing to sign to the practice. Like, I would understand if they told him, we're going to bring you in a mentor role and we're going to sign you to the active roster, but you might not start. I can understand that. I can't believe he accepted a practice squad role with the Cleveland Browns. I mean, he's a former Super Bowl MVP, right? That's insane.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: And what's weird is, like, he was with the jets to start the season, and their quarterback situation is nowhere near solidified.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: We'll talk more about that.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: I don't know why.
Maybe he just knows how toxic that locker room is and wants out, which is weird altogether.
But maybe Flacco is also at the point in his career where he's like, I don't have a lot left in the tank, and I kind of want to flip.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: I just want to be back out there at some point.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Well, maybe he wants to be a coach. Maybe he wants to kind. Of set himself up kind of in a Josh McCallum role where he can spend a year or two doing that, and then now you kind of have that on your resume to go to an organization, say, hey, I worked with X, Y, and Z quarterbacks.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: I can see that Joe Blacko seems like that kind of guy, like he might want to continue being a part of the game in a coaching standpoint afterwards.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Speaking of backup quarterbacks and the Browns signing them, did you see was it RG three that was campaigning?
[00:52:30] Speaker A: Which that actually would have made more sense because he's like the same skill set that DTR is.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: He said he still runs a four three and.
[00:52:39] Speaker D: Played for the organization.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: I kind of wish that would have happened, because I would have liked to see I mean, not that I wanted him to start or anything like that, but if he did get on the field, it would have been nice to see him get kind of a chance at redemption, because I think he had.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: A really gino smith.
[00:52:53] Speaker A: Yeah, not quite probably to that level, but he had a really bad situation when he was here in Cleveland. We were just not oh, yeah, we were terrible. So did you find out about DHOP?
[00:53:02] Speaker C: Yeah, he's attempted 29 kicks and made 26.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's a fuck ton.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: I kind of expect that to keep going.
[00:53:11] Speaker B: That's an NFL season's worth of kicks already.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah, right, for sure. Final note, in other Browns news, there was a lot this week because there was a lot of things going on kind of off the field and on the field. But of the opponents the Browns have faced, only two of them are below 500.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: That is what is mind blowing.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: How they are currently seven and three with the season of injuries they've had is just another testament to how good this team is from top to bottom and also how good Kevin Stefanski has been this year to keep them all together.
[00:53:38] Speaker B: Well, I think what it is is like, this team, it's exactly that right. It's a team. These are team wins.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Oh, you could tell they all play for each other, too. The offense is talking to the defense on the sideline. Vice versa. They're all going to talk to the special teams after the game. Did you see them all congratulating DTR and telling them, yeah, they believe in you. We believe in you. They caught the audio of that. I think it was MJ. Emerson was giving him a pep talk. It was just like, hey, they believe in you. We believe in you. We're a good team. We're going to continue to win games.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: And that's exactly what it is. It's team wins. I mean, you watch some of these other games and you watch Patrick Mahomes. If Patrick Mahomes plays poorly, Kansas City will probably lose. You watch the Miami Dolphins. If two attack about lowell plays poorly, they probably lose.
Russell Wilson plays poorly, they lose.
This is a team that any person on this team could step up and make a play to win this game. Any game.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Absolutely.
All right, so that's it for the in other Browns news portion, but for this week only, since we just played the Steelers, who we hate, I've created kind of a mini segment for our show.
I'm going to call it Shitting on Schittsburg. Is there a sounder? You want one? All right. Shitting on schittsburg.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: Good choice there. Good choice. A sounder? No, I added this because we've been wavering a little bit on calling the Steelers trash of late. We were kind of unsure their record was starting to get pretty good. We were like, are they trash? Are they trash? We don't know. Here's the deal. They are indeed trash, almost. They are who we thought they were. They are phonies. They are absolute phonies. They're not as good as their records would indicate. And so we'll start with this. We're going to start player specific. We're going to start with Kenny Pickett.
Here's the deal. I'm going to give you guys some facts here. There are 315 quarterbacks that have 500 pass attempts since the merger in the NFL.
[00:55:43] Speaker B: That was a while ago for anybody that's counting.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: Yeah, like 1970.
Only one of them has thrown a touchdown on less than 2% of his attempts, and his name is Kenny Pickett at 1.9%.
[00:55:56] Speaker B: That's not good.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: No, that's not good.
[00:55:58] Speaker C: That's pretty low.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: After only two starts, Tommy DeVito now has more career games with multiple touchdown passes than Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett has one single game with multiple touchdown passes and Tommy DeVito has two.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: Have you guys seen the DeVito kid?
[00:56:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: It's so small.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: He's so small. Well, he has more multiple touchdown games than Kenny Pickett.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: I thought he was the worst quarterback I've ever seen. And now I know he's better than Kenny Pickett.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: He's better than Kenny Pickett.
[00:56:23] Speaker C: Kenny Pickett just needs, like, a first round stud receiver to throw to.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: He's got one.
Yeah, he's got one. Kenny Pickett and Anthony Richardson have the same amount of touchdown passes since October 1 with two.
Anthony Richardson has not played since October 1.
[00:56:41] Speaker C: That guy was hurt coming into the league.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Notable quarterbacks with more passing touchdowns than Kenny Pickett. Since the start of last season, Kenny Pickett has 13. We'll start with Davis Mills. He has 17.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Just clarify, you hearing 13 since last year.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: Since the beginning of last season. Kenny Pickett started all those games because.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: He'S only thrown for six. This year.
[00:57:00] Speaker C: Yeah, this is last year plus this year.
[00:57:02] Speaker A: Yeah, last year plus this year. Davis Mills has thrown for 17.
Marcus Mariota has thrown for 15. Matt Ryan has thrown for 14. And you're thinking about these names and something seems funny, right? Well, Davis Mills has attempted one pass this season and Marcus mariota and matt ryan have not attempted any passes this season, and they have more touchdown passes since the beginning of last year than kenny pickett. And we are ten games into the season, by the way. Wow. Just a quick question. Does anybody have any clue what pickett was seeing before he threw that absolute laser to literally nobody toward the end of the game? Did you guys see that?
[00:57:43] Speaker B: I was nervous when the ball went up, and then the ball came down.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Through that thing with authority like, you're like, this is a bomb. Somebody. Nobody who's open it was literally nobody.
And then finally, for kenny pickett, here the start. Mason rudolph cause have officially started all over twitter on sunday.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Start the racist.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: Yeah, the browns have officially broken the steelers fan base because coming into this thing, kenny pickett was still the answer. And everybody has not just jumped off the bandwagon wagon. They've completely abandoned know, you know, the little donut thing that you throw in. Like, there's just a whole bunch of them floating out there, and everybody's trying to find out they're out on kenny pickett.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: I will say this. Kenny pickett gives a bad name to all kenny's.
[00:58:30] Speaker A: Plus, he wears two gloves.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: And he wears two gloves.
[00:58:33] Speaker A: What an idiot. Next up here, TJ. Watt. I do have some shade to throw towards TJ.
[00:58:38] Speaker E: Watt.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: While he did have a sack in this game, and he is undoubtedly I'll give him this, he's undoubtedly a great player for everyone saying he's better than miles garrett. I've got a couple things here. Miles garrett has had a higher pass rush win percent every year they've been in the league together, except one. That season is not this season. In 2023, miles garrett has won 25.7% of his pass rushes, while TJ. Watt has only won on 13.5% of his.
So miles garrett greater than TJ. Watt. I think we can officially put that discussion to bed.
And then next up here for TJ. Watt. Everyone says nobody can stop TJ. Watt. Well, excuse my intermingling of comic book references, but apparently TJ. Watt's kryptonite is big thanos because duan jones completely shut him down this week. And actually, there's a play that's kind of out there on twitter and on all social medias of TJ. Watt rushing him, and he just throws him to the ground and lays right on top of him. It's just awesome.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: I love the lay down.
[00:59:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it was great. And dewan jones was my player to watch this week, and I said that if he was playing, I want to see what he does with TJ.
[00:59:50] Speaker E: Watt.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Well, he did not disappoint. And then next up here mike tomlin.
No shade to throw his way. Idiot. Fans in pittsburgh are calling for this man's job yet again. Dude has helped kenny pickett survive for 22 games. He's kept this trash team competitive.
Please fire him. Please fire him. Please.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: Down with tomlin.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Please.
[01:00:14] Speaker B: Down with Tom.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And we're not saying that because he's a bad coach. I'm saying that for the complete opposite reason. I want you guys to fire him so that we don't have to face him two times a year. Please do it. Please do it.
So with the Browns outgaining the Steelers in this one, the Steelers still have yet to outgain an opponent all year. That's a fun fact for you. And then finally, in this Shitting on Schittsburg segment here, and I know this was kind of a solo run for Ronnie Jams.
[01:00:44] Speaker C: I like it.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: The Pittsburgh Penguins goalie, Alex Nittle.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: Jokovic.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: I'm Polish. I should know how to say this.
[01:00:53] Speaker C: Nettle. Jokic.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: No, it's.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: Needle dick.
[01:01:02] Speaker A: Nettlejovich. Needle dick. I like that. Alex Nettlejovich, who is a Parma native. Fitting, he sounds Polish, so he's probably from Parma.
He was wearing a Miles Garrett jersey in the Pittsburgh Penguins locker room as he was doing his interviews this week and just kind of trolling all of the Pittsburgh fans over there. It's a pretty bold move out of.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: A Pittsburgh that'll endear yourselves of fans quickly in Pittsburgh, they take their hockey pretty seriously.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: Over do. They do. So that was pretty cool to see, but that'll do it for Shitting on Schittsburg. They know they're bad. We don't have to tell them.
[01:01:36] Speaker B: I want a professional hockey team in Cleveland again just so that we can beat Pittsburgh.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: That would be great. We don't even watch hockey, but we would watch that just so every time.
[01:01:46] Speaker B: They play Pittsburgh, I want them to win.
[01:01:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So that'll take us to the Burning River Sportscast Dog of the Week.
[01:02:04] Speaker E: Doesn't matter, man. You got to play tough people in.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: The National Football League. You got to be ready, and we.
[01:02:09] Speaker E: Got to be the dogs that we are every time we step on there on Sunday. And be ready to attack. And don't stop until we're in that locker room.
[01:02:27] Speaker A: Okay? So this week's Burning River Sportscast Dog of the Week is DTR. DTR came in and was 24 of 43 for 165 yards. He did not have a touchdown. He did throw one interception, three carries for 20 yards. But here's the deal.
This rookie led the team when they needed him the most. He had a game winning drive that culminated in a Dustin Hopkins field goal that put us ahead with 2 seconds left on the clock. He was composed. He didn't let the moment be too big for him. As Kenny mentioned earlier, it was night and day from his first start earlier this season. Obviously, there's a ton of room for improvement out of this kid, but coming in under these circumstances and doing what he did was nothing short of impressive. He was emotional after the win, and I mentioned it, MJ. Emerson went over to him and told him, like, hey, these fans believe in you. We believe in you. You're going to be our starter for a while, and we are excited to have you. And he easily outplayed Kenny Pickett.
And Kenny Pickett has been a starter for a while. He's a first rounder. And let's remind everybody that DTR is a fifth round rookie.
Pretty impressive from him.
[01:03:40] Speaker B: Tall order for DTR this year. You come in in your first starters against Baltimore, outside of the Browns, is the best defense in the league. You get your second on zero practice on like 4 hours notice without any notice at all.
And it's the second week of your NFL career, too. It's not just the second week of the season. Like most guys that have been there, done that, they kind of know how to prepare and do things. This was the second week of your new job.
[01:04:05] Speaker A: And to his credit, I think most quarterbacks would be like, I was ready. I just didn't know. He admitted I think it was actually pretty what's the word? Mature for a rookie. He was like, Look, I wasn't ready. I know you're supposed to prepare for every game as if you're the starter, but to your point, Kenny, he was basically like, that was the second game of my career. Even though we knew Deshaun was a little banged up, everybody expected him to play, and I had no idea that I would be starting that.
[01:04:35] Speaker B: So, yeah, tall order to start your career, but then to come back against another good defense, a divisional rival, the division rival, a team that is right behind you and you're basically in the standings pushing you, saying, hey, we're right there with you in the middle of essentially a playoff race to come in and be as steady as he was. There were some passes that he overthrew. Sure, there was passes that were behind guys, okay.
But he never made the big mistake.
And when it came down to it, brass tack.
[01:05:10] Speaker A: Even that interception wasn't his fault.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah, and Joku dropped a lot of balls. I mean, his completion percentage would have been better. He had the touchdown. That helps your stat line. So he played better than that stat line. And he also did a good job of knowing when to get involved with his feet, when to take off with the ball. I thought he did a decent job of outside of the block that he threw on the reverse. He did a decent job of taking care of his body because he went all out on that block. And I was kind of like, guy, you're our only quarterback left. You probably shouldn't blame, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that.
[01:05:42] Speaker A: We don't need those nine yards, not.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: That badly, but just to come out and be composed and lead that team. I think he wanted three or four passes there to put him into field goal range, and it was like he'd been doing it his whole life.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I will say on that block, though, I think that was a moment for him to rally the team around him, like, hey, I'm here. I'm here. And I don't care if it's the Steelers or who it is.
[01:06:05] Speaker B: I love a guy with balls. It's the same thing I love.
[01:06:07] Speaker A: But I agree with you. That being said, I agree with you.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: But you got to be really smart at this point in the season because we were already down every quarterback we've ever played.
So, yeah, I just think he did a really good job. And I think if this is kind of his floor right now, you can win games where his floor is. And I think his ceiling is potentially sky high. Yeah, I mean, you don't know what it is. So the more this kid gets comfortable, the more he gets comfortable with his legs.
[01:06:33] Speaker A: Now we are going to be like Pittsburgh fans and say, this guy's the savior.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: He may be the next deshaun Kaiser.
[01:06:39] Speaker A: He might be the next Kenny Pickett. Who knows?
[01:06:41] Speaker B: But we know that Deshaun Kaiser's offense apparently would have won games with this team. This he I think he did a really nice job. I'm excited to see how he develops over the next few weeks. And look, this is the reason they got rid of Josh Dobbs, right? Because we watched the preseason with DTR, they were confident. They liked guy looks like a good quarterback. Nobody questioned at the time when we got rid of Josh Dobbs, we questioned it afterwards when your quarterback got hurt, but nobody questioned at the time because we said, DTR played so well in the preseason. Why not why not keep this guy around? And this is the reason why. These guys see him in practice every day. They know what he's capable of. They know what his potential is. And we're about to see it. And the thing is, hell, we're seven and three. So what's the worst can happen?
[01:07:23] Speaker A: Bone, man. What say you about DTR?
[01:07:26] Speaker C: I think he's exciting. He adds another layer to just the week leading up to the Browns game where you're like, I'm excited to watch the Browns game. I want to see what DTR does.
[01:07:34] Speaker A: I think in the excitement factor, he definitely brings more than, like, you kind of know what you got with Walker. Like, there's still that unknown with even even to this point. You're like, kind of like you said with the ceiling. Where is it? I don't know.
[01:07:46] Speaker C: He really whips the ball. He puts a nice zip on it. I think that maybe is the reason why there was so I think that.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Was why they were so I mean.
[01:07:52] Speaker C: You say they practice all week, but I mean, game time. Maybe he was adding a little bit.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: Extra, a little.
[01:08:00] Speaker C: Long. I forget how long the pass was, but it was probably his longest pass of the day that he got the Cooper. Amari Cooper on that last drive was just awesome. Right up the middle. Just lasered it in. There just clutch timing.
[01:08:12] Speaker A: And it was my only knock on DTR right now is he wears some silly clothes coming into the game. Those were OD. But teach their own fashion. Not for me, but that'll take us to the division roundup.
Ready? Go.
Okay. So this week in the division, the Bengals lost to the Ravens in Baltimore in a game where Joe Burrow tore a ligament in his wrist and is officially done for the year.
