Local sports schedule
TODAY MHAL GIRLS BASKETBALL Saugerties at Wallkill, 5:30 p.m. OCIAA BOY SWIMMING Newburgh at Kingston, 4:30 p.m. SECTION 9 WRESTLING Minisink Valley at Kingston, 6 p.m. Port Jervis at New Paltz, 6 p.m. Liberty at Rondout, 6 p.m. Onteora at Ellenville, 6 p.m. Goshen at Saugerties, 7 p.m. Wallkill at Cornwall, 7 p.m. NON-LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL Monroe-Woodbury at Red Hook, 5:45 p.m. Spackenkill at Roosevelt, 5:45 p.m. NON-LEAGUE GIRLS BASKETBALL Germantown at Rhinebeck, 4:15 p.m. Red Hook at Millbrook, 5:45 p.m. Middletown at Highland, 5:45 p.m. THURSDAY OCIAA GIRLS BASKETBALL Monroe-Woodbury at Kingston, 7 p.m. OCIAA BOYS SWIMMING New Paltz at Cornwall, 4:30 p.m. SECTION 9 NORDIC SKIING Meet at Mohonk Mountain, 3:30 p.m. SECTION 9 WRESTLING Highland at Red Hook, 6 p.m. Minisink Valley at Wallkill, 7 p.m. COLLEGIATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Marist at Saint Peter’s, 7 p.m. FRIDAY MHAL BOYS BASKETBALL Saugerties at New Palz, 5:30 p.m. Marlboro at Highland, 5:30 p.m. Wallkill at Rondout, 5:30 p.m. Ellenville at Spackenkill, 5:30 p.m. Pine Plains at Webutuck, 5:30 p.m. Coleman Catholic at Onteora, 5:30 p.m. Rhinebeck at Millbrook, 5:45 p.m. MHAL GIRLS BASKETBALL New Paltz at Saugerties, 5:30 p.m. Highland at Marlboro, 5:30 p.m. Rondout at Wallkill, 5:45 p.m. Millbrook at Rhinebeck, 5:45 p.m. Spackenkill at Ellenville, 6 p.m. OCIAA BOYS BASKETBALL Kingston at Monroe-Woodbury, 7 p.m. OCIAA INDOOR TRACK & FIELD Relays at West Point, 6 p.m. SECTION 9 GYMNASTICS New Paltz at Kingston, 4 p.m. SCHOLASTIC WRESTLING Ross Kordell/Oneonta Rotary Tournament, 4 p.m. NON-LEAGUE GIRLS BASKETBALL Pine Plains at Red Hook, 5:45 p.m. COLLEGIATE MEN’S BASKETBALL Oswego at SUNY New Paltz, 7:30 p.m. COLLEGIATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Oswego at SUNY New Paltz, 5:30 p.m. SATURDAY SCHOLASTIC INDOOR TRACK & FIELD Ocean Breez Invitational, 9 a.m. SCHOLASTIC WRESTLING New Rochelle Shoreline Classic, 8:45 a.m. Ross Kordell/Oneonta Rotary Tournament, 9 a.m. Ketcham Mat Wars, 9 a.m. NON-LEAGUE GIRLS BASKETBALL Kingston at Roosevelt, 1 p.m. COLLEGIATE MEN’S BASKETBALL Cortland at SUNY New Paltz, 3 p.m. COLLEGIATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Cortland at SUNY New Paltz, 1 p.m. Manhattan at Marist, 7 p.m. COLLEGIATE WRESTLING SUNY Ulster at Williams College, noon SUNDAY SCHOLASTIC WRESTLING Ketcham Mat Wars, 9 a.m. COLLEGIATE MEN’S BASKETBALL Niagara at Marist, 2 p.m.
NFL
When Hue Jackson was hired less than two years ago, he was greeted in the lobby of the Browns’ headquarters by cheering team employees.
They beamed and clapped while shaking hands with their new hero, this offensive mastermind and quarterback guru. Finally, they thought, here was the coach who would restore glory to a franchise that once symbolized NFL greatness.
Jackson was supposed to fix things. They’ve only grown worse.
A civic treasure during the Jim Brown years, Cleveland’s pro football team is now a shameful mess, a historic flop.
The worst of the worst. Rock bottom.
With their 28-24 loss on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers , who rested stars Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and other regulars for the playoffs, the Browns wrote their name into the annals of sports sadness by finishing 0-16 and joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams in history to go winless for an entire 16-game season — 16 up, 16 down.
In a league designed to provide parity and hope, the Browns followed a 1-15 season with one even worse and now have gone more than a calendar year between victories.
The 2017 Browns stumbled their way into the pathetic pantheon of rotten teams along with the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73), 1974-75 Washington Capitals (8-67-5) and 2003 Detroit Tigers (43119) as some of the sorriest squads to ever hit the hardwood, ice or diamond.
And now that Buffalo is back in the AFC playoffs, Cleveland’s postseason drought stretching to 2002 is the league’s longest.
“The bottom line is we did not play well enough, we did not coach well enough and we did not get the things done that we set out to do,” said Jackson, who kept his job despite going 1-31 — the worst two-year stretch in 98 NFL seasons. “I think to make it more than that, you can’t. We had the opportunity every week to go out and play and to go win. We did not do that. That’s what it is.”
Not enough talent. Too many turnovers. Those were the main reasons behind the Browns’ continued fall from grace this season, but the team’s issues are older and run even deeper.
Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam thought they had solved numerous problems — deplorable drafting, front-office dysfunction, fan apathy — when they revamped their football hierarchy following the 2015 season by hiring Jackson, who was considered the top coordinator available.
The Haslams promoted salary-cap expert Sashi Brown to vice president of football operations and brought aboard Paul DePodesta, a baseball executive with an analytics background, as their strategy officer to plot the Browns’ course to relevance.
Instead, they’ve descended to new depths.
For all that Brown and DePodesta provided in terms of smarts and managerial savvy, their lack of experience and football intellect was dooming. Their initial decision not to re-sign some veteran free agents in favor of younger players came back to haunt the Browns, who haven’t filled major holes.