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Toward the End: Readings, Writings, Football

Mr. Super Hero Cleats Saved an Unsettling Season
Defensive lineman Dempsey Gillman has hung up his Super Hero Cleats Photo from a Missy Buck Gillman Facebook post Though not yet concluded, this football season, from preps to pros, but especially with regard to the college I follow most closely, has proved the...

Mayfield Memorandum 21: This is Leadership?
Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski found no answer on his play sheet in Baltimore Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns That Kevin Stefanski is downright Churchillian when it comes to demonstrating leadership. Before his team’s latest debacle, a 16-10 loss to the Baltimore...

Mayfield Memorandum 20: Déjà vu all over again
Arizona Cardinal backup QB Colt McCoy could tell Baker Mayfield all about the Browns azcardinals.com photo A decade of blue moons and sad-sack quarterbacks ago, an earlier version of the New Browns football hierarchy had begun to cut the legs out from under a...

Mayfield Memorandum 19: Life, Death, and Football
A pensive Baker Mayfield may be thinking about life and death Austin Janning/Cleveland Browns It isn’t even Game Day and already Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has proved a winner this week, because some things are more important than football. His more...

Mayfield Memorandum 18: Bad Baker, Bad Browns
New England rookie quarterback Mac Jones bettered the Browns' Baker Mayfield Michael Dwyer/AP from patriots.com Early on in the Cleveland Browns’ disintegration at the New England Patriots, it became apparent that Baker Mayfield was neither the healthiest nor...

Mayfield Memorandum 17: The Line on Extensions
Heart of the Browns' O-Line: RG Wyatt Teller (77), RG Joel Bitonio (75), Center JC Tretter (64) Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns Even in the midst of celebrating the richly deserved contract extensions of Cleveland Browns guards Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller, the...

Mayfield Memorandum 16: Now, It’s Baker’s Team
Quarterback Baker Mayfield talks to and takes command of HIS team Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns Ever had one of those weeks at work when everything went wrong? Baker Mayfield’s was worse. He Who Will Remain Nameless but is readily identifiable by his initials...

Mayfield Memorandum 15: OBJ Didn’t Change
Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns Odell Beckham Jr. leaves Cleveland having improved at least one part of the game he plays: It took him only half the time to prompt his second NFL team to give up on him as it did his first—2½ years to 5. He’s getting better, yet one...

Mayfield Memorandum 14: Catch this Song & Dance
Odell Beckham Jr. was a show-stopper . . . at least before the Steelers game Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns The Kabuki Dance is all but over. When Odell Beckham Jr.’s father took to social media near the deadline for National Football League teams to make trades and...

Mayfield Memorandum 13: Beaten Up/Dropping
When Jarvis Landry fails to catch the ball, the Browns are in trouble Matt Starkey/Cleveland Browns The last-place Cleveland Browns have turned into a beat-up, beaten-down illusion. They aren’t what anyone thought they would be—probably including themselves. The...