So with that, I will say the Bengals are probably done for the year because he was basically their entire team.
[01:08:54] Speaker B: Because what was the backup's name?
[01:08:57] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah.
[01:08:58] Speaker B: Brownlee or something.
[01:08:59] Speaker A: Yeah, browning. Jake Browning. No. And so I will say I was wrong in this, and Kenny and Bone were both right. I will say this, though. When Joe Burrow got hurt, the Bengals had the so, but then he got hurt. So it is what it is. And you guys were right. Good job, guys.
[01:09:18] Speaker B: I mean, when he threw that ball on his and he grabbed it, oh.
[01:09:20] Speaker A: You knew right away. Like something seriously.
[01:09:22] Speaker B: Oh, man, it's over. And then they showed him on the sidelines and he hit the fuck word. And you were like, oh, boy.
[01:09:26] Speaker A: Yep.
And then obviously, Cleveland hosted Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers in a defensive battle. We picked this game before the Deshaun Watson news broke. So our predictions may have looked a little different if we hadn't if we had known about Deshaun Watson before we made them. But I told Kenny, we just got to roll with it, man. We just got to roll with it. We made the picks and we got to stick with them. But I would say this, maybe we wouldn't have picked different winners, but I'm fairly certain the scores would have been slightly different than they were.
Not that those matter anyways. They literally mean nothing on our show.
[01:10:01] Speaker B: Points don't matter.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So results for this one, we were all right. We all picked the browns. And so for the AFC North, things remain close, but we seemingly got some clarity this week as two teams may be separating themselves, and that's obviously the Ravens and the Browns. And one is probably done for the year. They're probably going to fall off here for sure.
And that's the Bengals. And I don't think Pittsburgh's far behind them, to be honest with you. I think the wheels are going to fall off of that here soon.
But the standings in the AFC North are as follows. Baltimore is in first place at eight and three. Cleveland's in second place at seven and three. Pittsburgh's in third place at six and four. And Cincinnati is at the bottom of the division where they belong five and five. And if the Browns win their next two games, here's something exciting. Regardless of what Baltimore does, if the Browns win their next two games, they will be in first place in the division because the Browns hold the tiebreaker against the Ravens because they'll have the same division record, but they'll be a game better in the conference.
So at this point, ten games in the Browns control their own destiny in the AFC North.
[01:11:09] Speaker B: And nice thing is that the Browns have already played the Steelers twice, the Ravens twice, and the Bengals once. And the Bengals are at the end of the season, and they're going to.
[01:11:20] Speaker A: Probably be tanking for picks.
[01:11:21] Speaker B: Taking for picks.
[01:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So for King of the north and we'll talk more about this later. Bone man and I are neck and neck at 18 and 15. We're necking out there.
[01:11:30] Speaker B: You guys are necking.
[01:11:31] Speaker A: And Kenny is bringing up the rear at 15 and 18.
[01:11:36] Speaker B: I'm coming for you.
[01:11:37] Speaker A: But with that, let's take a quick trip around.
Okay, so Kareem Jackson has been suspended four games after he completely torpedoed himself into Josh Dobbs. Into Josh Dobbs'head, actually in his first game back after being suspended two games for doing the exact same thing. So I don't really know what he was thinking here, but this one looked bad.
There was actually a similar play in college football this week. I don't know if you guys caught this where the DB jumped up and just like headbutted the receiver. And it was a similar play. And I told my wife, I said, that is what targeting was created for. And I agree with that being targeting. And that's what we got to get out of the game. You can't just head butt people.
[01:12:36] Speaker B: You should always head butt people.
[01:12:38] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, this is bad. What was he thinking?
[01:12:43] Speaker B: What was he thinking? What was the referee what were the referees thinking? Because there was no flag thrown on this.
[01:12:49] Speaker A: I feel like that's been a trend this year because I think there's been a couple of Browns games where Browns players have been hit that way. Yeah, but it should have been a flag.
[01:12:55] Speaker B: But it's the quarterback. And I know he was a runner at the time, but it's Josh Dobson. Nobody cares about Josh Dobbs quarterback.
[01:13:01] Speaker A: It's the same thing as if DTR or PJ. Walker got hit. Nobody cares. Or backup quarterbacks.
[01:13:07] Speaker B: True.
[01:13:07] Speaker A: So they don't get the calls, hey.
[01:13:10] Speaker C: We don't got to play this guy this week. Now he's going to be true.
[01:13:13] Speaker A: Good news.
[01:13:14] Speaker B: Good news.
[01:13:15] Speaker A: Speaking of hurting people, Mark Andrews is done for the season. And there's people talking about the hip drop tackle needs to be banned after this one. And I got to ask guys, do they mean tackling?
Tackling needs banned.
[01:13:28] Speaker B: I know this made me laugh because I'm thinking to myself as just, again, we know the NFL game is totally different than the high school game. But just think about like, this was just a tackle. If I had to tackle somebody that was bigger than me, there's two ways that was my move.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: There's two ways. Number one is straight to the ankles.
[01:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, anything below the low man wins.
[01:13:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And number two, you hang on them in dead weight.
[01:13:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:13:54] Speaker A: You just drop to the ground with all of your weight. Yeah.
[01:13:56] Speaker B: And if you can take out a leg by swinging your hips and your ankles underneath their feet, then that's what you do.
[01:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah. This is literally a tackle. All the people that were calling for the, quote, hip drop tackle to be banned this week, I was like, these people clearly have never tackled somebody. I mean, anybody that's calling for it to be banned has never tackled probably.
[01:14:14] Speaker B: 44% of the tackles in the league are hip drop tackles. Like, how are they going to tackle.
[01:14:18] Speaker A: Anyone who coins a name for this? It's literally just a tackle.
What do you mean, the hip drop tackle? That doesn't exist. That's not a thing.
[01:14:27] Speaker B: I hate people. These are the things that make me hate people.
[01:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:30] Speaker B: Just the fact that you would come up with something like this and write a story about it, I don't know, it came from, like, USA Today or somewhere like, go punch yourself in the face repeatedly. No one wants to hear from you.
[01:14:39] Speaker A: These people suck, man. Speaking of things that suck, the Bears lost in historic fashion this week. First team in NFL history to lose with plus three turnover margin and 40 minutes plus time of possession. All other teams in these circumstances in NFL history were 48 and up to this point, no longer.
[01:15:00] Speaker B: The Cavs were the first team to come back from three and one.
[01:15:03] Speaker A: Dubbears next up here, in a recent interview, Travis Kelsey said that retirement is constantly on his mind, and it is something he thinks about more than anyone could ever imagine.
[01:15:15] Speaker B: Can you imagine how hard it is to keep Swift happy?
[01:15:18] Speaker A: True.
I can't imagine that. That's probably why she's written so many albums about her ex boyfriend.
[01:15:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:15:26] Speaker A: Because it's a tough job. It's an all day job.
[01:15:28] Speaker B: He just doesn't want to end up with the next era. Travis yeah.
[01:15:32] Speaker A: Well, and then I think he probably realizes, like, I got a decent amount of money so far. I got a lot of endorsements.
I could probably just retire right now, and Taylor's going to make enough money for both of us for the rest of our lives if I just keep her happy.
[01:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Happy wife, happy life. Especially when she's a billionaire, basically.
[01:15:48] Speaker A: I will say this, though. He did talk about his ten surgeries. He doesn't bring them up often, but he said there's a lot of lingering pain from those. So, I mean, we never played in the NFL, obviously. I mean, look at us.
[01:15:59] Speaker B: I have plenty of pain.
[01:16:00] Speaker A: I have pain all over. I'm pretty sure I have CTE. And I say that just because I have, like, constant headache, just nonstop. But I'm almost positive that's from all.
[01:16:09] Speaker B: The concussions, you had quite a few concussions.
[01:16:11] Speaker A: I've had at least, like, eight concussions.
Football. Yeah. And I'm talking ones where I've been either knocked out or damn near knocked out.
[01:16:22] Speaker B: You like to do that?
[01:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah. It was not good.
[01:16:25] Speaker B: The only thing I would have to say about that to Travis Kelsey is travis Kelsey seems to me to be a guy that I forget a lot of things, too.
He thrives on competition, and so I.
[01:16:38] Speaker A: Think that's probably what keeps him in it.
[01:16:39] Speaker B: Would keep him in it, because he'll have the potential. If you keep playing with Pat Mahomes for the next four years, you have the potential to go down as the best tight end in NFL history.
[01:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great segue, by the way, because his budy Pat Mahomes revealed that he has worn the same red pair of underwear for every game of his entire career.
[01:16:58] Speaker B: That's gross.
[01:16:59] Speaker A: They were given to him by his wife, Brittany. He wore them in his first game, and they did so well that they stuck. Literally. They were sticky.
[01:17:07] Speaker B: They stuck on them.
[01:17:08] Speaker A: I'm just kidding. No, he does good.
[01:17:10] Speaker B: Take them off all week.
[01:17:11] Speaker A: He said he does wash them and only wears them on game days, but.
[01:17:16] Speaker B: He'S still played over 100 games in the NFL.
[01:17:19] Speaker A: That's true, but think about how many times you wear your underwear, and they're still pretty good shape before you get rid of them.
[01:17:25] Speaker B: I keep my underwear forever.
[01:17:27] Speaker A: Case in point.
But needless to say, he's doing an interview about his underwear. Travis Kelsey is doing interviews about retiring. These guys are in different places, I think.
Next up here, Brock Purdy makes approximately $1 million per year, but he still splits rent with a roommate and drives a Toyota SUV. So I think this just speaks to once again, please don't live in California. Their taxes are insane. They will take all of your money from you, and their cost of living is through the roof.
[01:17:56] Speaker B: The cost of living is crazy. It's like $2,300 a month for a one bedroom apartment for a condo.
[01:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just wild. I mean, we're lucky. We live in the second least expensive place in the nation, I think second only to West Virginia.
[01:18:11] Speaker B: Here, west Virginia.
[01:18:13] Speaker A: And so we have very affordable housing. Come to Ohio. Come live in Ohio if you'd like, but don't go to California, because you won't be able to afford it.
[01:18:20] Speaker C: And be a Browns fan.
[01:18:22] Speaker A: Be a Browns fan.
[01:18:23] Speaker B: Join the Brownsbackers organization.
[01:18:24] Speaker A: Brock Purdy, though, he also did the big balls dance this week, and people did not like that. They thought it was offensive.
It was deemed not safe for work, in case anyone's wondering. He just acted like he had big balls and walked around.
[01:18:39] Speaker B: He did throw a 76 yard touchdown.
[01:18:41] Speaker A: You got to have big balls to throw a 76 yard touchdown.
[01:18:44] Speaker C: Telling his own truth, maybe he has really big balls.
[01:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true.
[01:18:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:18:48] Speaker B: Maybe it's just a reality.
[01:18:50] Speaker C: Sounds like a bunch of body shamers to me.
[01:18:53] Speaker A: How dare we? How dare we.
Speaking of body shamers, zach Wilson has been replaced by Tim Boyle as the starting quarterback for the jets.
You wonder why I call him a body shamer. It's because he only talks to MILFs. So I guess it's more of an ageist thing than body shaming. But you have to be at least 45 years old for Zach Wilson to talk to you.
[01:19:17] Speaker B: I mean, if you're 45 years old and 400 pounds. Is Zach Wilson talking to you?
[01:19:21] Speaker A: Yes.
No, he's not. But I will say this him being benched, it gives him more time to hunt for MILFs.
[01:19:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:19:29] Speaker A: MILF Hunter on the so another quarterback news.
Will CJ. Stroud be the first Ohio State quarterback to make the Pro Bowl? What do you guys think?
[01:19:39] Speaker B: It's amazing. There's no Ohio State quarterbacks.
[01:19:41] Speaker A: It is amazing. There's been some big name quarterbacks. I mean you think back to like Troy Smith and he actually played several years for the Ravens and he never made a Pro Bowl. He didn't play overly great, but he also wasn't bad for the Ravens either.
[01:19:55] Speaker C: I say he makes it.
[01:19:56] Speaker A: I think he makes it too. And I will say this and I actually put it in here, I think the dude's a lock for Rookie of the Year right now.
And I would say he has to be an MVP talks to this point. And I'm being dead serious when I say that. I mean, I know he's a rookie, but he's got some of the best statistics out of any quarterbacks. And we all know that quarterbacks dominate the MVP talks, so he's got to.
[01:20:18] Speaker B: Be up there legitimately. CJ. Stroud is second in the NFL in passing.
[01:20:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:20:23] Speaker B: So it's 2900 yards, 17 touchdowns, five.
[01:20:25] Speaker A: And the Texans who everybody thought would be ass are pretty competitive.
[01:20:30] Speaker B: I mean he has more yards than two. Attack of Aloa, josh Allen, Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes the list goes on and on. The only person that's out thrown him is Sam Howell.
[01:20:42] Speaker A: How does Sam Howe have that many yards?
[01:20:45] Speaker B: He's not bad, man.
[01:20:46] Speaker A: I think he's bad.
[01:20:47] Speaker B: He has thrown twelve of picks but he's got 18 touchdowns.
[01:20:49] Speaker A: I still think he's ass. That's like the year James Winston threw for like 5000 yards and he's telling everybody he's elite. But he forgot to mention he threw for 30 interceptions.
[01:20:58] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but the thing is CJ. Is thrown five and if you look at the touchdowns passers with touchdowns this year, the top touchdowns is Josh Allen Tua at 22 and 21. So he's not far off the pace there and you're basically leading the league in passing yards. So I don't know how he's not a lock to be a Pro Bowler. And like you said, Rookie of the Year for sure.
[01:21:19] Speaker A: I think he's definitely Rookie of the Year.
I think he could stop playing today and not play a single game the rest of the year. And he's rookie of the year.
[01:21:26] Speaker B: Yeah, if he had hurt or something. Yeah, it's impressive. 3000 yards, 17 touchdowns, five picks. It's a good start then.
[01:21:33] Speaker A: Next up here, Carissa Thompson had to apologize this week after she admitted on a podcast that she just makes stuff up for her sideline reports on Amazon Prime and Fox Sports. She literally said she just makes stuff up.
[01:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah, this was a little bit of what do they call this?
[01:21:51] Speaker A: Even if that's what you do, you.
[01:21:52] Speaker B: Can'T say that gaslighting. Because it was early in the week. She did a podcast and she was kind of like joking, like, oh, I just make stuff up. And then when people were like, you can't say that. And she was like, oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it.
[01:22:04] Speaker A: It was one of those forced apologies.
[01:22:06] Speaker C: This is a few years removed too. Like she's not a sideline reporter anymore.
[01:22:09] Speaker B: No, she's like the lead on the Amazon Prime for Thursday Night Football. She is the lead host.
[01:22:17] Speaker A: She's moved up.
[01:22:18] Speaker B: She's moved up. Yeah, but that's her experience.
[01:22:20] Speaker A: Green or past truck, whatever they say.
[01:22:22] Speaker B: But she basically went on to say she just would get used sports cliches like, hey, we know we need to play better in second half, or hey, we got to make sure we run the ball better in the second half whether or not she had talked to a coach or not. Because basically no one was going to fact check her on those things was basically her.
[01:22:39] Speaker A: Because how can you are you seriously the one of the press going to ask the coach after the game, hey, at halftime you said you need to run the ball better to Carissa Thompson. Did you actually say that?
[01:22:48] Speaker B: And to be fair, if you've watched some of these sideline reports, like live, when they happen, the coaches don't want.
[01:22:53] Speaker A: To talk to anybody.
[01:22:54] Speaker B: They're pissed off. They wouldn't go in the locker room, make adjustments. Let's watch Belt Belichick ever give a halftime speech.
[01:23:00] Speaker A: You're lucky if you get a grunt out of that.
