Random Notes

Some hot topics:

1. I'm a little better after Sunday night. Thanks for asking. But it will be hard to watch the World Series. Now, this won't be a complete media boycott - such as Super Bowl XXXV. To the amazement of Derek, I made a decision to boycott the Super Bowl that year and consciously did not watch any of the Super Bowl. I puttered around the house - did the bills, watched a random South African golf tournament on the Golf Channel.

Derek ended up calling around 10:30 or so that night. I still remember that conversation.....

D: "Hey - did you see the end of the game?"
E: "Uh, no, I said I wasn't going to watch it".
D: (clearly still not believing me) "You didn't? You didn't see Stover's kick?"
E: "No. What happened?"
D: "Stover won the Super Bowl on a last-second kick. 3-0, Ravens, final".
E: (sigh, 5 seconds of silence...)
"Well, I guess I'm happy for Stover... he's an old Brown"
D: (5 more seconds of silence, now a bit shocked)
"You're serious? You didn't see it?"
E: (annoyed) "No! What part don't you understand?"
D: "Wow..... "
(10 seconds)
D: "So do you want to know what really happened?"
E: "I guess....it is good news for me?"
D: (3 seconds....)
"No....31-7 Ravens....they dominated"
E: [click]

I'll watch some of the series - but I won't go out of my way or plan any viewing. In fact, I'm watching a TiVo'd episode of "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America.

2. Browns play the Rams this weekend. The interconference games occur every 4 years now (in the past, it could have been longer than that). It's fun to reminisce on the rare times we get to play NFC teams. I usually can recall each and every game vs. NFC opponents over the past 10-20 years.

Last time we played the Rams was in Cleveland, in 2003 - the last home Monday night appearance for the Browns. Couch got hurt; Kelly almost led the team back as we lost, 28-23 (and we were 4 pt dogs, I think, so no cover for the Browns.)

1999 was our first year back in the league; when the schedule came out, I circled the Rams game as one of the few chances for us to win. The Rams were coming off a 4-12 season, and in week 1, Trent Green got hurt. Even a better chance for the Browns, right?

Well, we should all know the story..... Kurt Warner came in, and then in week 7, the eventual Super Bowl winners killed us, 45-13, in the most recent game in St Louis.

We also played them in Cleveland in 1991..... .wow.......I was supposed to go to that game, being a junior at Case. Steve got me tickets and was going to pick me up at the dorm. I ended up canceling for a reason that I probably won't talk about here.

Will the Browns actually win 2 in a row and go to 4-3?

3. So - how am I going to break out of my Travis Hafner-like slump? Another terrible, horrible week (3-12). Geesh, Freddie can probably pick better....

hey, what an idea! Maybe I'll let the kids pick my 14 games this weekend. I mean, it can't get any worse....can it? How am I going to snap out of this?
Feel free to pull a Leland and take the opposite of my picks for a while. Lord knows, someone needs to win money off of my horrendous performance.