00:00I think we've got to start this segment, though, by giving the Browns real credit.
00:03Oh, we do.
00:04They have normalized something that in real life is just not logical.
00:09Okay.
00:09And every single member of the NFL media is helping them.
00:16They've just bought it hook, line, and sinker.
00:18Yeah.
00:18In a way that, honestly, the group think that I'm hearing when it comes to the Browns and to Sean
00:26Watson,
00:27it's as if Todd Munkin has individually instructed everyone talking about the Deshaun Watson situation
00:34to think the same thing and, like, he's really sold it to them and they're really buying.
00:39All right.
00:39So what is that same thing?
00:40Well, that's a great question, Jonathan, because Brian Baldinger, Odyssey NFL insider,
00:44was on with the Modern Boys and Spencer this morning and talked about what this opportunity is for Deshaun Watson.
00:55I think you have to kind of come in tabula rasa, like just a clean slate and let them just
01:01compete
01:01for wherever they're at, whatever age they are, whatever injuries they've overcome,
01:05whatever off-the-field issues there have been.
01:07I just think you've got to try to make it as fair as possible and evaluate from what you see.
01:13I mean, I think Todd Munkin remembers when Deshaun Watson went to Baltimore on one leg and beat him.
01:19And I think it's just the only fair thing to do is just, you know, literally not have any sort
01:26of memory bank
01:27of what's happened before and let them – that's why he's there still.
01:30They still think there's some football left in him and let him – let the best man win the job
01:36right now.
01:36And I think that's what they're going to try to do with as much clarity as possible.
01:40So, okay, he's here because they can't get out of the contract.
01:44Yeah.
01:45I would venture to say – I don't know if this is a hot take.
01:48I'll let you know.
01:49I'll let you know.
01:49Push back if you think.
01:50Sure.
01:51If they had been able to get out of the contract going into this offseason, they would have.
01:55They would have right around the time Jimmy Haslam admitted it was a swing and a miss.
01:58Yes.
01:58If they could have, they would have.
02:00By the way, we are – I really hate how much legs he gets with that stupid Baltimore game.
02:05I really do.
02:06He threw for 188 with a touchdown and an interception, and people act like he lit it up for 400
02:11yards
02:11and basically had a perfect pass already.
02:14It's also one game in five years, going on five years.
02:17Well, we have 19 total games with Deshaun, and I can only think of a couple that I actually
02:22thought he played good in.
02:23The numbers aren't nearly good enough in any stretch.
02:26We have way more bad than we have good, and it's far outweighed.
02:30But this really only happens in professional sports, this idea of clean slate, because there
02:37is nowhere else on the planet that if you had failed the amount that Deshaun has failed
02:42to play good football and stay healthy here, there's no way that any human can just erase
02:49that last five years.
02:52All right, the Cleveland stuff never happened.
02:54I only know the Deshaun in Houston stuff, and I only know the now.
02:58That's not how humans work.
03:00Well, I love it, though, because then they're going to go to the Houston stuff.
03:02Part of the idea of why they want to give them a chance is because of what happened in
03:05Houston.
03:06So we're not forgetting that history.
03:08Yeah, exactly right.
03:09You're being very particular with what history you want to remember in this discussion, and
03:14that's where it just comes across very disingenuous.
03:16And I also, I will say, the clean slate narrative that continues to annoy me as more people
03:22repeat it, and I can't say enough, I really love Brian Baldinger's work.
03:26I just don't think everybody deserves it.
03:27I love having him on.
03:28No one, across the board, you don't deserve a clean slate.
03:31That's just not how life works, okay?
03:33And I can give you a million different instances of if I was wrong to the people that I would
03:36not let back in my life, if they wanted the clean slate to go ahead and do.
03:40But with Deshaun, you have all the evidence you need.
03:44You're like, there's no, why do we have to be this so great organization that's like,
03:49oh, we just let bygones be bygones.
03:51It's the worst trade in NFL history.
03:53He's sunk the franchise for half of a decade.
03:55I have to remember those things.
03:57And here's the thing.
03:59This gets put on fans.
04:01And some of it's because I, as a fan, go, not on my team.
04:05You can do anything this year, Browns.
04:07Don't put that guy back out on the field for any myriad of reasons of the massive failure
04:12on the worst trade in NFL history.
04:14The fact that the guy has used Cleveland as an ATM and really hasn't ever become synonymous
04:21with Browns football off the field.
04:23Like, there are so many reasons why this is just a failed mistake and it's impossible to
04:27clean the slate.
04:28But it's not just about fans.
04:30There are guys in that locker room who have been there since he's played football.
04:36They're not going to forget what an absolute black cloud was hanging around the franchise
04:41the last time Deshaun played on a damn field.
04:45And oh, by the way, Todd Munkin, this bullcrap that that guy hasn't watched a second of football
04:51from Cleveland, I don't buy that for a second.
04:53No, but this does help explain why it was so easy to get rid of Stefanski is the idea that
04:56Munkin is going to give them this.
04:59It's going to give them this narrative that Munkin is going to be the one and Munkin,
05:03it's a fresh set of eyes and Munkin is just going to put out the very best because he's
05:07got to start off his coaching career as best as he possibly can.
05:10But I would tell you that's where it becomes problematic because Munkin doesn't have the
05:13same access to what we've seen with Deshaun over the previous three years.
05:17I'm talking access within practices and everything else where he'll fall for the idea that Deshaun
05:22has this thing fixed when we know there's a problem with Deshaun isn't what happens in
05:27practice, it's getting on the actual field itself.
05:29There's a mental lapse that happens there and he's not able to pull off the transition.
05:33Well, and I think to that end, it's going to be insulting enough.