[01:23:02] Speaker C: Yeah, sometimes they don't stop walking.
[01:23:04] Speaker A: They're actually on the mean. I thought it was a big deal made of nothing and I think it's going to blow over, but it's still funny to hear, like, I just make shit up.
[01:23:14] Speaker B: Oh yeah. I mean, the thing that what probably made people angry was people that are in the industry and they're like, great.
[01:23:20] Speaker A: Now everybody thinks I make everything up.
[01:23:21] Speaker B: Bust their ass to get interviews and talk to you. You know how hard it is just.
[01:23:24] Speaker A: To get people scheduled for I schedule fun fact here at Burning River Sportscast. I schedule the interviews and it's a bear to run these people down.
[01:23:33] Speaker B: Sometimes I tell Ronnie who I want and he gets it done.
[01:23:36] Speaker A: It's true. It's true. It's true.
[01:23:38] Speaker B: He still has not delivered me a Khalifa.
[01:23:40] Speaker A: Speaking of which, we've got a meeting coming up here with Logo Girl.
[01:23:43] Speaker B: Excellent.
[01:23:44] Speaker A: Stay tuned for that. That's just a teaser of what may be coming here.
[01:23:47] Speaker B: I'll tease you.
[01:23:49] Speaker A: That's weird, man. You're weird.
[01:23:51] Speaker B: You're going to like it.
[01:23:52] Speaker A: I'm not. And finally, to round out our trip around the league, speaking of Amazon Prime, for the first time ever, there will be a Black Friday game on Amazon Prime this year. We are not affiliated with Amazon Prime whatsoever. I don't give a shit if you buy it or not, but it's pretty cool because we are one step closer to football every day of the week.
[01:24:14] Speaker B: Hell yes.
[01:24:15] Speaker A: Hell yes. Now. We got Thursdays. We got Fridays. We got Saturdays. Occasionally. We got Sundays. We got Mondays. There's only three days left.
[01:24:24] Speaker B: I mean, the thing is that there's.
[01:24:26] Speaker A: Only two days left.
[01:24:26] Speaker B: The problem is that I got it wrong.
[01:24:28] Speaker A: There's only two days left.
[01:24:29] Speaker B: The problem is that it's proven that you could put the NFL on any day.
[01:24:33] Speaker A: Any day. And it will be the number one.
[01:24:35] Speaker B: Watch mean you can watch jets versus Jaguars and people are like, yep, I'm tuning in.
[01:24:41] Speaker A: And it's funny because they'll talk about like, oh, no, the jets versus Jaguars game had low ratings. Well, how did it compare to everything else?
[01:24:47] Speaker B: Oh, it beat everything, but compared to.
[01:24:49] Speaker A: Other NFL games, it was right. So, yeah, I'm excited. Bone. You want football every day?
[01:24:56] Speaker C: Every day. What do we got? Well, college, we got maxin on Tuesday.
[01:24:59] Speaker A: Every day and ten times on Sunday. That's what I always say.
[01:25:02] Speaker B: You get Maxing on Sundays. That's true.
[01:25:04] Speaker C: Or Tuesdays.
[01:25:05] Speaker B: Tuesdays. Sorry. Yeah, that's what I said.
[01:25:07] Speaker A: Yeah. But that will end our trip around the NFL. Kenny, would you like to do an interview?
[01:25:14] Speaker B: I love interviews.
[01:25:15] Speaker A: All right, so something we started this year is our Brownsbackers Interview Series. What we wanted to do is highlight Brownsbackers from around the country. We wanted to do this for several reasons. One, obviously these people were all diehard Browns fans and love our Brownies, regardless of their record. That part's obvious. The Browns have fans everywhere. They show up rain or shine at their viewing locations and support the team no matter what. But we also the second part of this is we wanted to highlight what most people may not know about the Browns backers, and that's the fact that they do a lot of good work around their respective communities through charity and community service. So with that, let's go ahead and jump right into the next interview in this series.
Okay, so this week for our brownsbackers interview series, we get to chat with cliff from the mile high brownsbackers. Cliff, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
[01:26:29] Speaker D: Oh, it's fantastic. It's been good.
[01:26:33] Speaker A: Thanks for taking the time. I know everybody's time is valuable. I know you got a lot of things you're doing, getting ready for knock on wood.
[01:26:41] Speaker D: Is there a miracle on the shore happening? I don't know.
[01:26:45] Speaker A: I think there might be. I think there might be. So as we get into this, just kind of tell me a little bit about your guys'chapter out there.
[01:26:53] Speaker B: All right.
[01:26:54] Speaker D: We've been around since we are celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2023.
[01:27:00] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:27:01] Speaker D: People answered an ad in a paper in one of the newspapers here back in 1983. Hey, we put a bill NASA satellite dish in my backyard and, hey, Browns fans, come on over to our house and help us pay for it.
At that point, they answered 30 people actually answered that classified ad. And that's how the Mile high brownsbackers started. And then the first time they came outside of Terry and Sheila Acres house, we went to a banquet room at a hotel and we used to carry our TVs into the banquet rooms. And then we'd string about $100 worth of cable from Radio Shack and we'd string it out to the satellite dish out back of the hotel and crank the dang thing till we could find the satellite signal and stuff like that. And then we started going into bars and then DirecTV. And it's been a process since then.
[01:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So where are you guys at now? What's your viewing location?
[01:28:10] Speaker D: Well, we have three viewing locations. We're at Stoney's uptown in the Capital Area district, 17th and Downing. We watch at Alpha Charlie's, which is down on a Rapahoe Road in Peoria on the southern part of the city. And then our main viewing location is Stoney's at 111 Lincoln.
And I will tell you that it is absolutely one of the I would put it up with any Browns backers bar in this town or in this country that it's one of the best.
[01:28:44] Speaker A: Nice. So Stoney's really loves you guys is the bottom line.
[01:28:47] Speaker D: Yes, Stoney's loves us and we love them, and we love everything about Stony's has brought us sponsors and things that we can do that I thought we would never be able to do and stuff and help us to raise the types of money that we've raised over since 2018. We've raised over about $35,000 for nations throughout the Denver area, including people that lost everything in the Haman fires a few years back and stuff like that. And we found ways to find $1,500 during the pandemic and stuff like that. So about $35,000. And our main three this year, savio House, who's been helping out senior supports or I'm sorry, Savio House, who's been helping out the folks families in crisis since 1968 here in town, senior Support Services, who's helped out homeless seniors since 1974 here at a Mile High. And then we have a new one, Angel Eyes. And they sponsor a beer fest for Suds for SIDS in March. And we will be donating our goal is $3,000 to them to purchase tickets to introduce this great beer fest to them or to more of the Denver area.
[01:30:13] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. So you guys are involved in a lot out there. You got a lot going on. So with being involved in that many different things, having three different viewing locations, I mean, how many members do you have? You got to have a decent amount, right?
[01:30:26] Speaker D: Membership has never been a terribly important number to us.
We have 372 or 373 right in here. But membership doesn't matter. What matters is game day. Game day at our watch party sites and stuff like that. We're not like a lot of organizations in Cleveland and stuff like that. It's about game day, and we try to throw our parties outside of the market or outside of the season. They can be somewhat successful. But we've also had what's amazing about the Mile High Browns Packers is that, to be honest with you, we got old and as an organization. And at the end of 2017 or that owen 16 season, Stony's one of the top three. And that was their third year of being the top sports bar in Denver.
Called us and said, we would love to have you come to Stoney's and use us as your watch party site. Well, needless to say, go to them and say yes, absolutely. So we're at Stony's as our main watch party site at this point, and it's been a fantastic relationship since the day we walked in in 2018.
[01:31:52] Speaker A: So what I'm gathering is the owner of Stoney's has to be a Browns fan. There's no other explanation.
[01:31:57] Speaker D: No, he is not a Browns fan. What he is and the other owner, Will Troutman, who was the individual that recognized the opportunity that, hey guys, we got to go get the Browns backers. They're an organized club. They obviously have some decent social media that we're doing our best to expand and stuff like that. So that's one of the reasons why they reached out to us.
Stoney, Jesse, and Will Troutman, who opened up Stoney's, are originally from Kansas and Oklahoma, where we compete with this I don't want to say we compete. We work with Stoney's and with the New Orleans Saints fans and then several different college groups that call Stoney's home and stuff.
But Stoney's reached out to us originally and it's been a relate we work with Coarse Light. We work with White Claw. We work with Twisted Tea, who is the sponsor of our Twisted Tea Tailgate with facilities at Stony's. This coming it's I'm the luckiest Brownspackers president on the planet.
[01:33:22] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[01:33:23] Speaker A: No, that is awesome.
We've talked to quite a few Brownsbackers groups, and while they do get decent support from their viewing locations, it sounds like Stoney's is on a whole different level from just about everybody else. So it's pretty fantastic to I mean, you know, you got a lot of members, you got three different viewing locations you alluded to. It a little bit about a couple of events that you have coming up, but can you tell us a little bit more about those events?
[01:33:54] Speaker D: Yeah, coming up this coming Saturday after Thanksgiving is the 2116 at 52 80 Browns back or I should say backers bash at Stony's.
Tickets are $20, and that'll get you a commemorative cup. You walk in the door, commemorative cup and several different beers of choice. Obviously, those under 21 will enjoy a complimentary soda throughout the event.
[01:34:26] Speaker A: We'll put a QR code up here as you're talking so everybody can get all the information for that. Okay.
[01:34:32] Speaker D: Yeah, please scan that QR code. It's $20. That gets you in the door. We have a former Browns joining us, alumni from who you got? So we got Phil Taylor, offensive nice. Yeah, offensive lineman from 2011 to 2014.
[01:34:49] Speaker A: Defensive lineman, wasn't he?
[01:34:51] Speaker D: Defensive lineman, absolutely. I apologize.
[01:34:53] Speaker A: Yeah, we got an interview coming up with him. So he's a friend of the show.
[01:34:58] Speaker D: He's going to be here on that Saturday night, and I look forward to us showing him a good time. That being a part of what is happening with Browns fans and Browns backers organizations around the country and especially in the NFL 32 cities.
It's happening. And Phil being a part of this is going to be a lot of fun. And you can make a few bucks, man.
[01:35:28] Speaker A: It's not a bad gig, I guess.
[01:35:29] Speaker B: Absolutely. So, Cliff, what's your story? Are you from Northeast Ohio originally and a transplant or found some other way to the Browns living out there in Denver?
[01:35:39] Speaker D: I grew up in Vandalia, Ohio, 10 miles north of Dayton, where the Dayton airport is.
My dad was a diehard Browns fan, and when the Bengals came around in 68, half the family went with the Bengals and half the family stuck with the Browns. And my dad stuck with the Browns because that was his original professional football team in 1946.
So went to Ohio University and after 18 months, two years of spending back home in Vandalia, had the opportunity to move to Denver in 1985.
[01:36:22] Speaker A: Nice. So when dad stuck with the Browns, you stuck with the Browns as well, it sounds like.
[01:36:26] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely. And my mother good man. Yeah, I should say my mother ended up being a Browns fan, which just shocked me. But we could talk for hours about that situation.
[01:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Good on all you guys, though, because we don't like the Bengals.
No, I don't know, but that's great. So, I mean, obviously you guys have several events coming up. I know you mentioned the backers bash on Saturday. Did you guys have any other events that are coming up down the road this season or even after the season that you already know about?
[01:37:04] Speaker D: We will also have Sunday tailgate at Stony's. We're calling it the Twisted Tea Tailgate with facilities. We're going to open the doors at Stony's on Sunday morning at 09:00. Yeah, guess what? It's not outdoors. It's not in the parking lot. Of other stadium. But guess what? It's nice and warm. It's 32 degrees, and there's a running water just around the corner.
Tailgate use Uber and get over and get over to the stadium.
We will open up with a twisted tea with the first annual Mile High Brownsbackers beer pong.
Yeah, we're going to run a beer pong tournament for the first time and see how that goes and run with it on that Sunday morning. And then I have to add the folks at the Boulder Browns backers, and Jamie Jacinski is the president up there in Boulder. And you may have seen Jamie and Boulder with what's his name, nathan Segura, that they've worn his shirts on their shows. So he's DJing our party on Saturday night. And then he's running a tailgate out in parking lot E here at what do they call that damn thing now? The one that's named after us? Oh, Empower Field at Mile High Stadium. So anyways, yeah, he'll have that going on. And that's what's happened. That's the future. And then, you know what, every day at Stoney's, every day at Alpha Charlie's, every day at Stoney's. Uptown is an event for a Browns game. And we're raising monies for our chapters, for our charities all throughout this season and stuff like that. So things will not stop after the game here this coming Sunday.
[01:38:58] Speaker A: Very nice. Well, if it wasn't Thanksgiving weekend, me and Kenny would be buying tickets to head on out there and whoop everyone's ass in.
[01:39:08] Speaker D: Next year. We want the Dan game to be.
I've already talked to or sent a letter, email to Roger and said, hey.
[01:39:16] Speaker A: Roger, first freaking week, you and Roger on a first name basis.
[01:39:20] Speaker D: That's already first week of October because the Browns are right back here next year.
[01:39:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:39:27] Speaker B: So obviously with the Browns played the Broncos this weekend, are you expecting a much larger crowd than usual, people coming in, flying in for the game?
[01:39:36] Speaker D: I swear, and I have no data, information or anything like that, but 2018, I swear, there were at least 10,000 Browns fans in this stadium. 2019, I'd say there might have been ten to twelve. We were able to host tailgates in 2018 and 19. And unfortunately, the land that we did that on has been built on. So that parking lot is now an apartment building. So we knew this year that's why we took our tailgate indoors was just because we knew we couldn't top 19. We're going to work for next year. Maybe we can top 19. But 2019, our tailgate drew 18. It drew 1500. In 2019, we drew 2000 Browns fans out in our tailgate.
[01:40:25] Speaker A: Just take over the apartment.
Yeah.
Kenny started to get into the football side of things here. So what are your thoughts on the game against the Steelers this past week?
[01:40:41] Speaker D: Oh, my God.
Like I said, there's a miracle going on on the North Shore. That's me knocking on wood. Right now, there's a miracle going on the North Shore.
We've got a defense that just doesn't freaking quit.
[01:40:58] Speaker A: No.
[01:40:59] Speaker D: And for DTR to do what he did that last drive, four completions after not looking so terribly good, like I said, it's a freaking miracle.
[01:41:14] Speaker A: I will say on DTR's end and we just actually talked about this a few minutes ago in our show, but on DTR's end, I don't think it was all his fault. I think he actually would have looked a lot better if there wasn't so many drops in this.
[01:41:29] Speaker D: Definitely how I count three, if I recall correctly.
I recall three drops on his part. So yeah, there was a lot of drops.
[01:41:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So without those, obviously, probably, I'm guessing he would have had about 100 more yards and another touchdown.
[01:41:51] Speaker B: I think the important thing was you saw a good level of growth from game one where he didn't have a lot of preparation, to this week where it felt like he had enough time to at least work with the ones and get some good reps in this week at practice. So it probably looked a lot better.
[01:42:05] Speaker D: Do you think it's all about designing an offense for the person that's behind center instead?
Yeah, it was obvious that Kevin designed the offense for his skill set and not the shot.
[01:42:22] Speaker A: I'm still a little concerned that he threw the ball 43 times, but besides that, I think it looked much better this time around than the first time.
[01:42:29] Speaker D: He threw the ball 43 times yesterday.
[01:42:32] Speaker A: Yes, he did.
[01:42:33] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh. No, obviously I was selling too many raffle tickets.
[01:42:37] Speaker A: Because you were out doing your job and we were here doing ours.
[01:42:42] Speaker B: No, but just the play design in general. It felt a lot more like the Jacobi Brissette offense from last year than what they've been trying to run with the Sean. So it was good to see.
