BLOG
Toward the End: Readings, Writings, Football

Mayfield Memorandum 33: Browns QB Victim
There'll be no more Thumbs-Up for Browns from Baker Mayfield Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns When Baker Mayfield found himself trying to win the hearts and minds of the Cleveland Browns who owned the first pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Mayfield went for the bomb. He took...

Scott’s Bud Wilkinson: A Late B(l)oomer of a Book
Magic City Books in Tulsa, Oklahoma, featured John Scott and his Wilkinson book magiccitybooks.com John Scott is anything but a slow study yet it took him years to complete his marvelous archetype of learned sports biography. He began Bud Wilkinson and the Rise of...

Mayfield Memorandum 32: NFL ain’t Bean Bags
Maybe new USC Coach Lincoln Riley forgot to teach OU quarterbacks everything usctrojans.com photo Before he unceremoniously dumped the Oklahoma Sooners for USC and the lure of LaLa Land, Lincoln Riley had become known as a Quarterback Whisperer. Usually if a...

Mayfield Memorandum 31: Sitting in Judgment
The Supreme Court of the NFL is the General Manager's Office Photo by Connor Betts on Unsplash The National Football League can appear a heartless realm: From teams that did face-plants short of even the shallow end of NFL mediocrity to those who embarrassingly...

Mayfield Memorandum 30: When Winning=Losing
Baker Mayfield gives a hand to Case Keenum who knows his pain Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns National Football League coaches like to claim that their goal is to put their teams and players in situations that provide them the best opportunity to succeed. But...

Winter Comes to the Lion of the O-Line
Longtime Brown Doug Dieken comes to the end of the line John Reid/Cleveland Browns Before he ascended into the heaven that is the Cleveland Browns radio broadcast booth, Doug Dieken played a hallowed position: Left tackle. It is the one spot along the offensive...

Mayfield Memorandum 29: A Season of Aughts
Too much T.J. Watt (90) proved too much for James Hudson (66) and Baker Mayfield Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns As the Cleveland Browns were solidifying their claim as the worst team in the best division—AFC North—of the National Football League, quarterback...

Mayfield Memorandum 28: No Quarter Given
What it must feel like to be Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash After yet another display of his shortcomings, Baker Mayfield had to have realized the sporting commentariat would come for him hammer and tongs. Collecting a...

Mayfield Memorandum 27: Bad Ending Redux
Browns Quarterback Baker Mayfield: Another interception coming right up Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns The cosmic disconnect between the games of football that two quarterbacks—Baker Mayfield and Aaron Rodgers—played could not have been more extraordinary. On...

Mayfield Memorandum 26: An Honest President!
Cleveland center JC Tretter does much more than protect his quarterback Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns Merry Christmas, Mr. President. No, not the Joes—not Biden nor Manchin (the West Virginia senator who behaves as if someone elected himpresident). As far as...