There's an eerie sameness
on the newswire this morning, as the major Northern Ohio newspapers all seem
to be singing the same refrain. It goes something like this:
"It ain't our fault
That nobody's saying nuthin'
We'll have to put our faith
In good 'ol Jim Donovan"
Well, the words aren't much, but it's got a good beat and, after a few beers,
you can dance to it.
The Winslow family has put the kibosh on details of Kellen Jr's MRI, but
various hushed voices have been telling writers like the
Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi and the
Beacon-Journal's Pat McManamon the same thing they've been telling us: it
doesn't look good.
Jim Donovan, the team's broadcaster, apparently had enough to put a report on
Channel 3 News' website yesterday. While Donovan didn't reveal much about
his sources, his story and the aforementioned dark murmurings, is apparently
enough to convince the press corps that Winslow won't play during this upcoming
season, and that a torn ACL is the reason why.
In other words, it's they're
engaging in the same sort of thing we did yesterday where we felt that all
the evidence put together was enough to put a "Winslow Out for 2005" headline on
the front page.
There is, however, still no official word from the team, and Winslow is
undoubtedly seeking a second opinion. So, those hard-core optimists choosing to
hold out some hope that Winslow may suit up this season still have a sliver or
two of doubt to work with.
This is Cleveland, after all, and any rusty nail is enough to hang a hope on.
TRAYLOR TAILOR-MADE? Steve Doerschuck has an interesting bit of
speculation in the Canton Repository this morning, as he
points to a possible fit between the Browns and recently-released Patriots
nose tackle Keith Traylor.
Now, of course, the Moony and I continue to slam the occasional update into
Rumor
Central, but we have exacting specifications for what constitutes a valid
rumor or not. For example, we need to see a player's name and "Browns" in the
same sentence.
While the Canton Rep article passes our low hurdle, fans should note that
there's no actual link between the team and Traylor at this point. The common
history, as Doerschuck suggests, could make this an interesting situation to
watch.
NEW VERSION, NEW NAMES: Two quick notes we may expand upon later
today, if I can recover from last night's midnight nerd-viewing of Revenge of
the Nerds... er... Revenge of the Sith.
The first item is that we've uncovered four of the twelve veterans who were
invited in to town for those top-secret tryouts the Browns don't want to
discuss. That nugget made it into
Ask the Insiders yesterday.
The second is that those fans who downloaded the
Bernie's Insiders News Tablet will discover that it upgrades itself next
time it looks for news. The new version contains a new browser view of news
items that you might find more convenient than the fold-out menus. Both views
are still available and can be selected via the "Settings" menu item.
Personally, I've tried about a dozen different ways to read
these new-fangled RSS feeds and the News Tablet makes a pretty good
general-purpose RSS reader as well as a nice bit of software for fans just
looking to keep track of Bernie's Insiders.
I use the News Tablet about a dozen times a day to check on my favorite
sites, as well as this place. Among other things, it's the easiest way for me to
find when new posts from other members of our gang here have appeared on the Ask
the Insiders forum, or when new articles have appeared on
The.Raw.Feed.
If you haven't tried it yet, it's
a
free download and a site feature I'm particularly proud of. Give it a try.
- Barry