[01:42:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And so with that being said, I mean, how do you think the Browns have looked so far this season? Obviously, lots of ups and downs, a bunch of crazy things have happened, but how do you think they've looked overall as the season has progressed?
[01:43:04] Speaker D: Well, the defense is just what a turnaround. It's something that probably, obviously, with what we happened, should have happened two years ago, maybe. And if it could have happened two years ago, god knows where we'd be right now.
Who knows where we'd be right now?
The defense. And then right now, if you'd have told me that we would be seven and three going into the game against a local franchise, that we'd be seven and three, I tell you, well, I do a citizen's arrest on you because you because at least 24 hours beforehand, you had the greatest hallucinogenic ever in your pocket. Somewhere to tell me that you're seven to three. And we don't have Nick Chubb and we don't have starting quarterback Deshaun Watson.
[01:44:00] Speaker A: Well, to be fair. It's all legal out there and it's going to be legal here.
You know, Ohio did the right thing and passed that and we're on.
I mean, you mentioned something there with Deshaun Watson now being obviously the Nick Chubb injury was a huge blow earlier in the season, and now we get the Watson news. So what were the feelings of your chapter and what was the feeling in the building, first of all, when Nick Chubb went down and then also what was the reaction after the Deshaun Watson news?
[01:44:35] Speaker D: Know, there's other news that I can tell you about and how the mhvv if I can there was a point this year when I unfortunately got a phone call, or not a phone call, but an email from the browns telling me, cliff, you can't be posting that about our quarterback on social media and stuff like that as a representative.
So I took it down and I had to publicly apologize and mean, that's where our chapter was at. That what have we freaking was. I was so angry after when Nick Chubb went down. Yes, that was a devastating injury, but that was the perfect opportunity for Watson to freaking nut up and lead us to victory. And he didn't do it. And I was so mad. And now once I'll tell you how I couldn't curb that, I went and got me a Phil Dawson jersey.
[01:45:44] Speaker A: There you.
[01:45:47] Speaker D: Go, number four jersey.
And now I feel so much better.
[01:45:55] Speaker A: Perfect. Yeah. Deshaun Watson. You're correct. Especially early on, he definitely did not step.
Were you guys obviously before the injury, the injury was pretty devastating. Were you guys starting to feel a little bit better about Watson in the weeks leading up to the injury?
[01:46:12] Speaker D: Yeah, of course, in the game before, nine for nine, and he's got a broken shoulder. Nine for nine in the second half or 14 or 14 in the second half with a broken shoulder. It's obvious the man wants to play and he wants to win and he wants to be successful in Cleveland. So the things that I said in the know, obviously, it's obvious at this point. It was obvious he was in pain. That know, yes, it was devastating news. It's like, man, after that performance in that second okay, here we go.
[01:46:45] Speaker A: I will say this about Deshaun Watson. If nothing else, the dude went out in a blaze of glory for this season. He was like, that's it. I'm going to give you guys something to remember and something to look forward to next season.
[01:46:56] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. He sure did.
[01:46:57] Speaker B: And I would say, though, to just your defense there, I mean, leading up to that, he hadn't really kind of fulfilled his end of the bargain. Right. So it was very frustrating. Early on, you had the half against Washington that was good. The game against Tennessee, which was good. And then he really hadn't done a whole lot that really gave you any kind of instilled, any kind of faith that this was going to get better. And then amazingly, though, the team kept winning. So as long as you're winning, it kind of hides some of those things.
I can feel where your frustration was. I think we shared that during our show for the last several weeks. And you finally feel like all of a sudden it's like you're seven and three. It's like how this happened. Because you didn't feel like this was a team early on that was going to be seven and three because you didn't have the quarterback play.
[01:47:45] Speaker D: No, didn't have the quarterback play. But I certainly went into the beginning of the season believing that we would be seven and three at this point if everything was a perfect world.
[01:47:57] Speaker B: We had a lot of talent.
But when you consider Nick Chubb going down a week two and Deshaun not really playing that well, at no point.
[01:48:04] Speaker A: Did I think after no, from the point Nick Chubb went down, at no point after that did I think we had any chance at seven and three. Here we are. Here we are.
That kind of sums up last week's game and kind of the season so far. So let's look at this week's game. What are your thoughts on the week twelve matchup with the team that's obviously in your guys'backyard?
[01:48:26] Speaker D: The Denver Broncos, certainly another situation beginning of the season, solid attitudes that the Browns are going to win and big stuff like that also with the same attitudes that the Broncos are going to suck wind. And they were sucking wind right there at the beginning of the game every season. And we were all like, yeah, the Broncos suck. And then they started winning. They beat the Bills and then they come back and they hold on and win yesterday.
[01:48:54] Speaker A: To be fair, beating the Bills isn't the same as what it used to mean. They're five and five.
[01:49:00] Speaker D: I understand completely. But compared to where the Broncos are at now and where they were, say, week three or four or five, this season is unbelievable. And are they now in the hunt.
[01:49:12] Speaker A: In the playoffs, I think. Didn't they make it back to 500 this weekend?
[01:49:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:49:17] Speaker A: Or they have four and five still. They got back to 500.
[01:49:21] Speaker D: Yeah, they're back to 500.
That's kind of a miracle. Or not. That's not a miracle, but they've got a great coach. They have a veteran coach that he just needed a few weeks to get it together and it was about time.
[01:49:36] Speaker A: Because he was starting to make himself look silly with all the things he was saying.
[01:49:39] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. They were calling for, oh, my God, we made a mistake going against Sean Payton. Oh, what do we do now?
God, we got Russell Wilson and stuff like that. It is kind of at least Russell Wilson is at least playing now and he's winning for them. And that scares me.
The Mile High is kind of stoked about the Broncos all of a sudden. I mean, this team, there's 50,004 games.
[01:50:04] Speaker A: In a row, and it'll do that to a town.
[01:50:06] Speaker D: It will. So where I was super confident about a win here in Denver. Now I'm a little bit leery, but you know what?
It's a miracle season on the shore.
[01:50:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's for of you kind of answered some of this question a little bit. But what's the city saying overall about the Broncos? Obviously they started poorly. You said they're a little bit more back on the bandwagon after the four game win streak, but are they super high on the team? They somewhere in the middle.
Where are they at at this point? Do they think they're making a run?
[01:50:47] Speaker D: I'm sure I don't have the beat that I used to have with the media and the hype of the Bronco fan. I concentrate on where my team's at, so I don't have that feeling that I are understanding where they are at this point and stuff like that. I know my Dexter neighbor sells his tickets this time of year because it's too cold.
So that's where we're at.
[01:51:15] Speaker A: Cool.
I know that you might not have the same finger on the pulse as far as the Broncos go, right? But have you heard anything on local radio out there? What are they saying about the Browns? If.
[01:51:33] Speaker D: Gosh guys again. Once again, the local media, I don't listen to local radio.
I just don't do it. I don't know what they're saying. Know the stuff from a local standpoint. I listen to Cartman and Lima in Cleveland when I listen to Sports Talk. I listen to them guys on podcasts. So I don't know where the beat is. I'll know a little bit more when I walk into the stadium on Sunday where they feel and stuff like that. But I envelop.
I wrap myself in the Cleveland Browns, in the Mile Browns backers.
[01:52:12] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:52:13] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[01:52:13] Speaker A: I like that. No, and I will say I'm just hoping that they're kind of taking us lightly. Like most teams seem to know, the running saying around the league, Cleveland is Cleveland. So hopefully that's their mentality, and we can come in and smack them in the mouth like we have just about every team this year.
But before we get going, Cliff, I do want to mention that we are brought to you by who, Kenny?
[01:52:37] Speaker B: We are brought to you by Seaside Events, the official cruise provider of the.
[01:52:41] Speaker A: Cleveland Browns fan cruise and the yeah, exactly. Everything he just said. But with that in mean, I don't know if you were aware of this, I think you may have been being the president of your chapter, but there is a Browns backers competition out there for bookings on the fan fully.
[01:53:00] Speaker D: I'm fully aware of it, unfortunately. I thought it ended a week ago.
[01:53:09] Speaker A: We've got good news for you. You got a little bit more time. It ends on Sunday, the 26th. So at your party on Saturday, you guys can go ahead and let everybody know that the competition is still open and you guys have time to take the lead. All they have to do is go to Brownsfancruise.com and click on the Brownsbackers logo on the homepage. That'll take them to a page where they can sign up, book their cabin and kind of get in on the competition and the chance to win some really great prizes, including cabins for this cruise.
[01:53:41] Speaker D: Outstanding.
I have the QR code that they can scan and I actually have two places that it will be hanging. Where? At the 2116 at 52 80. Browns backers backers bashed this Saturday, I'll make sure that several people scan that bad boy and start researching. It's a great trip. I'll tell you what, I'd be on it if it was a week earlier.
I'm sorry. A week later.
[01:54:10] Speaker A: A week later. Well, here's some incentive for all your people out there. Let them know that we will be on the fan cruise. We'll be McGing several events on the fan cruise. So it's going to be a really good time. We're going to make sure that everybody is enjoying themselves.
[01:54:27] Speaker B: And we've been doing along with the Brownsbackers interviews this year on our show, we've been interviewing the alumni that are coming on the. So I can tell you that everybody that we have talked to and it's a really good mix. It's a lot of guys from the older teams, the cardiac kids teams. There's a lot of guys from the modern era as well. They are super excited about not just the fan cruise in general, but the Browns backers. Being on the cruise, we've heard nothing but good things about their interactions with the Browns backers groups and just the fact that they're all over the country, all over the world. And some of the stories we've heard from those guys just when they've had their first event, or they go to some of these events and just the love and appreciation that they feel. So I know they're looking forward to getting together with Brownsbackers specifically on this event cruise. So it's going to be a really good time. I know these guys are really excited to be a bunch of different events and things, but most importantly, just that very interpersonal kind of communication with the players, access to the alumni, to kind of just be able to go up and whenever you see them and just, hey, shake their hand, let them know what you mean they've meant to you and what the team's meant to you and have a real candid conversation, which is tough to do in today's world where a lot of the times these autograph signings and things are kind of like red rope events where you kind of get your 10 seconds with the guy and a picture opportunity. This is like very much a sit down, have dinner with these guys, talk about certain plays and games and they're.
[01:55:47] Speaker A: All so personable and approachable. Yeah, they're great guys.
[01:55:50] Speaker B: It's going to be a really different event.
[01:55:53] Speaker D: Is Phil on the cruise?
[01:55:54] Speaker A: He is indeed outstanding.
[01:55:57] Speaker D: Wow.
You tell Phil if you could get to Phil, you tell Phil I'll be more than happy. We will pump the hell out of this damn thing.
[01:56:07] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:56:08] Speaker D: All right.
[01:56:08] Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely. And we will I know we have an interview coming up with him, so we'll be sure to let him know that you said hi.
[01:56:14] Speaker D: Okay, I'll see him. This.
[01:56:16] Speaker A: So there you.
We. Before we jump off cliff, anything else that you might want to say to Cleveland fans that maybe have moved away from Northeast Ohio? Or know Browns fans that are out there on their own kind of missing that fellowship with other Browns fans because they're somewhere where the Browns don't play and are potentially looking know that Brownsbackers chapter that they can join? What do you have to say to those people?
[01:56:42] Speaker D: Oh, man, it's the beauty of Colorado is that we have a lot of chapters out here that we pretty much cover the state.
We've got the mile high browns backers, obviously here in the Denver area. Up north is Jamie Jacinski with the boulder browns backers. But Jamie was a genius and he moved his chapter to a place called Lafayette and a bar called Dillinger's and they're all into theirs. And Lafayette is much closer to the northern portion of the metro area. So if you're north of I 70 in this town, you should be going up to the boulder browns backers and checking out jamie up. Let's see. Let's move down. Let's move to grand county. Really? Winter park. Beth over there runs the grand county browns backers at the winter park resort at another Stony's at the Stony's winter park location and stuff. And then we move on to aspen and Tori and her club at a barbecue joint just at the base of the mountain in aspen. And then we move down to Colorado springs and Aaron and the pikes peak browns backers.
I hope I'm covering everybody. Then we go all the way over to the western slope about a 45 minutes drive from Moab and the grand junction brownsbackers on the western slope. And Mark, I'm going to see a lot of these guys in Denver this weekend and I absolutely can't wait.
[01:58:10] Speaker A: Well, I will say this, cliff, first of all, it has been great having you, but I will say you are an absolute advocate for all of these groups and you are doing your job and more as president of the mile high brownsbackers. So, I mean, you got a good group there and obviously we see where that comes from. And where that kind of starts and ends is with.
[01:58:35] Speaker B: Ryan said we were getting ready to wrap here. But I do have a couple questions here for you just to finish things up.
[01:58:40] Speaker A: Kenny loves to jump in at the end and add a few.
[01:58:43] Speaker B: We're having a good time, Cliff. I just want to keep it know. First thing is you got a score prediction for this week's game.
[01:58:49] Speaker A: Good call.
[01:58:50] Speaker D: We need that the score prediction.
I can't be a squid. I can't be a squid.
So I will say the browns I should get my son to answer this question because the last time, two times I've asked him, he's asked it. I will say the Browns will win 20 to 13.
[01:59:11] Speaker B: Love it.
[01:59:11] Speaker A: Okay, nice.
[01:59:13] Speaker B: And then number two, do you guys have your own merch line and is there somewhere that folks can find that stuff?
[01:59:17] Speaker D: I'm sorry.
[01:59:18] Speaker B: Do you have your own merchandise line, shirts, hats and things? Somewhere folks can find that stuff?
[01:59:25] Speaker D: I sell our t shirts through Only in cleave.
They're a shop on cam's corner in the west park neighborhood. I think it's 160th in Lorraine.
You can go to only in Cleave. And there's a couple of chapters there that sell our stuff, and they also do some other great cleveland type stuff. So I'd love for, you know, buy my merchandise but go to Only in Cleveland stuff. Like, you know, they'll take care of you.
[01:59:58] Speaker B: Awesome.
So one other thing that we like to do is called the burning river sportscast hot take hotline. We do have a voicemail box set up for anybody that is excited or maybe frustrated about play calling or something or before, during, after the game, just has something to say, something they want to get off their chest. And then we play those clips live here on our show during the week and get some reactions.
[02:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's basically a voice box for you guys to call and just vent.
Anything and everything browns that you have to say, just call and vent.
If it's a good take, we'll put it on the air and then we'll talk about it.
[02:00:33] Speaker B: It's just fun to do. If your group is interested, maybe you can let them know that's available out there as well.
[02:00:38] Speaker A: And the number for that is 330-227-8080. So we'll put that up on the screen during the interview as well so that everybody could check that out.
[02:00:48] Speaker D: Outstanding. We'll make it happen. I have a hot take. Could I hot take you right now?
[02:00:54] Speaker A: Call it in?
[02:00:55] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[02:00:55] Speaker A: You want to do it now? You want to call in?
[02:00:57] Speaker B: Do it right now.
[02:00:57] Speaker A: Let's do it right now. Okay.
[02:00:59] Speaker D: Do it right now.
That's my hands bleeding because I'm knocking wood, but I think a miracle is happening on the lake shore.
[02:01:09] Speaker A: Nice. So what is this miracle in Taylor? Are we talking like super bowl this year? What are we talking?
[02:01:15] Speaker D: Much more than what you would have thought would have happened if you'd lost Nick Chubb and Deshaun Watson.
[02:01:23] Speaker A: That's fair.
That's fair. We like it. We like it. So again, cliff, it has been great having you. Thank you so much for joining us. And we look forward to hopefully meeting you guys in person one day, maybe on the cruise, maybe making it out to event out there at Stoney's.
[02:01:41] Speaker D: Okay. And I was just going to say, next year when the browns come to town, one of the things that we love to do is announcement schedules. Hey, come in with the browns are coming to town. Let's do something for the announcement and we get together for announcements.
God, like I said, I hope it's the first week of October next year.
