FALC YEAH!
CLEVELAND — Chanting through chattering teeth, Browns fans finally felt victorious. Maybe the winless season wasn’t a total loss. Thousands of disgruntled Cleveland fans, some of them calling for owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam to sell the franchise or jump in Lake Erie, paraded once around the team’s stadium in frigid conditions Saturday following a historic 0-16 season.
It was a protest and it was a party as fans showed their outrage and creativity following a season many would gladly forget.
Despite wind chills below zero, fans lined the street around FirstEnergy Stadium, which has been dubbed the “Factory of Sadness” in recent years, to cheer as 80 vehicles, a rock band on a flatbed truck and a group carrying 28 tombstones to represent the team’s 28 starting quarterbacks since 1999, took a “no victory” lap.
Cleveland police conservatively estimated the crowd at 3,200, and reported no major incidents or arrests. This was frozen fun mixed with some fury. “I’m here to protest,” said Patty Szylakowski, who grew up in a football-loving household with five brothers. “We don’t deserve this. We deserve better people in the front office.”
GRUDEN RAIDER RETURN OFFICIAL
The Oakland Raiders have officially hired Jon Gruden as their coach.
The team announced the move Saturday as soon as Gruden finished his final broadcast as an announcer for ESPN. Gruden will be formally introduced at a news conference Tuesday.
Gruden is returning for a second stint as coach of the Raiders after being traded to Tampa Bay following the 2001 season. He led the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl title over Oakland the following season. He has been out of coaching since being fired by Tampa Bay after the 2008 season.
The Raiders fired Jack Del Rio following the end of a disappointing six-win season. Oakland won 12 games in 2016 to earn Del Rio a four-year extension but the team fell flat this season. Gruden reportedly will get a 10-year contract worth an estimated $100 million.
RIVERA EXTENSION
The Carolina Panthers moved Saturday to provide some much-needed stability to a franchise rocked by allegations of workplace misconduct by owner Jerry Richardson.
A day before the Panthers’ playoff game at New Orleans, coach Ron Rivera signed a twoyear contract extension through the 2020 season, the team announced.
The extension is worth $15.5 million over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Rivera signed a three-year, $19.5 million extension two years ago that was set to expire in 2018.
“I’m very excited about it because I really like where we are as a football team,” Rivera said in a release. “We’ve done some really good things and we have an opportunity to do more. Things are in place and we can continue this success. We’ve had consistency of winning and we’ve gone to the playoffs four out of five years.”
The deal is the first move by Tina Becker as chief operating officer of the team. Becker was promoted to the position after Richardson stepped away from daily duties last month.
BEARS INTERVIEWING
The Chicago Bears say they were interviewing Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo for their head coaching job. In his second year as the Eagles’ QBs coach, DeFilippo has helped Carson Wentz emerge as one of the best passers in the league. The No. 2 overall pick in 2016, he threw for 3,296 yards with 33 touchdowns and seven INTS before a season-ending knee injury. —Wire News Service