The Return of Rumor Central
I told myself: "Wait, wait, wait...".
Even when the Browns essentially threw in the towel by slamming every injured
player onto the IR, I told myself to wait.
Even when Butch Davis finally admitted that 2003 was a horrible season and
accepted some of the blame, I told myself to wait.
Well, now the season is over and I'm not waiting any longer.
The time has come to monger some rumors once more. Rumor Central is back.
We're back to watch agents, players, and teams engage in their yearly verbal
crapola-fest of spin. We're back to watching the daily dance of draft deceit.
We're back to watch - and eagerly participate in - the creation of the swampy
morass that is Internet sports journalism.
There's a contradiction in that term somewhere.
Anyhow, put on your hip waders, Dawgs. The time has come to wallow in the
weirdness. How I love it so!
Let's rock.
Out of the Starting Blocks
I wrote down
all the rumors I could think of that are buzzing around. Since I came up
with this list, I've thought of a few more which we'll add in coming days. We'll
maintain a list of names on the front page, with the good old-fashioned Rumor
Strength Indicators, and this year sees a return of the
Rumor Graveyard
we maintained in 1999 and 2000.
We'll be reporting rumor news in a lot of different ways. I'll be pounding
out these Daily Babbles, Lane will continue to tell us What We've Been Told,
Ask the Insiders
and Browns Uncensored chats will be places where questions can be asked, and
we'll continue to spew forth
Hot News.
Offensive Coordinator: Browns to Stop at Tollner Booth?
Ted Tollner's name has
been coming up a lot in recent days, and with good reason. Tollner was
Davis' first choice to step in as the Browns Offensive Coordinator back in 2001,
but was still head coach at San Diego State and wouldn't join the team. Bruce Arians, however, was more than happy to fill the void.
With Arians being shown the door,
Tollner's name is coming up again. He's pals with Davis from way back, and
will likely get a phone call. Since he's under contract with the 49ers, however,
the Browns have to get their permission to talk them.
Dennis Erickson
isn't playing
that game, though, and says he wants Tollner back on his staff. I'm not sure
I agree with Pat's inference that it's Game-Over-Insert-Coin time for Tollner,
though, since Davis hasn't even asked permission. There may be ways to scratch
Erickson's back (or ego) that could make this happen. Maybe we'll turn Carmen
loose on Erickson and see what happens.
Of course, there's always Terry Robiskie. Two situations to watch with regard to
Terry are potential head coaching jobs for the Rams Lovie Smith and New
England's Romeo Crennel. Robiskie has been
mentioned as a potential coordinator for either if they get a head coaching
gig, and might take the promotion if passed over in Cleveland. This will create
pressure on the Browns to figure out where they're going as soon as possible.
Watch Speculation Turn into Rumor - It's Fun!
Also be on the lookout for a rumor about Joel Collier being approached about
the OC job. This might happen, it might not, but there's not enough there yet
for even this disreputable column to track it.
Here's what happened: The Lake County News-Herald's Jeff Schudel
wrote a nice column about Bruce Arians being given his walking papers, and
offers a few names of possible replacements. If you read the article like I
do, it just sounds like Jeff is brainstorming some possibilities.
Then a Florida paper sees Jeff's column, attributes it incorrectly to the
"Cleveland News-Herald", I guess because folks in Miami don't know where Lake
County is. He then asks the Dolphins if the Browns have called, and
reports on it, with the Dolphins saying "Well, no, they haven't called".
Then a fantasy football news service sees that, passes along the info, wrong
attribution and all, leaving out where they got it, and passes it along with the
headline "Collier a Candidate".
In case you're curious, this is how we go from informed speculation to
someone "being a candidate for the job" in under two days.
Remember: it's all the Internet's fault. Darn chatrooms.
Got a Lead?
or drop a tip
into the Bernies Insiders Tipline, where everybody can see it.
Want to Verbally Slap Bietz? or drop by the
Rantatorium,
which is where he hangs out, surrounded by angry Ravens and Steeler fans.