[02:02:01] Speaker A: Fingers crossed.
[02:02:02] Speaker D: Day weekend.
[02:02:03] Speaker A: Fingers crossed. Well, thanks again, cliff. We appreciate your time.
[02:02:08] Speaker D: All right, you guys take care. Thank you for everything.
We're the mile high brownsbackers, and you're listening to the burning river sportscast.
[02:02:27] Speaker B: Go browns.
[02:02:43] Speaker A: Man, good talking to cliff.
[02:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah, look, that's a huge organization out there.
[02:02:47] Speaker A: I mean, a lot of good stuff.
[02:02:49] Speaker B: I mean, he sounds like he basically runs the entire state's brownsbackers.
[02:02:52] Speaker A: He's like, go to go to boulder, go to the colorado springs, go to these guys. Go to the high junction or whatever.
[02:02:58] Speaker B: Good on him.
[02:02:59] Speaker A: I said he's a total advocate for all of those. That's the type of president that's a great brownsbackers president, because when you're able to not only lift up your own chapter of this organization, but other chapters as well, and they're all doing good throughout their respective communities and back here in cleveland, most of them have a tie to somewhere in cleveland as well. I mean, this is just a phenomenal thing that cliff's doing out.
[02:03:22] Speaker B: Sure, for sure. Anyway, it was a fun interview.
[02:03:24] Speaker A: It was fun. Hopefully we get some hot takes.
[02:03:26] Speaker B: A lot of back and forth out of that one.
[02:03:28] Speaker A: Speaking of hot takes, you at the time speaking of hot takes that'll take us to the burning river sportscast hot take outline.
Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes.
[02:03:47] Speaker B: We want hot takes.
[02:03:48] Speaker A: We want hot takes. We want hot takes. 3302-2780-8033-02 27 80, 80, 33, 02-2780-8033-0227, 80, call now. Operators are there's no operators.
[02:04:04] Speaker C: They're not standing by.
[02:04:04] Speaker A: They're not standing by. It's just a voicemail that you could leave hot takes on, but we'll put them on the air. We will feature you and it will be fun as hell.
[02:04:12] Speaker B: There's no one talk to you and.
[02:04:13] Speaker A: You'Ll be famous because you're famous.
[02:04:15] Speaker B: If you need to talk to somebody, call somebody that exists.
[02:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, if you need a person, call somebody else. All right, fellas, let's take a quick emergency call 911. Don't call the hot take hotline that will get you nowhere. But fellas, fellas, fellas, let's take a quick revenue break and then get back here and talk to browns alum Reggie Langhorn and preview the week twelve matchup with the broncos.
[02:04:36] Speaker B: Reggie. Is it good that we're talking to Reggie the same way we're talking playing Mile High in the, you know, Reggie just shut up.
[02:04:48] Speaker C: Reggie.
[02:04:50] Speaker B: Is that a name for weed? Like, get my Reggie.
[02:04:53] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[02:04:54] Speaker C: I don't think I never heard that one.
[02:04:56] Speaker A: I don't think so. You're like Coach Farino? I'm blazing the dube right now.
[02:05:02] Speaker B: I thought that was the thing.
[02:05:03] Speaker A: All right, I got to do the revenue break.
[02:05:05] Speaker B: Okay.
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[02:06:37] Speaker B: Swag.
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All right, so before we get in to the week twelve preview, let's take a few minutes to talk to another Cleveland Browns legend that will be joining us on the Browns family you.
[02:07:12] Speaker B: Powered by Riverside FM.
[02:07:29] Speaker A: Rooms the Cleveland Browns has ever had. In his nine years in the NFL, he amassed 411 receptions, 5446 receiving yards, and 19 touchdowns. Boys, please help me welcome Reggie Langhorn.
Hey, Reggie. How are you doing?
[02:07:48] Speaker E: I'm doing pretty good. How are you? Fine, gentlemen.
[02:07:51] Speaker A: Good. Doing good. We know, you know, everybody's got busy schedules, so we really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today.
[02:07:58] Speaker E: Thanks for the opportunity.
[02:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. So before we get started and get to some of the questions that we have for you, we do want to talk about something here. You're going to be on the Browns Fan Cruise in March of 2024. It is confirmed. You and your budies Webster Slaughter, kevin Mack, Eric Metcalf, you'll all be there. And so we have to say, being that we are a podcast that is brought to you by Seaside Events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns Fan Cruise, we will be on that Browns Fan Cruise and MC and quite a few events on that Browns Fan Cruise. We're really looking forward to sharing that Browns Fan Cruise with a legend such as yourself. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about the Browns fan?
[02:08:38] Speaker E: You know, it looks like we're going to be going from the Bahamas all the way down to the Jamaican. What can you do more have a better time than be with my friends that I play ball with, along with the folks that supported us and still supports the organization over years? I mean, Cleveland is still known for having one of the largest fan base, but the enthusiasm of the Cleveland fans is going to be quite exciting. To be able to go on the beach and get to meet people, have Q and A's, and spend time with folks that have cheered for us pretty much for the last 38 years of my life.
[02:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It is going to be a really good time. And I know we're going to get back to the Browns Fan Cruise a little bit later on. But for now we want to talk about, you know, I know you were born in Virginia and went to Smithfield High School, is that correct?
[02:09:22] Speaker E: Ham City, baby.
[02:09:25] Speaker A: Shout out to the hometown there. I like it.
[02:09:29] Speaker E: Smithfield Foods. The Ham city is what we're called. If you Google what is the Ham City I am capital of the world at a state, Smithfield, Virginia.
[02:09:38] Speaker A: Nice.
The more you know.
And then you ended up going to Elizabeth City State University. Correct. That's a Division Two school, right?
[02:09:47] Speaker E: That's a D. Two school down in North Carolina. What used to be the CIA. Central Integra Legion Athletic Association.
[02:09:55] Speaker A: Nice. So talk to us a little bit about your time in college.
How was playing college football, especially D Two, were you just dominating everyone?
[02:10:04] Speaker E: No. I mean, I came into college with 19 other freshmen in 1981, and I wasn't one of their top recruits. I had a few other scholarships to go to small colleges, but my high school coach was a hall of Famer at Elizabeth City. So he and his wife persuaded me to go down to Elizabeth City and take a look at it. I was on my way to the military. I had already taken the test and about to take the physical. And my mother, my good friend Skip Gray, and then my high school coach said, listen, you have what it takes to play college ball. At least give it a try. So what I did was I listened to him and I said, you know what?
We went down Elizabeth City for a basketball game, and I saw a lot of folks that was interesting that their college life looked. I said, okay, you know, what the hell? I got to lose. My mom said, you can go back in the military if you don't like college in a year. I got down there and towards the latter part of my freshman year, with all those guys that came in from higher recruit schools or larger schools, I ended up getting an opportunity to start a couple of games as a freshman. I became a full time starter as a sophomore, and that's kind of how my career went as far as college. But I was not one of the guys that when they had the first meetings, I was in front of the pack. I was going to be the guy. I even missed my first road trip. I remember getting to college and they said, man, you're going to smell them fumes if you don't catch that ball. Well, Smelling the Fumes is a bus that was going to Florida on a 16 hours drive, and my roommate and I, Dustin Brooks, we stand out there watching the bus leave to go to Florida on a Thursday night, and then we figured out what Smelling the Fumes really was.
[02:11:38] Speaker A: All right, those are all fantastic stories, and it's awesome that you were able to work your way up onto the starting roster there. So was there a time frame? Because obviously you ended up getting drafted by the Browns, which we'll talk about in just a minute, but was there a time frame either in your college playing career or even earlier that you or somebody else kind of saw you have what it takes to be in the pros?
[02:12:01] Speaker E: Even I had a coach that said that to me when I was a junior in high school, that you have what it takes to play pro ball. But I had not met a professional player. I had not gone to a professional game, nor was I familiar with anything in professional football, nor was it an aspiration or any kind of desire for me. I come from a small town. I am the first to play pro ball in my community. We did have a girl that played some overseas basketball, but other than that, we were not in touch. We live in Virginia, which is southeast, a little north of North Carolina, and the closest team was the Redskins. I just was not familiar or even dreamed to do that. My junior year in college is when scouts from the USFL. And NFL started to come around. I had two teammates that both played corner. They were number one and two, I believe, in the nation and interceptions, and so therefore, scouts were coming to scout them. I would stay behind and run routes for them. So the scouts could look at them, and then what ended up happening is they say, hey, man, you may get a chance to get drafted when you come out as a senior. So those scouts kept coming back. All the USFL. Teams were stealing players from all the other schools. It made the NFL scouts work extra hard. So my junior year was a big year, and after my junior year, I started seeing scouts coming looking for me. And it was kind of interesting because we could be going to Pizza Hut, and Pizza Hut was all you could eat. Pizza for $3. When I go eat eight, nine slices of pizza, get back on campus, and one of the guys will say, hey, man, there's a scout from Washington, or there's a scout from Pittsburgh wants you to run a 40. And I just ate nine slices of pizza. That ain't going to go so well.
[02:13:45] Speaker A: So basically, though, all you're saying is all you needed was that opportunity. And as soon as people saw you, they knew.
[02:13:53] Speaker E: They knew more than I knew, because even when I was playing in college ball, none of the guys around me could visualize playing pro ball. Everything was above us. We just didn't think that way. And we didn't watch the Clemsons and Notre Dame's USCS UCLA play, because when we get done playing at 01:00, it's four or 05:00, we go to the calf, we get something six, seven o'clock, and we would do what college kids do. We get ready to do our own thing after we played. So I never even paid any attention to the competition in the college ranks. It just wasn't important to me in college, we did our own thing. And then when I got an opportunity to go to the combine in Mesa, Arizona, and a scout from the Redskins did come in and say, you're going to have an opportunity to go to the combine. Would you like to go? And I go, well, what's the combine? I had no clue what a combine was. And he says, well, it's where the top 336 college players go, and they talk to you, they get a physical and do some routes and things of that nature. I said, well, yeah, I don't mind going. Where is it? He says, Mesa, Arizona. And I go, My dad's not going to pay for that trip, so unless you got somebody that's going to do it, I'm not going to be able to make it. He goes, no, the Redskins are the closest team to you here in North Carolina. That means we will flip the bill. And then I told my old man that, who wasn't a big football guy, and he goes, what the Redskins going to do?
[02:15:16] Speaker A: What?
[02:15:17] Speaker E: And he couldn't believe it, because, again, you got to remember, when you're so far removed from stuff like that, you don't visualize playing pro ball. Man, those guys got to be the greatest things in the world. I mean, I've never even spent time with a pro ball player. And all of a sudden, about four days later, they sent a package, the Redskins, to my parents house. And it had travel bags and shirts and hats, and it had absolutely everything you could put in a care package. My old man goes, oh, boy, this is pretty cool. I got on a plane, flew out to Mesa, Arizona.
I met up with Ron Brown, who used to play for the Rams. We had the same representative as an agent. And he helped me learn to run the 40 because he was a track guy, taught me how to get off the blocks to get out, to run a fast 40. And this was when Altoon and Jerry Rice, bruce Smith, who was my friend from high school and college, that was all our draft pick, Vance Johnson, Randall Cunningham and I get to the combine, and then I realized, these guys are no different than me.
Run fast, catch the rock. I'm reasonably intelligent. I didn't see that different than them. I was amazed, actually. I was amazed at some of them that were horrible but went to big school like, well, how the hell did he survive four years? He's not very good. But he played on Saturday nights, and I played at 01:00 on Saturdays, and we were done. And we played in front of, what, 2000, 3000 kids. That was it for us.
[02:16:44] Speaker A: That's awesome.
The stories that we hear from this, like the combine and the Redskins paying for that and sending that care package, that's know, obviously, normal people that didn't go to a combine don't know what all that entails and what kind of comes with it. So that's pretty cool to hear about. And now, obviously, you did get drafted by the Browns round seven of that 1985 draft, and you played from the Browns from 85 to 91. So tell us a little bit about your time with Cleveland.
[02:17:14] Speaker E: Well, when you're from a school like myself and you get to Cleveland, you really don't know what to expect. I remember walking in a locker room when I first got there, and there was this old man naked, dressing naked and just getting out of the shower. He looked like he was, I don't know, 670, 75 years old. What I come to realize is that was Big Daddy Carl Harrison.
He was getting out the shower. I thought he was like a coach or somebody, but he was one of my teammates, and I knew of him because I remember he did the speech, athletic speech at my university because Johnny Walden had come on to be a coach at Elizabeth City. So I knew his face, but I didn't really know him. But, yeah, it was all new to me. And there was 19 receivers, I believe, that were in camp when I got there. There was Willis, and there was a guy. Named Bruce Adams. I mean, there were some pretty good football players that were here. Bruce Davis that was here at Cleveland. And all I did was try and compete. All I did was my cousin tried to make things simple for me. He said, Listen, run fast, break right, and catch the rock. You've been doing this all your life. Don't overthink it. All you can do is the best you can do. And when I realized that I made the team, I was amazed that I had made it, because I dropped the ball the last preseason game against the Raiders. So I didn't even think that I was going to be on the football team. And lo and behold, Marty gave me a nice long talk about making the team and what was expected of me, and I took a lot of pride in having an opportunity to do it. And I amazed a whole group of people in Smithfield, Virginia, that I had actually made the team. And nevertheless, my next year I became a full time starter. And then we were in the playoffs. We were playing an AFC championship game. They were amazed that I was hanging in there like some folks had hoped I would do well, but they didn't think I could make it. And some have told me that over the years.
[02:19:09] Speaker A: That's awesome and just a great story all around. It's always nice to hear about small town. I mean, at least it sounds like it was a small town, but small town kids coming up and really proving themselves and kind of breaking through for their whole town, basically.
[02:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And have success like that. You mentioned that when you were in college, you really didn't kind of care so much about even the opponents. It was more just about going out and grinding and working as hard as you possibly could. So was that a bit of culture shock when you got to the NFL in terms of practices and watching film and just all the things that go around, like your day to day as a pro athlete?
[02:19:49] Speaker E: So long. When I started playing football, I had a cousin that was three or four years older than me. I followed him around everywhere he went from the time I was six, seven, eight years old. And every time we will go play, we always played against larger kids because he's three years older than me, so he goes where his buddies are, and that means I was getting pretty much bullied around, and he would yell at me. And then when I say yell at me, not in a harmful way, but to don't be afraid to get in front of somebody and play defense. Don't be afraid to shoot. Don't be afraid to tackle all those things. So every time I went back to my hometown, my little neighborhood I grew up in, guys that were my age, I was getting better than they were. They were staying in the same place my cousin was. He's the best athlete in my family. I still believe that today. So once I got on the football field and strapped up my shoes, all I could do was the best I could do. And I always pushed myself. It's one of those things about not getting hurt in training camp or pulling hamstrings and all that. I could go as hard as I could with what I thought was good training and what they required of me. But I went as far as I could. I ran as hard as I could till there was nothing left. So that when I got to camp, I was ready to roll. I just didn't want to be behind the eight ball because I came out of school behind the eight ball. So I had to work extra hard. But then I found out a lot about myself. And that's one of those things I tell young people today. Even though you think you've done all you can do, there's always some more in the trunk. And if you get that stuff in the trunk done now, you get in the fourth quarter or playoff game, or if you get in a big time game in college, you've got more than the rest guys got, because you already tested yourself and you'll know how to perform in those battles. And that's what I tried to do. I tried to always be digging in a little hard. I just felt that way. I just felt like, yeah, I did everything they said to do, but it's like my old man telling me to cut grass. I know how to cut grass fast, and I know how to cut grass properly.
I can do the job, but do I cut it right? And there was a difference. Same thing with my training.
[02:21:55] Speaker B: So personally, do you feel like looking at today's NFL, especially like the preseason and the way that they've kind of shortened practices and things, do you feel like the guys that are coming out for week one of modern football today are not as prepared as the teams that you guys played on? Because you guys did go so hard during practice and at all times there.
