DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Please Help Me Sleep At Night - Browns Cheated Again

Hello fellow Dawgs.

I'm here today to ask for help. I am a pessimist. A person with "Battered Dawg Syndrome".

I want to see the positive, but I've just seen this story too many times to get happy.

This year the Browns were once again victimized by the NFL. Cheated, robbed, bamboozled.

So why bring it up this year? Well the NFL actually admitted it. It’s not conspiracy theories anymore. We have letters of apology stating that we should've beaten the Steelers in the week 1 game, and the Raiders.

It seemed at the time (to most) that this would not matter. I said to my brother when they allowed that offsides on the final block kick to force a tie week 1: "This will make us miss the playoffs". And so it has. If I were a less stable person I'd think it was scripted.

Even just accepting it as bad luck (19 years straight of it, the only years we haven't had bad luck in my lifetime was the 5 we didn't exist).

As our Week 17 matchup comes around we have 2 options:
1) Win and the Steelers goto the Playoffs
2) Lose and the Ravens goto the Playoffs.




SO PLEASE, HELP ME NOT BE SICK TO MY STOMACH ABOUT THIS YEAR.

I enjoy watching the wins these past 6 weeks, but the playoffs are all that REALLY matter.

Arguments I've heard so far:
1) At least this way we got rid of Hue
2) We have talent going forward

But I've seen both of those stories before. New coach, new players, etc. Remember when Kellen Winslow got a staph infection that swole his man bits to the size of grapefruits? William Green got stabbed by his girlfriend? Josh Gordon? The force out rule change in 2007 that cost us the playoffs vs Arizona? etc etc I could probably type 10 pages of random stuff that can happen year to year.

Who’s to say next year something else bad doesn’t happen?

We earned the right to play for the division NOW. How do I continue to support something that has blatantly ripped us off?

In the 80s/90s I could just blindly trust. I was young and also the cameras were so grainy you couldn't confirm or deny anyways.

This year the CAMERAS ARE AMAZING. We can see Njoku got a better spot than they gave him, we can see the facemasks, the PIs, the no-calls, the holding, etc.

Am I crazy? (well I am, but I mean for this reason) Please tell me I am with reasons to support why this isn't completely unfair.

Few things brought me joy like watching the Browns games with my family each Sunday and I want to go back to believing.

Sorry for the rant. I don't mean to sound bitter, just sad. LOVE ALL MY DAWGS!

Sincerely,
Myka


Just one example from the tie game. 7 points. Ball not even in frame yet, no PI called.

If we won those games there would be a better chance of Hue still being here. The future is bright look forward.

Thanks for the reply, but I referenced that as a reason. It's not good enough. Also we'd be 4-1 and happy Hue was here.

Drink more.

LOL. I'm staying sober for December, which is probably why I'm feeling the pain more than usual.

Get Dawgs4Life to start a countdown thread for you, for the end of December. It'll give you plenty of reading to keep you busy between now and the next cork you pop.

We were 0-16 last year. Going from the outhouse to the penthouse only happens in the movies. Even with the progress we made this year, there's no guarantees about next year. That's the nature of sports. All we can really ask and expect is that they are competitive, and I personally believe that corner has been turned. But if you want guaranteed outcomes maybe you should consider a switch to TV wrestling.

Its DIFFERENT this time dawg ... in so so many ways ....

- we have TALENT .... we’ve never had talent anywhere close to this ...

- we have a GM in place BEFORE hiring the coach for the first time in the thiefs era i believe ...

The one TANGEANT thing i can point to at this point is look how hard Arians is lobbying for our job ... and my guess he’s not the only one ...

There’s reasons he wants this job and only this job ... cause its SO ATTRACTIVE ....

Thats the only “tangeant” thing I can point to ...

The rest has to be u BELIEVING what your eyes are seeing and then complete faith ... cause until it actually happens thats all any of us have ... HOPE and finally IMO we have someone we can have FAITH IN ...