05:37If you put Deshaun Watson back out there in week one to a fair amount of fans, it might
05:42not be the majority, but it sure is held not a small minority of fans who feel the way that
05:48I do, which is, nope, that's done, let's move on.
05:53Like, put him on the exempt list, put him on the active roster and then never activate
05:57him for a game.
05:58Whatever you have to do, let's just get through this year and let's let Deshaun go off and
06:04see if somebody else will give him a real chance.
06:07That's bad enough, though.
06:09It's bad enough you're going to put him out there.
06:12This effort to normalize what the Browns are trying to do, as if it's common sense, everybody
06:18does this.
06:19This is not how the world works.
06:21Clean slate is a mythical thing that you're creating to help distract from the fact it's
06:25the worst trade in NFL history and nothing good can come of this.
06:28I don't know why they don't go further, Nick.
06:30If they're going to present it like it's some sort of new, brand new Deshaun Watson and we
06:35should treat him like he's just like, oh, we were happy to get this guy off the scrap heap
06:38and he's going to turn around the franchise.
06:41I don't know why they don't go further.
06:42Give him a brand new number.
06:44Oh, that's interesting.
06:45Like, take it a step further.
06:47Get rid of the four and all of a sudden, this would be new Deshaun.
06:49This would be number 11 Deshaun.
06:52This is new Deshaun.
06:52What if we just called him new Deshaun?
06:54That could be part of it.
06:55Weekly change his name.
06:56It's now new Deshaun Watson.
06:58Happened with Coca-Cola and Pepsi at different points.
07:00New Deshaun.
07:01That's the old Deshaun.
07:02We don't talk about old Deshaun.
07:03We're now in new Deshaun.
07:05I think you're thinking of Deshaun Watson.
07:07We're here talking about new Deshaun.
07:09I mean, that's what they're trying to do to us.
07:10We might as well just act as if he's just a brand new person that we've never seen play football
07:14before
07:14and we have no history with and we don't know, I mean, with all, I've never been more sure of
07:19anything in my life.
07:20He can't play.
07:20But it's bad enough that the Browns are, again, the Browns are going to try and do what's best for
07:26the Browns.
07:27So, I guess in this case, it's less about them and it's more about media members who, just because the
07:34Browns say something,
07:35just go, oh, it is like a clean slate.
07:40Guys, the problem is it's everyone.
07:42There's not one person nationally that when you talk about the Browns go, hey, the old Deshaun Watson wasn't great.
07:50I got one, but he's not typically the guy you want on our side.
07:53Oh, no.
07:54Who is it?
07:54Mike Tannenbaum.
07:55Oh, man.
07:56Tannenbaum's the only guy looking around being like, guys, this doesn't make sense.
08:00This doesn't make sense.
08:01The Deshaun thing, he's not going to play.
08:04He's not going to be good.
08:04And I don't know what's happening here.
08:06Actually.
08:06We usually don't want Tannenbaum on our side.
08:08Actually, this might be a case where when the most clueless person in football can clearly see that the clean
08:15slate is the biggest BS ever sold,
08:18somehow the extreme polar opposites end up being in the center agreeing on the same thing.
08:25When you can get me and Mike Tannenbaum to agree on something, I'm sorry.
08:30You've taken too much of the bait.
08:32I've done some soul searching.
08:33I'm trying to figure it out.
08:34I'm trying to figure out what we're seeing that they're not seeing.
08:36I'm trying to figure out where the lapse is happening here.
08:39I think for some of them, it's just they don't think anything of Shador Sanders.
08:43I think that is part of that.
08:45We and you obviously don't feel that way.
08:46I also think some people just don't like Shador.
08:48And that's another part of that as well.
08:49And really Shador's camp, I should say.
08:51But I can't figure out how anyone thinks Deshaun Watson's going to work.
08:54I can't.
08:54But way too many people are just willing to give him the millionth chance he's had in a Browns uniform
08:59as if he's never played here before.
09:01But way too many people, smart people, people that I like, like Brian Baldinger, are just taking the Browns line,
09:08hook, line, and sinker and not questioning it.
09:10That's what has me being like, guys, we can't.
09:12I get it.
09:13You don't think about the Browns the way I do.
09:15I think about the Browns.
09:16We think about it.
09:17It's five hours a day for us.
09:18Cavs, Guardians.
09:19I think of Cleveland sports from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed.
09:23It's not always a great existence, but it is my existence.
09:27So I'm not asking you to see things the way I see.
09:29Everybody should have their own opinion.
09:31But when everybody that I see, their analysis of this is, well, you've got to go a clean slate.
09:36No, and by the way, Todd Munkin is doing this because he's selling the fight.
09:42Todd Munkin, that's an honest man.
09:44If him and me were sitting down for a Coors banquet, I guarantee you, if I said, Todd, that old
09:51clean slate thing's a bunch of crap, right?
09:53He'd be like, of course.
09:54I'm a human being.
09:55I don't know, man.
09:56I do know the last five years happened.
09:57I argued this with Coach Riz, and Coach Riz was very adamant.
10:00That's just not how coaches think.
10:02And he's going to only operate with what his eyes are telling him and what's in front of him.
10:06And I went back and forth with Coach because I don't believe that.
10:08And I think it's a big mistake if you're just going to sit there and look at what Deshaun will
10:14do through three practices with installs and say, we got our guy.
10:17I just think it's a massive mistake.
10:192-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-9-2.
10:22Are you buying the clean slate narrative?
10:24And if the answer is yes, please tell me another point of existence beyond sports where the clean slate narrative
10:32actually works.
10:33Because it's the only place I've ever heard anyone pull it off ever.
10:363-1-6-6-7-6-7-6-8-0-9-9-6-6-7-6-6-6-6-8
10:36-10-7-7-7-6-6-6-6-7-7-6-6-6-6-7-7-6-5.
10:36That was an extra mailbox.
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