So I seem to be battling a cold, trying to keep it from establishing a foothold. I developed a bit of a hacking cough today, and while it has not progressed into anything worse, I’m also not thrilled at the prospect of having to deal with it. The good news is that I’m usually pretty resilient to colds and the flu: it’s actually been very rare that I’ve been definitely “sick,” as in staying at home in my bathrobe, mound of used tissues by my side, and feeling pretty lousy. Also, it’s not surprising that I would be feeling this way — Vanessa and John, two people I spent the weekend hanging out with, were both sick, and a number of people have been absent from work, stretching back to last year (heh, still fun to say that).
In any case, I have drank a couple of mugs of hot beverages, which has quieted the cough, and will take a couple of cold nighttime pills to help ward off any continued attacks. Wish me luck.
[ S H E I L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]
Not surprisingly, Mangini was fired from the Browns this week. In a way, it’s sad, because the season actually had some very promising moments, and you sensed that they were on the verge of something big. But, in the end, the Browns reverted to their biggest flaw of playing down to their opponents. They lost in consecutive weeks to the Bills and Bengals, both teams that, while playing well at times, had only 2 wins to their record when they came in to face the Browns. Even the game against the then-1 win Carolina team was a bad game. The Browns won, but only because Carolina had worse luck, and the kick was missed. Honestly; Carolina should have won that game.
Quarterback issues remained a problem with Jake D. being pretty much a swing and a miss. He had a good preseason, but was then injured early on, and his interceptions continued to plague the team. Colt was looking good for a while, but there have been some concerns about him in the cold weather as apparently his last two games — against the Ravens and Steelers — were not anything to write home about. Nevertheless, the buzz around Berea is rather optimistic about him, so it’s likely that the Browns will not be looking to draft a quarterback high in the draft. Most likely, anyway.
So while it’s understandable that Mangini had to go, now we go back to another coaching change. And the biggest issue with that is that they all have been failures in the past. Each coach brought in to replace the last has had the exact same sort of results, regardless of the circumstances. The Browns have had 2 winning seasons, but those were definitely the exception, and not the rule. While other organizations seem to bring in new coaches and jump right into winning, history has taught us that it’ll just be another “rebuilding” year in Cleveland. Maybe Holgrem and Heckertt will be able to change the model, but currently, I’m not holding my breath.
[ S H E I L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]
In other sports news, rec league Basketball has started up again! The scrimmage was last night, and boy, was it fun to get back out playing. Now if I can just try to remember some of the things that I was doing right last time, like the give-and-go, and getting some of those low-post moves in place.
Also, it was interesting to see things are still a touch physical, as I received an accidental elbow to the lip at one point (no blood, no foul), and I also felt a bit bad because at one point a short girl tried to set a pick on me — I didn’t even see her, as I was sticking to my player, and basically ran her over. Again, though, no blood, no foul. At least it’s consistent.