Bad news Browns’ hard luck continues
How about this new motto for the Cleveland Browns: “Where curses go to refuel.”
Since the Browns’ rebirth in 1999 as an expansion franchise, little has gone right. And just when you think maybe they’re turning a corner this year, Wednesday happened. Then Thursday happened.
On Wednesday, No. 1 overall draft pick Myles Garrett — the most popular pre-season choice for NFL rookie of the year — came up hobbling and failed to finish practice. The diagnosis? High ankle sprain.
The club said it will provide an update on Garrett’s injury “in a couple of weeks.”
Then on Thursday the Browns released safety Calvin Pryor — three months and a week after acquiring him in a trade with the New York Jets, and just hours after Pryor reportedly instigated a pre-practice fight with teammate Ricardo Louis, a receiver.
No coach or player would discuss details of the incident after practice, but head coach Hue Jackson said: “It was an internal matter. I am not going to go into any details or specifics. We did release the player, and we are moving on … I just made a decision which we thought was best for our football team and we moved on. That’s it.”
But that’s never just it for the Browns — one-third of the NFL’s apparently doomed Lake Erie Triangle, along with the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions. Between them these franchises have not won a playoff game in 21 years. BENNETT UPDATE: In a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell Thursday, the Las Vegas police union denounced Michael Bennett, denying the Seattle Seahawk defensive end’s claim of abuse at the hands of police on Labour Day weekend. Bennett said he was physically mistreated for racial reasons.
“I request that you conduct an investigation and take appropriate action into Michael Bennett’s obvious false allegations against our officers,” the union’s president wrote Goodell. “While the NFL may condone Bennett’s disrespect for our American flag, and everything it symbolizes, we hope the league will not ignore Bennett’s false accusations against our police officers.”
The NFL responded with only this short statement: “There is no allegation of a violation of the league’s personal conduct policy and therefore there is no basis for an NFL investigation.”