[02:22:15] Speaker E: I think that's a lot of reasons for the injuries. I think that contact is obviously helpful for guys. I got guys that I played against that have harmed themselves, killed themselves because of the CTE stuff, and it is real. So I think the less stress on guys brains is very good. The unfortunate thing is you can't go from dilly dallying around in training camp to going full tilt opening day and going cracking heads. I mean, it's a tempo that goes along with that gradual incline to prepare for opening day. We have a lot of injuries in the NFL now, and it seemed to be minor stuff, but we went full pads two a days for the first two weeks of training camp with Marty Schottenheimer, we pretty much went full pass, the entire training camp. It was what it was, but I don't think we had as many injuries, and then we were all strong and ready to go during the season. But things change. The money's best made these days. You got to protect your investment, and I think that's the way it is all through life. I mean, look at us now. We're doing an interview with I can see you guys from where you are, and I'm in my home, and we're having a conversation. When I was a kid, you had one phone in the house, and I'm talking about I grew up when if you got two rings, it was your phone. One ring was a neighbor's house, and the one long ring was the other neighbor's house. So things have changed.
[02:23:40] Speaker A: Yeah. No, absolutely. And it is, with those changes, just the game in general, just everything about it, like you said, from the number of injuries to the types of practice to just everything. And it is pretty crazy to look at. One thing I want to ask you, just spending time with a franchise, obviously it's more than just playing football for that team. You kind of become a family.
You become close friends with some of your teammates. You get involved with the community off the field. So with that in mind, is there a favorite off the field memory that you have from your time in Cleveland?
[02:24:18] Speaker E: Well, that's a lot. There's a lot of good ran.
[02:24:23] Speaker A: You've already named a few, and they've been great.
[02:24:25] Speaker E: I ran around with Webster and Matt and Herman Fontnose, so I've had some pretty good moments. Kevin Mack and I even now play golf once or twice a week together. Felix Wright and I do the sideline with the uniform inspectors. Felix has been doing it 23 years. This is my 9th season, so I am still friends with the guys that I play ball with. I'm the guy that drives Bernie down when he has trips down to Columbus. So that's my quarterback. And half of the guys I know here in know a lot of us come from small towns, and when we got here, we loved it so much that we made it home. And it's a tribute to the fans of Cleveland, to the people of Cleveland, that guys like me are still here, still participating in the community, helping out with charity work, or just being involved in what's going on in Cleveland.
[02:25:17] Speaker A: That's awesome. And you mentioned in everything you just said right now, you mentioned Kevin Mack.
We hear you have a particularly good story about Kevin Mack. Do you know which one we're talking about right now?
[02:25:32] Speaker E: No. The one which one?
[02:25:36] Speaker A: Go ahead.
It involves a fishing trip.
[02:25:41] Speaker E: Oh, it came back. Stayed sick the whole day.
[02:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the one.
[02:25:47] Speaker E: You know what?
That's a good story where he got sick, but that's all of us hanging out a little bit at night. He hadn't been on the boat in a long time, so I understand. But then there's another one, and this is probably one that folks don't know a lot about, but it was real for us that played ball with him. I remember him getting all of his teeth knocked out, his front teeth knocked out, and we were playing in the playoffs and he wanted to come out and they didn't want him come out. So he pretty much had to keep his mouthpiece in his mouth the entire game. He couldn't take it out because if he did, his teeth would come out straight to the dentist. After the game, he went straight to the dentist and they had to figure out how to keep his teeth in his mouth. So those are one of those stories that we laugh about because all of the blood on his face and just the battles that we had together as teammates, but then the courage that it takes to do what he was doing to be able to still play today's world. Maybe that guy doesn't play the way we did back then.
Do you have a lot of respect for guys that you've known for 30 some years and you've seen them in their highs and you've seen them in their lows and you respect each other? So that's my other Kevin Mac story.
[02:26:57] Speaker A: No, that's a fantastic story and I will say that is crazy. And it's even crazier because if you look at the dude right now, he's got like the perfect smile.
[02:27:07] Speaker D: He needs some help.
[02:27:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it all makes sense now. His teeth all came out in that game and he had to get that taken care of.
No, but it's always interesting hearing the stories of retired players and the things that they saw and went through in their time in the league, especially Cleveland Browns players, because obviously we're all just enthralled with the history of the team and everything that's happened.
But for most guys, they kind of get this whole second life after football. So can you kind of tell us what you're up to today? Are you working on any special projects?
[02:27:38] Speaker E: Yeah, so I started a driving service. I was in the car business for about twelve years and when I turned 60, there was a lot of things that changed in my thinking, so I wanted to always do something on my own. So I retired from the car business and I got a Suburban and I started driving people around. And then it grew. I got insurance and one thing led to another, became a company, and now I'm pretty steady, having an opportunity to drive some folks to the airport, to different places throughout the city, downtown, the dinners and things of that nature. I've met some pretty interesting people. And like I said before, I am the uniform inspector along with Felix on the sideline on Sundays, and then I work for CBS, so wo. I o channel 19 in Cleveland. I do the pre and post games with Josh Crips or Eric Metcalf, and I've been doing that probably for over 15 years. So I have seasonal jobs, and then I have things that I do that I've been doing for a long time. But the new thing is 88 out the gate. That's my company that I'm promoting these days, and that's what I do tomorrow morning, believe it or not. I got a 430 pickup in my neighborhood to take some folks to the airport, so I get up early and roll every day.
[02:28:53] Speaker A: Wow, nice. You're staying busy. So with that, do you have any time for community service or is there anything on that front that you're involved with?
[02:29:01] Speaker E: I don't think I've ever not been involved with any community I lived in when I was home in Virginia. But over the years and I've been on the board of cerebral palsy. I was on the board of vocata, I was on the board of the national board of special Olympics. But I have been on the board now primary purpose, which is a rehab facility, because I have a lot of love for folks that have gone through issues with drugs and alcohol, and it's a big part of my life and a part of my story. So I'm on a board there. And then I also been a volunteer at Lutheran Hospital for over nine years. I go down there every Wednesday night and try to be supportive of folks that are struggling with life. So, yeah, I have been involved with brown's events that they ask us to help out with stuff. But all in all, I'm just in love with this city and the things that it's been able to provide for me that I couldn't get back at home and I try to do and be a responsible citizen of this Northeast Ohio area.
[02:30:00] Speaker A: We really appreciate that. It's a fantastic thing that we're starting to learn about a lot of these Browns alumni is even players that after their time in Cleveland went to different teams. For some reason, there's something about Northeast Ohio and you guys all seem to come back and you want to be part of this community and kind of put down some roots here after your playing career is over. So we really appreciate that. We really appreciate all the help that you guys give to Northeast Ohio.
And so with well, real quick, actually, before we get to the Browns fan cruise again, I want to ask you, how do you think the Cleveland Browns team looks this season?
[02:30:38] Speaker E: So, you know, obviously we just dropped one yesterday that we probably should have won. We dropped one in Pittsburgh, we probably should have won. And those are disappointing games because down the road you'll need both of those wins. I'm just sure that Baltimore and Cincinnati will start to play even better football than what they're playing now. Our team is getting better as a group. We're missing a stud quarterback and he hasn't played like a stud yet, but we're hoping that that comes to light. If he can play rotated cuff is no joke. He may not play again this year. I don't know how that is. I can't determine how hurt he is, but we're going to hope that they get better. The defense is playing lights out. It's fun to watch.
I'm hoping they play better than they did yesterday. More consistently, I don't think you can ask the PJ walker to carry the load for the next ten games and expect to be in the playoffs.
[02:31:33] Speaker B: That's fair.
Reggie, is it difficult for you to watch this team since 99, just knowing that you came from a time when this team was so good, so strong, so beloved by this community, and winning was really kind of all you guys knew at the time? Has it been a struggle to watch this team in recent years, just not be able to put it all together?
[02:31:55] Speaker E: It has been tough. And I'll tell you know, we've had the learners who own the organization and Mr. Lerner Al, who passed away and then his son took over. I don't know if he was in love with football, but he didn't do enough to show that he cared enough about the football operations. And then you have learners who's been here, they've been here quite a while now, and no disrespect to them, but the product that's been put on the field and the different coaches and GMs and quarterbacks, and there's never been any consistency. And finally we think we've got a little something that our stud quarterback gets hurt. So it is disappointing for the fans of Cleveland, and I say this to people that no matter what, I'm always going to love this city and the people that wear brown and orange. Those are the most important things. And it's unfortunate that we can't get a winning team, a consistent team. I'm not talking about a team that wins 910 games one year and then wins four the next year. I'm talking about a team that wins 1012 games, 13 games, and comes back and followed up the next year in each year tries to elevate what they're doing as a team. And I can't say who's at fault because I think there's a lot of missing pieces that goes into the heart of an organization or the heart of a football team. I think they are away from the heart knows, just let's play football. We live in a blue collar city. We don't need to worry about having sushi when we play football. We want a hot dog, a brew, and we want to knock people out. That's what we do in Cleveland.
[02:33:25] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I totally agree with everything you just said. We say all the time that a lot of all the separate stuff is kind of fluff and distraction. But what we really want is just a good team.
[02:33:37] Speaker B: One of the tough things, too, that has seemed least, at least from my perspective, is that the Browns haven't done a great job of including guys like you. I know it was a struggle even to get, like, Jim Brown back in the building for a while or Burning back in the building, which is just unfortunate because you guys are so beloved by the community and you guys all have this great experience and insight that would probably be helpful to an organization that's trying to win. So hopefully it continues to change.
[02:34:03] Speaker E: But I usually speak pretty passionately about the relationship between the alumni and the organization. So there's Kevin, who worked for the organization for a while and still kind of is associated with it, jim, who came back, paul Walfield for a little while. I think Hanford does some of this stuff, and Brandy was around, which are all guys who absolutely deserve an opportunity to represent Brown and Orange because they are the folks that people can identify with throughout the time. But there hasn't been an influx. You have the old Browns, which went to Baltimore, and then when the new group came, the idea and even the idea now, is that they created their own Cleveland Brown corps. But again, I said this earlier, you got to have substance when you build something from the ground up.
[02:34:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we get it, and we agree with you. We want that hard nosed team, and we want them to get back know what Cleveland football is all about.
But I do want to bring this back around to the Cleveland Browns fan cruise in the time that we get to share on the open ocean and a couple of amazing stops along the way in March of 2024. So let's talk about some of the things that everyone should look forward to on the inaugural Browns fan cruise.
Reggie, do you have an event or just even just something that might not be a particular event, but just something that you're looking forward to on the cruise?
[02:35:31] Speaker E: Well, my wife and I, we cruise quite often. Actually, we take one every year, and we've been on Royal Caribbean cruises for the last five or six years. And I think the thing for me would be the enjoyment of the Q A and the more personal Q A questions with fans. I think that there's a lot of things about players that people want to ask us that are like, you guys ask me personal questions today. I think you'll get more personable with fans when you're in line to get ice cream or you sit down to dinner with different folks, and you get to meet people throughout your community that have been cheering for you for a long time. And they got a lot of games and stuff on the beach and some of my friends, they got knee replacements and hip replacements. It probably won't be a whole lot of running around from those old guys, but I think just the fact of sitting around with Browns fans and communicating and having a good time and getting to know each other even more intensely should be fun for all of us.
[02:36:30] Speaker A: So, yeah, I mean, it's like the commercial that the NFL has out right now with all the retired players where they're like, oh, we should come back, and then they're like, maybe not Emmet Smith sleeping on the bench.
[02:36:43] Speaker E: You know what, though? If you can get me one of those $20 million deals, I'll slide in for a couple of plays. For sure.
[02:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I think we all want one of those. Absolutely.
[02:36:55] Speaker B: Yeah. We've heard more, I guess, easy going activities, I think, mentioned along the cruise of karaoke, domino's, those sorts of things. We'll see what happens.
[02:37:07] Speaker A: But, no, there isn't a competition that's going on right now for Browns backers organizations out there, and kind of what they entail is the chapter with the most bookings will get an all expenses paid balcony cabin for two on the Browns fan cruise. The chapter with the highest members to bookings ratio also gets an all expenses paid ocean view cabin for two. All members of the winning chapter will receive a specialty dining pass for two guests, and all members of the winning chapter will receive a Browns fan cruise commemorative Cleveland Browns autographed football. And so with that in mind, Reggie, do you have anything you want to say to Brownsbackers across the nation, across the world, just to encourage them to get involved here?
[02:37:47] Speaker E: Well, yeah, man, it's going to be a great time. I mean, you look at the list of the guys that's going to be there. You got some new guys, you got some old guys. So we're absolutely going to have fun. That's not a question, but I want to say, hey, guys, it is an absolute pleasure to have been a part of the Browns group for as long as I have, and these guys support us through thick and thin. So everybody sign up, get your tickets, get your flights all booked up. We're going to have a heck of a time going from the Bahamas to Jamaica. All the guys will be there. It should be fun. And the brownsbackers. They're everywhere. So there's going to be a good contest soon.
[02:38:21] Speaker A: Hell, yes. Well, hey, Reggie, we appreciate it. We can't wait to see you on the cruise in March, and thank you so much for joining us.
[02:38:28] Speaker E: Thank you guys so much. You guys have a good night. I appreciate it.
I'm Reggie Langhorn, and you're listening to Burning Rivers podcast. Go Brown.
[02:39:00] Speaker A: Reggie Langhorn's a cool dude, man.
[02:39:03] Speaker B: Reggie. Reggie.
[02:39:04] Speaker A: Reggie.
[02:39:05] Speaker B: Reggie.
[02:39:06] Speaker A: Reggie. Reggie.
[02:39:08] Speaker B: Look, I know we're up against the deadline for the Brownsbackers competition here. Coming up. This is the last week, the 26th.
[02:39:16] Speaker A: Last week, 26, 26 of November. Let's be clear.
[02:39:20] Speaker B: Keep that date in mind if you're a Brownsbacker trying to win one of the free cabins or the other great prizes they have out there. But I will say, this whole interview series has just been awesome to be a part of. Awesome to listen to these guys talk each week about how they got to their stories, their personal lives, schools they went to. It's just been amazing to listen to these guys. So if you haven't heard the rest outside of Reggie Langhorn, I encourage you to go to our YouTube channel and find the rest of these interviews, because they've all been superb, just like this one was.
[02:39:53] Speaker A: These dudes have the best stories. And it's just a taste. Just a taste. As I say every week, it's just a taste of the stories that you'll hear on the Fan Cruise, because when you're on the Fan Cruise, it's no holds barred. They can say whatever they want. Oh, yeah. So these stories, and you mentioned it after a separate interview, we've got a couple of head nods this year about like, if I could tell you the.
[02:40:16] Speaker B: Whole story, tell you more.
[02:40:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I would. So join us on the inaugural Browns Fan Cruise in March of 2024 so that you could talk to these guys and hear those stories for yourselves.
[02:40:27] Speaker B: Also, the 60 day payment plans end November 30, I believe, so that's another deadline to keep in mind. Stretch those payments out, because who wants to pay more?
[02:40:39] Speaker A: True. And this thing's going to be epic, guys. You got to join us. It's going to be a lot of fun.
[02:40:42] Speaker B: Epic, epic, epic.
[02:40:44] Speaker A: But that'll take us to the week twelve preview.
All right, guys, so this week we have the Denver stop.
[02:41:02] Speaker B: You guys made fun of me for calling Reggie weed. And Reggie, I need to tell you, is weed. Reggie is the colloquial term used to refer to low quality or subpar marijuana.
[02:41:15] Speaker A: Reggie Langhorn is not low quality or subpar.
[02:41:18] Speaker B: No, but the joke was we were.
[02:41:19] Speaker A: Talking to Reggie how dare you?
[02:41:21] Speaker B: The same week that we play in Denver High.