Hopefully you get a few good noights sleep between now and he new year ... u gonna allow yourself a few drinks on this side of the ball drop sir .... ....

Enjoy your christmas dawg ...

So your admitting your a quitter

With a victory over Baltimore next week, we can announce to the world that the NFL deliberately conspired against us then pull a UCF and declare ourselves the true 2018 Super Bowl Champions!

You're a Browns fan, you have to have...

lol, I go sober 2 months out of the year to make sure I don't become dependent (addiction runs in my family), so yeah, I guess I can own up to being a quitter 2 months a year hehe, I've been called worse.

Oh yeah, gonna drink plenty on New Years eve haha (might cheat a few around 11pm, hey I'm west coast now so it'll be 2019 in Cleveland!)

I like the optimism. I hope we get to finally see the success next year and don't get cheated again.

I'd love to retire this jersey...

Things are going down in the exact way they're supposed to. Roll with it and enjoy!

I'll try!

My buddy just gave me this reason and it's doing the trick for me...

"Should've beaten the Texans. The Ravens didn't hope for tie breakers, they went out and beat the Chargers, the Steelers beat the Patriots."

It's a good point. We got walloped by the Chargers. We just didn't quite earn it this year.

Next year let's get that division!

Compare where we are now compared to where we were last year at this time.

We were staring 0-16 in the face and organizing a self pity parade.

Look how far we have come!
Look how much we have to be excited for!

Let's celebrate and raise the bar even higher next year!
We get a few more pieces and a little bit more experience and we'll be unstoppable!

Good for you Personally I stop drinking twice a week. Which by chance happens to be 2 to 10 hours after I start drinking twice a week.

honestly, the Raider game was the one game where I felt totally screwed. The comboination of Steelers, Saints, Raiders games kill us ow

I'm OK with the Saints loss. Sure it would've been amazing to beat such a good team but we lost on our own accord due to kicking. Kickers may get made fun of but they are still a part of your team. Raiders/Steelers we straight up won and the NFL just said "No way buddy". Then offered a meek apology lol they cost people millions of dollars and just say "sorry."

Oh well, just gonna try to put my blinders on and pretend it's not biased so I can enjoy the Baker era and hopefully the NFL is biased for us for a bit :-D

I also look at it like: maybe hue is still here if we win the NO/Raiders games ... and we probably end up like 5-10-1 or something

FIVE!! What you talking about Willis

I came to this thread to say, Any way you slice it, the Browns could possibly be a 9-6 record team but for some bad calls and other bad calls
and other bad calls

This has nothing to do with legitimate bad playing of football, like the 5 missed kicks, extra points or fg's vs the saints,
or bad offense in OT games like the first drive of each of the first two OT games

or bad play in the Tampa Bay game and losing on a 60 yd field goal.

Even if you allow all of that as bad play, the Browns got jobbed by several bad calls to kill drives

(Even including in the game against the Texans )

Hue Jackson went 2-4 with Baker Mayfield, and that's counting the Jet's game 2nd half only
so 1-4 as a starter.

Hue sure knew how to lose, he may not be the worst NFL coach of all time, or I've ever seen, there were some Richie Kotite, and Buddy Ryan stints that were phenomenal 30 years ago, but he sure knew how to lose games.

Figure if Future pans out Dude has an Aaron Rogers, or Drew Breese type of career, and Guy's record would be he went 2-4 with Dude as his quarterback.

9-6,

Now go win this last game and foul up the ravens year!

Pull yourself up by the bootstraps son.

If you are looking for sympathy, you can find it in the dictionary. It's somewhere between Sheet and Syphilis.


All's good man. It is what it is. It isn't about hope anymore. The horizon is looking grand.

Anything can happen next year. Yeah, guys can get hurt, or coaches can not be what we thought they were, but that's football for you. You're either the good teams, or your the teams chasing the good teams.