[02:41:24] Speaker A: That's not a funny joke that much anymore because everywhere is getting weed, but.
[02:41:28] Speaker B: Denver is Mile High.
[02:41:30] Speaker A: So funny.
[02:41:31] Speaker B: Better strains of weed generally boast about THC level, about 20%. Reggie ranges, about twelve to 15. So it's dank weed.
[02:41:41] Speaker A: Dank.
Shit's dank, bro.
[02:41:43] Speaker B: Just had to make that clear that I wasn't an idiot.
[02:41:46] Speaker A: Shit's. Dank. Kind of like burning river sportscast. Cleveland teams and dank memes. That's right.
Get the shirt in the shop. WW thetappinmedia shop. Anyways, this week we have the Denver Broncos. The city by the bay. John Denver, baby.
[02:42:06] Speaker B: Crashed and burned.
[02:42:06] Speaker A: Anyways, look, this team's hot right now. So hot. So hot.
Kenny, I'll let you start. You got any matchups or opposition research that you want to talk about specifically?
[02:42:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's just the first thing. Obviously. Sean Payton's there. Spent a year on TV. People hated his ass. I still hate him. And they paid a bunch of money to bring this guy in, bring his organization in, hoping to turn this thing around. And it started with a whimper, not with a bang.
[02:42:35] Speaker A: It started like a train wreck.
[02:42:37] Speaker B: Looked a lot more like the Hackett coach team we saw last year. Hackett couldn't. Hackett got himself.
[02:42:42] Speaker A: I think it looked worse than the Hackett coach team early on.
[02:42:44] Speaker B: And somehow, some way, this team has turned things around.
[02:42:50] Speaker A: The verdict is still out.
[02:42:52] Speaker B: Most importantly, I think probably just due to an opportunistic and aggressive defense, the offense has not been turning the ball over. The Broncos have won the turnover margin by at least three turnovers for the third consecutive week. So Denver something we don't do. Denver is plus ten in the turnover differential over the last three weeks, which is a pretty significant number, and they've won four in a row.
[02:43:17] Speaker A: Now, Bone, your boy Russell, he's still tussling.
[02:43:21] Speaker B: And Russell is still tussling. Look, Russell's numbers aren't bad on the year.
[02:43:24] Speaker A: Russell is actually up around. He's like top five right now for quarterbacks as far as his numbers go.
[02:43:29] Speaker B: Where's Russell?
[02:43:29] Speaker A: Here.
[02:43:30] Speaker B: I mean, he's thrown maybe not top.
[02:43:31] Speaker A: Five, maybe like top six.
[02:43:32] Speaker B: He's thrown 19 touchdowns to four interceptions.
[02:43:34] Speaker A: That's pretty good.
[02:43:35] Speaker B: He hasn't thrown for a ton of yards, but, I mean, he's been efficient with the ball and with his choices.
I will say this, I've watched a couple of Denver games this year already.
They have more talent, it feels like, than their record is. So I don't think by any stretch this is going to be a cakewalk or an easy game. I think there's some players out there on offense and defense you got to watch out for.
But obviously, we're just hoping our defense can carry the day.
[02:44:06] Speaker A: Yeah, and obviously, I like to highlight two specific matchups for every game this week. I have the Browns secondary versus Russell Wilson. The Browns front know they're going to do their thing. They're going to be solid. They're going to get in the backfield, they're going to disrupt. But I think in this game we're going to have to force some turnovers.
And as much as I think Russell is washed and you guys still think he's tussling 19 and four touchdown interception, whatever, he sucks, I will give him. He's played much better of late.
But again, as we've been doing all season long, I think we need to keep him, the quarterback, uncomfortable up front. And specifically in order to allow our DBS to make plays this week, we got to shut down these wide receivers. And these wivers aren't very good. They don't have a deep wide receiving core. I mean, I think what is it, Sutton's? Like their leading receiver, which is not good.
[02:45:02] Speaker B: I'm going to disagree with you there. From a. Statistical standpoint, you're right, because Russell Wilson is not throwing for a ton of yards this year, but they have some absolute burners at that position.
[02:45:12] Speaker A: I mean, Jerry takes a lot more than being fast.
[02:45:13] Speaker B: Jerry Judy for the first time all year is pretty healthy.
[02:45:16] Speaker A: Been trash all year. He's on my fans team. He sucks.
[02:45:17] Speaker B: The first time all year has been healthy. He's getting better.
[02:45:20] Speaker A: I literally benched him. He doesn't even play.
[02:45:23] Speaker B: Mims is amazingly fast.
And then you throw in, like, a courtland sutton, who has been around for a while, who's still a good player.
[02:45:31] Speaker C: They got good numbers. He's getting some touchdowns.
[02:45:34] Speaker A: They got fast wide receivers. We got fast DBS, and it takes a lot more than speed to be a good wide receiver. And we know our corners have a lot more than just saying.
[02:45:43] Speaker B: I'm just saying they don't have ass at wide receiver. I mean, they're not like I didn't say they're ass.
[02:45:47] Speaker A: I said they're not very good.
[02:45:49] Speaker B: Okay, fair enough.
[02:45:51] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[02:45:52] Speaker B: You'd want a piece of all the action?
[02:45:53] Speaker A: Yeah, we just don't want to let anybody have a big game because their receivers this year are not known for having big games. And so we don't want to be the team that lets that happen.
[02:46:01] Speaker B: Okay.
[02:46:03] Speaker A: If we can force at least one interception and give our offense that one extra possession while putting a dent in Wilson's confidence, I like our chances in this one. I think that's kind of one of the keys, is we got to get an interception somewhere.
Next up, I have the Browns running backs versus the Broncos entire defense. And I know that's kind of a blanket statement for their defense, but the Broncos have the absolute worst ranked run defense this year, and the Browns have the second best rushing attack. The Broncos also have the worst scoring defense this year, while the Browns have the 11th best scoring offense. And so if the Browns are going to score points, which we desperately need out of this offense with now most of our weapons being gone, or I shouldn't say most, but our top two weapons being gone, that's where it's going to come from. It's going to have to be Jerome Ford, it's going to have to be Kareem Hunt, and it's going to have to be potentially strong. That's where it's going to come from. And so I highlight this matchup because they've got to take care of business, and when they're given an opportunity, run all over somebody that is far inferior to them, they need to do it. And so as a whole, as a team, the Broncos are five and five. They're coming off a close win against the Vikings, 21 to 20 in that one Josh Dobbs first loss in Minnesota.
[02:47:15] Speaker B: So that's saying something ended the Josh Dobbs honeymoon.
[02:47:19] Speaker A: This team has strung some wins together, and what I best describe them as pesky, because it seems like they're winning a lot of close games. They aren't a great team by any stretch of them. I don't look at them and nothing that they do, they do particularly well where you're like that jumps off the page. And that's why they're winning all these games. Besides the turnovers being plus ten in.
[02:47:40] Speaker B: Turnover, that's what when I was interesting, I was just trying to find I'm trying to figure out what changed for them. And turnovers seem to be the big.
[02:47:46] Speaker A: And that's where the pesky comes into play. And the Browns, as I already mentioned in this episode, the Browns lead the league in turnovers right now.
Thanks, PJ. So that's not good. But yeah, to your point, PJ. Walker is not playing quarterback for us.
But again, the Broncos have been winning games. The Browns on paper, I think should win this game. But the Browns need to take care of business and continue to be the team that they've been all season long. And that's just head down. We're going to work and we're going to do what we do and out hustle out physical and just straight up outplay every team that we come up against.
[02:48:25] Speaker B: And I think it's just as simple as Kevin Stefanski says. Every week we're going one and no, this week we can't worry about anything else. Can't worry about next week, who we're playing at the end of the season. It's go out and find a way to win this week with this team. Whether it's defense, whether it's offense, whether it's special teams, somebody get out there and make a play.
[02:48:41] Speaker A: Yes. Three keys. Continue to play dominant defense. Protect the ball on offense.
Two keys. That's it.
Count it wrong. That's all of them. That's all they got to do. If they do those two things, they'll win.
[02:48:57] Speaker B: Burning rubber, sports gas. But that deepest analysis of the game.
[02:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, but that'll take us to the injury report.
[02:49:07] Speaker B: Oh, god, I hate this segment. Can we cancel this? Because the injury report changes during week and none of this is ever yeah.
[02:49:15] Speaker A: And you never let the sounder play. Yeah, just play it over everything you just said.
[02:49:19] Speaker B: That's fine. I will.
Denver Greg Dolcic tight end hamstring is believed to be close to returning from IR but isn't expected to be activated ahead of center's game against the Browns. According to the Denver Gazette, PJ. Locke listed as out as a safety.
Rest of these guys look like long term injured reserve guys.
[02:49:43] Speaker A: Next.
[02:49:44] Speaker B: Worry about that so much.
I want to check one other thing here. Sorry, my computer is slow.
[02:49:53] Speaker A: Yeah, my co host comes unprepared every week.
[02:49:55] Speaker B: That's all I had for them.
And then obviously the Browns, he acts.
[02:50:02] Speaker A: Like he's editing videos in the background or something.
[02:50:05] Speaker B: We have quite a few injuries, actually.
Anthony Walker is listed as questionable week to week suffering the hamstring injury Sunday after the win. Soft tissue never good, not good at all. And then Rodney McLeod out. And it was announced today that he will require season ending surgery to address biceps injury. So that sucks because he was especially.
[02:50:29] Speaker A: Because Juan Thornhill still hurt.
[02:50:31] Speaker B: And Juan Thornhill is also listed as out right now. Third string free safety man, it's Mike Ford.
[02:50:40] Speaker A: Oh, is Ronnie Hickman going to get some time?
[02:50:43] Speaker B: Could be.
[02:50:44] Speaker C: He did come in on Sunday. Hickman was in hell.
[02:50:46] Speaker A: Yes. I hope it's Ronnie Hickman time because I think he's another steal, obviously was undrafted free agent, so I think that's another steal. Oh, man, I'm actually excited for that. Thanks for the injury report. This is why we do it would.
[02:50:57] Speaker B: Be Ronnie Hickman, right?
Sorry.
Go back out. Juan thornhill out. And then Marquise Goodwin continues to be out.
And then obviously the rest of these guys are deshaun. Nick Chubb, injury reserve guys, but those are the big ones. Roddy McLeod and Anthony Walker. Hopefully Anthony Walker will be okay, but we will have to keep an eye on him as the week goes on.
[02:51:29] Speaker A: And so before we get into king of the north, let's go ahead and run through it. Players to watch this week, boys, we'll start with Bone. Bone, who you got?
[02:51:38] Speaker C: Hope I don't steal anybody. You got to go DTR. He's got to take care of the football. As you said, Denver forces turnovers. If we can come up winning, the turnover better, we're going to win this game. And it starts with DTR. So hopefully he has some good zip on the ball. I think we're going to run it efficiently, and hopefully that opens up some things for him and maybe he can push the ball a little bit downfield.
[02:51:59] Speaker A: Like it. I like it. Kenny, who you got?
[02:52:01] Speaker B: Look, I think this team matches up better with us than a lot of people in the world think they do.
My original pick. Here was Pat Sertan, cornerback for Denver. I think he's one of the best young defensive backs in the game. And with DTR out there looking around, trying to find receivers that for some reason have just been non existent this year, could end up making a big play. But I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Marvin Mims Jr.
Because just watching that game on Thursday, like, his lightning speed caught my eye, and I was like, Kenny could do some damage. And I don't know how he's not better than he is because he is like an f one race car. Like, amazing.
[02:52:46] Speaker A: That fast.
[02:52:47] Speaker B: So fast.
[02:52:48] Speaker A: Wow.
[02:52:49] Speaker B: So those are my two. I cheated. I picked two.
[02:52:51] Speaker A: That's not fair, but okay. Mine is Jerome Ford for all the reasons I just mentioned regarding Denver being terrible against the run, this should be a stat game for Jerome Ford. And we mention all the time about his yards per carry is actually really low when you take away his, like, three or four home run plays he's had on the season.
But here's the deal. If we're going to win, he needs to perform, and he needs to perform well against a terrible rush defense. So I got Jerome Ford. I mean, I think everything that you mentioned, Bone, about the turnover battle. If we win the turnover battle, we probably win. If we play good defense and win the turnover battle, we probably win. But if for whatever reason, we do have some turnovers and our defense isn't as dominant as we need it to be or we want it to be, I should say, if Jerome Ford can rush for over 100 yards in this game, I like our chances. I think we're doing well. So that's my guy to watch. I think it's going to be Jerome Ford.
But that takes us to the King of the north.
So in case anyone does not know by now, this is our year long AFC North pick'em competition. At the end of the season, whoever comes in last place gets punished in the season. Our wonderful co host here, Kenny, had a gross of eggs thrown at him by fans in the Munilot before a preseason game.
[02:54:28] Speaker B: It was gross.
[02:54:29] Speaker A: He's still digging the eggshells out of his butt crack. That's true.
[02:54:33] Speaker B: Every now and then I find one.
[02:54:35] Speaker A: And so we're still working out the punishment for this year. Guys, off top of your heads, more suggestions. Let's go.
[02:54:41] Speaker B: Crucifixion scorpion sting.
[02:54:43] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[02:54:46] Speaker B: Needless to say sorry, that was maybe too much.
[02:54:49] Speaker A: Neither of those will be the punishment.
[02:54:52] Speaker B: Scorpion sting might be cool. Like, you put a scorpion in a box, you have to let it sting you.
[02:54:58] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I quit the show.
[02:54:59] Speaker C: Mystery box. Put your hand in this box.
[02:55:02] Speaker A: What's in no, I don't want to know what Kenny puts in a box.
But anyways, let's go ahead and get into this thing. First things first, I want to remind everybody that I am the reigning, defending, undisputed, undefeated King of the north. That's right. It's I.
[02:55:22] Speaker B: And I want you in a cage, man.
[02:55:24] Speaker A: And I want you in a cage. No, I don't. But Kenny kenny is right where he belongs. He's in last place.
[02:55:32] Speaker B: Thanks.
[02:55:32] Speaker A: And also, in case anyone hasn't noticed, we've added our trusty board up, Bone Man. Bone, say hello.
[02:55:37] Speaker C: Hi. Hello.
[02:55:38] Speaker A: We've added him to the competition this year, and he is currently tied with me in first, so he's been a welcome addition.
[02:55:44] Speaker C: I'm really getting the hang of this thing.
[02:55:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And he's much better than Kenny at picking games. So let's remind everyone of the current records before we make our picks. I am at 18 and 15, bones at 18 and 15. And Kenny is at 15 and 18. Thank you.
So let's get into this week's matchups. First of all, the Steelers travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals. Bone, who you got?
[02:56:06] Speaker C: I got the steelers. Yeah.
[02:56:08] Speaker A: No.
[02:56:09] Speaker C: Joe Burrow Steelers defense is going to destroy whoever they're putting back there at quarterback.
[02:56:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree.
That's my pick. I guess. I guess it's my turn.
I'm going to pick the Steelers. I think TJ watts probably pissed off that Duan Jones manhandled him this past week and he's going to take all of that aggression out on Jake Browning. So steelers went easy.
[02:56:30] Speaker B: You just did a whole segment on our show called Steelers Are Trash.
[02:56:35] Speaker A: And then I picked them.
[02:56:36] Speaker B: And then you picked them to win.
[02:56:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but the Bengals are even more trash when they don't have Joe Burrow.
[02:56:41] Speaker B: I don't know, man.
[02:56:42] Speaker A: The Bengals don't even have a defense.
[02:56:44] Speaker B: I think this is a harder game to pick.
[02:56:47] Speaker A: That's fine. I hope you go Cincinnati, last place.
[02:56:50] Speaker B: I don't know what Cincinnati is going to do at quarterback. They're going to go forward with that Browning kid or not.
I have to go Steelers this week as well, even though if they had.
[02:57:00] Speaker A: Any don't you ever talk shit to me again.