I believe the Browns have aligned themselves with the best talent they could have possibly put together in the last few years. They have drafted so poorly since '99, but now I think they have turned the corner from those days. They aren't a powerhouse right now or anything, but they are no longer that free win that everyone had chalked up when they looked at the schedule.

We have a good offensive line. We can get better there, but the coaches have done an amazing job with that group. Just look at what Greg Robinson has done.

We have two very talented running backs.

I think our WR group is missing one guy. I hope Callaway becomes that guy. Landry is not going to stretch the field, but he will move the chains, and block his ass off. Higgins seems to be really good at making sideline plays. If Callaway can step into that speed burner guy who can worry safeties, the offense is going to be lethal.

Hell, even David Njoku has played so well after having a really shaky start following a very good preseason.

We have a quarterback who can be one one of those top-5 guys. He can be elite. He's played so well this year, while still showing signs of being a rookie. He has handled himself better than any of us thought, and I think more than the Browns thought. People have been bashing Hue, and rightfully so, but I still don't want to bash him for not starting Mayfield. I get the feeling it was a organizational decision to try and help him out by letting him sit a year, much like Mahomes did.

The great thing about having a really good quarterback is that they can make their teammates better, and I think the best showing of that is what we are all seeing with Breshad Perriman. He has new life in this league. I hope he continues. Pretty amazing story. The guy was maybe on his way out of the league.

Ya can't be worried about bad things happening to this team, because bad things happen to every team, including ones who end up winning the Super Bowl. The Eagles lost their starting QB last year. The Patriots have dealt with suspensions, and honestly have gotten by without the greatest of drafting the last few years. They still make it happen.

Dealing with adversity is just part of the game, and I believe this team is more prepared now, than maybe since the Paul Brown days to deal with it.

I totally get where you're coming from. Whoever is in charge of this team next year is going to have expectations through the roof. Almost unfair. We still haven't proven anything, and to most a 7-8 win season is not really that significant.

If we don't win week 1 next year, yes people will freak out, call for our new coach, or call for GW's head, etc..

We're in a good spot. We have a young talented team, a young QB, draft picks in place to get better. cap space, and national writers are saying the Browns job is the best on the market, and that includes the Green Bay Packers.

Every year for the Browns fan always seems like the next year. It's never about the current year. We're always building for multiple years away.

Kind of like how people that are really into the draft will always talk about how the next draft is the one loaded with talent and QB's, and then when we get to that year, they are already talking about the NEXT year being better lol.

I think finally when we enter training camp, people can legitimately talk about this team being good, and being competitive, and shooting for the playoffs.

The NFL needs the random factor of refs blowing calls in a serendipity of arguable judgment so another talking head "expert" can second guess the; they are the great levelers who can cost teams games, apparently, despite performance on field. This is chaos theory or something worse trying to comprehend, calls, no calls, missed calls, tick tacky calls, calls out of position, and on it goes. Then defending those calls, their appeals . . . .It is a cottage industry of the NFL and a job I would never desire. My hats are off to the refs even as I scourge the lousy zebras for being wrong by my lights. And admitting it after the game is final.

Sleep tight, Myka. Rest assured theNFL is in control and has your fan's heart covered. It will get better. There is always next year and its new rules.

Thanks Spergon/Bard. Both excellent posts.

Bard brings up the "random" factor of the Refs and Spergon mentions 8 wins isn't that great...

but my whole worry is that 10 wins is pretty darn good and would probably win us the division and right now the only reason we are 7-7-1 instead of 9-6 is those "random" Refs.

I put "Random" in quotes because I don't believe it's random fully. Antonio Brown does the push off that Higgins got flagged for this week basically every time he catches a ball.

As I mentioned in my original post, it's clear as day now, we can see they are cheating us.

Thanks again everyone for the help. It appears there's no logical solution. I'm just gonna try to go back to blind faith and hope the NFL decides to give the Browns a championship soon. My dad is 66 years old now and I'd really like to at least watch a solid playoff run with him at some point before he's too old to make the trip to Cleveland.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me 54 times, I'm a Browns fan.