[02:57:02] Speaker B: If they had any quarterback, I would pick citizens or at home. But idiot you are, I have to go Steelers. All right.
[02:57:07] Speaker A: So steelers across the board. Next up, Ravens. Get the Sunday night football game in California against the Chargers. Kenny, who do you have here?
[02:57:15] Speaker B: I'm going to go san Diego here or La.
[02:57:18] Speaker A: Here.
[02:57:18] Speaker B: Sorry.
[02:57:19] Speaker A: San Diego loss for Kenny.
[02:57:23] Speaker B: San Diego, Wales, vagina.
[02:57:26] Speaker A: Yeah, of course.
[02:57:27] Speaker B: I'm going to go Chargers. Let's go with that.
Sunday night.
I think that Sunday night's when the big players come to play. I think this Chargers team has a ton of potential to score on offense, even against a stout defense in Baltimore. I just think they have too much keen. Allens will play in his mind off and I think they can just outscore this Ravens team. So I think it'll be a high scoring affair. If I was picking the points, I'd take the over, but I think at the end of the day, the Chargers have enough to get it done.
[02:58:01] Speaker A: It's a long winded answer. Bone, what do you got?
[02:58:05] Speaker C: I think I'm going to go, man, long trip. California. I'll go Ravens. I just think they're a better team.
Chargers. I almost said San Diego.
It's going to be a high scoring game. But, man, I'm almost second guessing myself when they don't have Mark Andrews, but I think Lamar is still going to be able to do enough. Get them the win.
[02:58:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm with you. I thought this was a tough one to pick as well. So I'm with both of you there. I do also think it's going to be a high scoring game, but I like the Ravens in this one because the simple fact that their defense is far superior to the Chargers defense. And I will say this, the Chargers offense, they're not bad. I'm not saying they're bad, but I think they rank like somewhere like right in the middle. So I just give the edge to the Ravens defense there. So I got the Ravens as well. It's a trend. Zach and I picked the same, and Kenny picked the opposite team. Just saying. He almost picked Cincinnati. What an idiot. Anyways, finally we got the Browns. The reason for the season, the Browns travel to Denver to take on the Broncos in Mile High Stadium. I'll start this one out. I've got Cleveland in this one. I think this is going to be close.
I think our defense does it again, is able to hold the Broncos to a low enough score that our offense does just enough to get it done. And I like us 20 to 14 is the score I'm going with.
[02:59:33] Speaker B: So that's your pick.
[02:59:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I got Cleveland, 20 to 14.
[02:59:37] Speaker B: Bone.
[02:59:37] Speaker A: Bone. Thanks.
[02:59:40] Speaker C: You know what? I'm going to pick Cleveland.
[02:59:42] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[02:59:43] Speaker C: I got this really great feeling that DTR is going to show out and he's going to continue to improve on what he did this past week and take care of the football.
[02:59:52] Speaker A: My God, I hope so. I'm waiting for any Cleveland Browns quarterback to show up.
I've just been on the edge of my seat at the beginning of every game, and then it quickly dissolves. I'm just like, I just really want a quarterback to throw for 300 yards this week. That's all I want.
[03:00:08] Speaker C: Great.
[03:00:09] Speaker A: So I hope you're right. Bone, what's the score? What do you got, man?
[03:00:12] Speaker C: What do I got? I'm going big. I'm going Cleveland 31, Denver 17.
[03:00:19] Speaker A: Nice.
I like that. They are giving up, by the way. I said they're the worst scoring defense this year. I think they're giving up, like, 27.7 points a game or something stupid like that.
[03:00:29] Speaker B: Well, they did give you my 70.
[03:00:35] Speaker A: That's true, I guess.
Yeah. Anyways, Kenny, who you got?
[03:00:41] Speaker B: Look, I think this is going to be a razor thin game.
I do like what I saw at a DTR this week. I think this Denver team is white hot. I think that they're going to come in thinking they're going to win this game.
I think this is like a Dustin Hopkins four or five field goal game. I'm going to call 1917 Browns.
[03:01:00] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[03:01:01] Speaker C: Love it.
[03:01:02] Speaker A: 1917. I like that.
Yeah. So, once again, that's our picks for King of the north. We'll see how things shake out after this week, but that will take us to the burning of a sports guest.
[03:01:16] Speaker B: Hot take hotline.
[03:01:19] Speaker A: Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the Hot Take Hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. 3302-2780-8033-02.
[03:01:34] Speaker B: 27, 80. 80.
[03:01:35] Speaker C: 33, 02-2780-8033-0227, 80.
[03:01:40] Speaker A: Call now. Operators are never there.
[03:01:43] Speaker C: There's nobody there.
[03:01:44] Speaker A: Nobody there.
[03:01:45] Speaker C: It's just a voicemail, so don't get nervous. Just leave your message.
[03:01:49] Speaker A: Just let it fly.
[03:01:49] Speaker B: Yeah, let it fly.
[03:01:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
Be sure to check out our gear at WW Dot Thetabinmedia.com shop click on Show Specific and then click on Burning River Sportscast and you will see all that we have to offer. And that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[03:02:08] Speaker B: Well, before we get to next week, I just want to say thank you to our guests today, mr. Reggie Langhorn and Cliff out at Mile High.
[03:02:16] Speaker A: Thanks, guys.
[03:02:16] Speaker B: Awesome show.
[03:02:18] Speaker A: Good job out of you.
[03:02:18] Speaker B: My co host, red Hot Running Jams and the Big Bone Man. Excellent job today. And next week, hopefully, we can expect an excellent job from everyone as well.
[03:02:28] Speaker A: To be clear, when he said, my co host, Red Hot, Ronnie Jams and the big bone man, we are not the same person. We're two different people.
[03:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah, the big bone man, too.
[03:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. I was just making sure also, because the way you said it, it sounded like I was red Hot Ronnie Jams, the big Bone Man Tambien. Yeah, also, yeah. Anyways, I digress.
[03:02:47] Speaker B: Thank you. We will recap a big win against the Broncos. This team's going to the Super Bowl, and we will preview the Browns Go Week 13 matchup against the La. Rams.
[03:03:00] Speaker A: The La. Rams.
[03:03:01] Speaker B: Los Angeles Rams. Not the St. Louis Rams, not the San Diego Chargers. The Los Angeles Rams. And we will interview another Brownsbackers chapter in the Southern California. Browns backers.
[03:03:13] Speaker A: Another big group.
[03:03:14] Speaker B: California, here we come.
[03:03:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Another big group next week.
[03:03:18] Speaker B: And we will top it off we will top you off with another Browns alumni joining us on the Browns Fan Cruise in March of 2024. Ronnie, who is it going to be? Felix Wright, Mr. Tweek. Felix freaking Wright.
[03:03:30] Speaker A: Hell yes. And so don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapin'media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the Tapin media and Burning River Sportscast that's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at River Sportscast on X at Burning River Pod. You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast talking. Apple podcast spotify. Google Podcasts. Amazon Music. Stitcher Pandora. iHeartRadio podcast catch for a good podcast. So many more. And Kenny, what does that take us to facts for days?
Um.
[03:04:12] Speaker B: All right, we're gonna breeze through these because I got lots of facts today.
[03:04:16] Speaker A: You got lots. You only have three.
[03:04:17] Speaker B: Do you know why I have so many facts?
[03:04:18] Speaker A: Why? Why?
[03:04:19] Speaker B: Because for the first time since 1969, the Lions and the Browns have won seven of their first ten games.
So it got me thinking.
[03:04:31] Speaker A: Fun fact that's my favorite team and.
[03:04:32] Speaker B: My dad's favorite team, see, like Jim.
[03:04:35] Speaker A: Like Jim, Jim and Jim.
[03:04:36] Speaker B: Jim.
[03:04:37] Speaker A: Jim and sons.
[03:04:37] Speaker B: You guys should start a jerky company.
Jim and Jim. Jim, Jim. Like some Jim. Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim.
[03:04:45] Speaker A: Go on.
[03:04:45] Speaker C: Jim and Jim's.
[03:04:46] Speaker A: Gobblers.
[03:04:47] Speaker B: So it got me thinking. What were you thinking on this Thanksgiving?
[03:04:51] Speaker A: I didn't know you could think on.
[03:04:53] Speaker B: This Thanksgiving week before the trip to fame gets everyone, nobody falls asleep. What was life like in 1969? Well, I'll tell you. Because most of us, at least us, weren't there.
[03:05:07] Speaker A: I wasn't there. Bo, were you there?
[03:05:09] Speaker C: I was not there.
[03:05:10] Speaker B: Our parents, maybe.
Number one, richard Millhouse Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th US. President. Number two, american astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took a stroll on the moon.
[03:05:25] Speaker A: Oh.
[03:05:26] Speaker B: Number three, dave Thomas we Landed on the Moon opens the very first Wendy's restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
[03:05:32] Speaker A: Hell, yes.
[03:05:32] Speaker B: It just didn't exist.
[03:05:33] Speaker C: Great man.
[03:05:34] Speaker B: Wendy's just did not exist.
[03:05:36] Speaker A: He was a great man.
[03:05:37] Speaker B: Number four. The first ATM was installed at a Chemical Bank branch in Rockville Center, New York. The first automated teller machine. So before that, you just couldn't just put your debit card in the machine and get money. Weird. Number five.
MLB legend Mickey Mantle announced his retirement due to repetitive injuries.
[03:05:57] Speaker A: Literally was like the Middle Ages.
[03:06:00] Speaker B: How about this? Number six. Average income per year, $8,500.
[03:06:06] Speaker A: Holy hell.
[03:06:07] Speaker B: Average cost of a new house in 1960 915.
Five.
[03:06:12] Speaker A: Damn.
[03:06:14] Speaker B: Average monthly rent, $135.
[03:06:17] Speaker A: Damn.
[03:06:17] Speaker B: Average cost of a new car, 32. 70. And it wouldn't cost you a whole lot to fill it up because the average cost of a gallon of gas was $0.35.
[03:06:26] Speaker A: Why are you people acting like this? 1969, we had it so tough shut your mouth.
[03:06:31] Speaker B: Shut your damn mouth in the file.
[03:06:34] Speaker A: Greatest generation, my ass. Tom Brokehall was a punk.
[03:06:37] Speaker B: In the file of something's never changed. The Rose Bowl.
[03:06:40] Speaker A: Wait, I had one more for 1969.
[03:06:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[03:06:43] Speaker A: We also thought we were going through a new ice age.
[03:06:47] Speaker B: That's true. The science was science.
[03:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah. The science was scienting back then.
[03:06:52] Speaker B: Some things have never changed. The Rose Bowl was won by Ohio State over USC.
[03:06:56] Speaker C: Nice.
[03:06:58] Speaker B: Butch Cassidy and a Sundance Kid.
[03:07:00] Speaker A: Hell, yeah.
[03:07:00] Speaker B: Premiered starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
[03:07:04] Speaker A: Nice TV.
[03:07:06] Speaker B: Zit Girl Jennifer Aniston was born.
[03:07:08] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yeah.
[03:07:10] Speaker B: And on the heels of civil rights victories just two years prior, in 1967, interracial marriage was still illegal in the US.
[03:07:18] Speaker A: What job out of these?
[03:07:19] Speaker B: Some big civil rights cases during that time that changed things around. And at number 15 are you ready, boys?
[03:07:25] Speaker A: I'm listening, Cleveland's.
[03:07:27] Speaker B: Kayahoga river caught on fire when floating pieces of oil slick debris were ignited on the river by sparks caused by a passing train.
[03:07:37] Speaker A: I don't cheer for the river catching on fire, but I cheer for all of the great things that came from that terrible disaster. A lot of reform.
A lot cleaner parks and rivers now because of the things that happen there.
[03:07:49] Speaker B: And one dope ass podcast.
[03:07:51] Speaker A: Hell, yeah.
[03:07:52] Speaker B: Burning river river don't be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[03:07:57] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires. Burning river sports gas burning river burning river river burning river burning river do that.
[03:08:10] Speaker B: Do that.
[03:08:13] Speaker A: The river is burning we didn't start the fire no, we didn't start burning.
[03:08:25] Speaker B: River burning river bat sex cast.
[03:08:34] Speaker A: What the fuck? Just.
[03:08:45] Speaker D: Browns fan cruise and the burning river sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of?
[03:08:51] Speaker A: Motorboat.
[03:08:51] Speaker D: You play the motorboat.
[03:08:54] Speaker A: You motorboat son of a bitch. You old sailor.
[03:08:58] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during that.
[03:08:59] Speaker A: Interview what were you? Nothing. Because you don't have thoughts. Because you're a brainless idiot.
[03:09:04] Speaker B: Wow. My name is Utrid. Son of Utrid.
[03:09:13] Speaker A: By the way, I want my foreskin back. It doesn't matter what you think.
[03:09:17] Speaker B: Reggie ranges about twelve to 15. So it's dank weed.
[03:09:21] Speaker A: Dank.
Shit's dank, bro.
[03:09:23] Speaker B: Just had to make that clear that I wasn't an idiot.
[03:09:26] Speaker A: Shit's. Dank.
[03:09:27] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather.
[03:09:30] Speaker A: The other one the finger eating food fingers.
[03:09:32] Speaker B: So let me wait.
[03:09:33] Speaker C: Can be very selective.
[03:09:34] Speaker B: Let me get this straight.
[03:09:35] Speaker A: Incredible.
[03:09:36] Speaker B: Let me get this straight. I'm a bat.
I'm hanging upside down. My vagina is too small for anything to get inside a bunch of male bat suitors come and suitors cloically hug me ejaculate all over my body and my genitals.
[03:09:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[03:09:56] Speaker B: And then I choose what I want to put inside me?
[03:10:01] Speaker C: Yes. This is speculation, but that's what these researchers are saying.
[03:10:04] Speaker B: So it's like a bat ice cream sundae and they pick out the topic that they want. Side.
[03:10:12] Speaker A: What do you mean? Funny? Funny how? How am I funny? All I do is win win no matter what.
[03:10:18] Speaker E: But all in all, I'm just in love with this city and the things that it's been able to provide for me that I couldn't get back at home and I try to do and be a responsible citizen of this Northeast Ohio area. Erroneous.
[03:10:34] Speaker A: Erroneous on both counts.
[03:10:36] Speaker E: Got here. We loved it so much that we made it home. And it's a tribute to the fans of Cleveland, to the people of Cleveland that guys like me are still here.
[03:10:45] Speaker B: Wow.
[03:10:45] Speaker A: But damn, the leads are weak. The leads are weak?
[03:10:49] Speaker D: Fucking leads are weak.
[03:10:51] Speaker A: You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years. What's your name? You.
[03:10:56] Speaker D: That's my name.
[03:10:57] Speaker B: You know why, Mr? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW.
[03:11:04] Speaker A: That's my name now. I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers.
I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[03:11:14] Speaker C: It's mother nature.
[03:11:15] Speaker B: Where's Logo girl when you need her?
[03:11:17] Speaker A: I desperately want to make love to us.
[03:11:19] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now.
[03:11:21] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[03:11:22] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now. We need Cheese girl now.
[03:11:25] Speaker A: Eating that.
[03:11:25] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now.
[03:11:27] Speaker A: Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
[03:11:31] Speaker B: Who's canceled now? Who's canceled now?
[03:11:34] Speaker A: Probably me.
[03:11:34] Speaker B: You making a photo of fat people?
[03:11:37] Speaker A: I'm not just you.
[03:11:39] Speaker B: We're a whole race.
[03:11:40] Speaker A: Basically.
Just straight. Just finger banged their salad.
[03:11:48] Speaker C: You first get shocked and then you.
[03:11:50] Speaker A: Get the shocker.
[03:11:53] Speaker B: You like to see almost naked.
[03:11:55] Speaker D: That's cool, man.
[03:11:55] Speaker A: Whatever.
Brilliant media.
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