00:00I don't love the idea of watching Deshaun Watson play for any modicum of time this year,
00:04especially because I don't think he's been the better quarterback.
00:07In the Browns definition, and I thought Jason Lloyd did a really good job of mincing the
00:12words on this, of choosing the words rather, because he was like, in the Browns vantage
00:18point, Deshaun has been the better quarterback, which is a nice way of saying everyone that
00:23has watched these two guys play thinks Deshaun has looked unplayable mostly, and Shador's
00:28looked interesting.
00:29Maybe not great, maybe not terrible, but just you can see something there.
00:34But you can skew the vantage point to whatever you want it to.
00:36I mean, that's as simple as the day is long.
00:39And it's funny, because Lyme at Texas yesterday, because I had made a point of like, if both
00:44quarterbacks are having operational issues, then the difference between them from that
00:47front is negligible.
00:49I think there can be a gap between those two things.
00:53It's just how do you clear up more operational issues?
00:57Well, more opportunities to get that right.
00:59But again, I can accept that they're going to do this week one and that they're going
01:06to do this for as long as Todd Munkin needs to see or Jimmy Haslam or Andrew Barry or anybody
01:11needs to see.
01:12And I will at least give them the grace that I will try and give it to week one and
01:20see
01:21it on the field in a regular season game before I get too critical.
01:25I think it's a silly maneuver.
01:27I don't think...
01:28I think they're playing dangerously close with something that I don't like, which is
01:35ambivalence toward a season.
01:36When you go out there and be like, we'll see what Deshaun has, and then we'll get to
01:40Shador eventually.
01:40I mean, that's the national rhetoric on this team right now is exactly that.
01:45We're playing for 2027.
01:46They don't really care what happens in 2026 from the quarterback perspective.
01:50And so you're playing a little fast and loose with things I don't like, because I think
01:54you should always be in service of competitiveness and winning, but I understand you might be
01:58able to do both, even with ambivalence.
02:01But there is one thing that I heard on this station today, and it was Mary Kay Cabot talking
02:06about if Deshaun is named the starter and something that could happen.
02:09And I want to make it clear that when I respond to this after we listen to Mary Kay, I'm
02:14not
02:15responding to Mary Kay Cabot, Hall of Famer, one of the nicest people in the Cleveland media.
02:20I'm responding to this idea, and I think she's just being truthful and pragmatic about it.
02:27So it's not that she's saying it, it's that the Browns would do this.
02:30I could see them making a captain.
02:32What you guys, or what people on the outside don't understand, is that his teammates like
02:37and respect him, and they always have.
02:39And he's very much a team guy, and he's very, very much about winning in the team.
02:44So I would think that they would if they named him the starter.
02:46I've never doubted that his team might personally like Deshaun Watson.
02:51That's not what this is about.
02:53Team captaincy anymore, it doesn't mean what it meant 30 years ago in football.
03:00The Browns themselves have gone through periods where they've had players say,
03:05we don't need to be motivated.
03:06We don't need to be led because we're professionals, right?
03:10You cannot.
03:12Captaincy is twofold.
03:14Captaincy is a representation of the Browns locker room.
03:17So I understand that Deshaun Watson passes that test.
03:21Captaincy also is guys that bring acclaim, happiness, pride to the fan base.
03:29So you can start, there is no bylaw in the NFL that says, because Deshaun is a starting quarterback,
03:36he has to be a captain.
03:38Which is usually how I feel like this goes, right?
03:39I mean, I can't tell you how many starting quarterbacks aren't captains on their team.
03:44But if it's like first and second year players, if you skews that out of the list,
03:48I would imagine most quarterbacks are captains on their team.
03:51Yeah.
03:52And so I don't think the Browns really recognize,
03:55and I don't think Todd Munkin recognizes the downside of starting Deshaun Watson.
03:59And if Deshaun stinks and they start one and five, how furious people in this town are going to be.
04:05So I already don't think anyone over there gets the bit because they just fall back on the idea that
04:10this is going to work out.
04:11And if it does work out, no one cares what you've ever done because we're just the most cynical bunch
04:15of idiots ever.
04:16And by the way, they're not wrong.
04:18I'm not calling them idiots for thinking that.
04:20I hate that we live in a society where nothing really matters so much as did you play good football,
04:26yes or no.
04:27But I'll get off my soapbox on that for a minute.
04:29It's bad enough that you're going to go out there, that you built an entire offseason around making a team
04:34better
04:34and then took out another opportunity to put Deshaun Watson on that field.
04:39If you make him captain, that is needless spitting in the face of Cleveland Browns fans.
04:45And yes, it is Browns fans who are offended on why you traded for him in the first place.
04:50Right?
04:51The fact of who he replaced and what he meant in this town to at least some of the fans
04:55out there
04:55and the fact of why he was available and what he got suspended for.
04:59But it goes even beyond that.
05:01There are people that simply do not wish to be associated with somebody who is that trade, not the person,
05:08the trade is the biggest failure in the history of football.
05:12So while I understand you've got to pound your billionaire chest and we've got to see one more time,
05:17you don't got to see one more time.
05:19But I can at least get behind the idea that you feel more comfortable with Deshaun Watson week one.
05:24That does not mean you have to make him captain.
05:26And if you do make him captain, I want to say it one more time.
05:29Sorry, buddy.
05:29No, I hear you.
05:30It is spitting in the face of Browns fans.
05:32Do better.
05:34You can start him.
05:36You don't have to make him captain.
05:37Because what you're saying is being captain means jack bleep to you and to these fans.
05:43And these fans deserve a hell of a lot more than you saying the captaincy of the Cleveland Browns is
05:48a freaking joke.
05:49All right.
05:50So I need some clarification.
05:51I looked right in the camera right there.
05:52You were very intense.
05:53We all got it.
05:54So I need some clarification, though.
05:55Fat man aura just surging through me.
05:57Did Munkin say – I just might have missed this.
05:59I have no idea.
06:00Did Munkin say he was deciding the captaincy or are the players deciding the captaincy?
06:04Who exactly are you angry at in this decision?
06:07I'm mad at the hypothetical that I think Mary Kay's right, that somehow by hook or by crook, Deshaun will
06:12be named as well.
06:13Because Deshaun has been named captain before.
06:14It happened twice.
06:16It happened in 2023 and 2024.
06:17And how it happened was it was a player voting system.
06:21Stefanski believed in the captaincy not by him announcing who the captain's is, not by Andrew Barry announcing it, but
06:27by the players.
06:28It was a team-wide, player-voted thing.
06:31And that's how it was run.
06:32I don't know how Munkin's going to do it.
06:34I don't know if Munkin believes in that.
06:35I don't know if Munkin thinks that he should be the one that announces it.
06:39I know it varies all across the board.
06:41If the players do it, I don't know how we can get mad at the players if this happens.
06:45Yeah.
06:46It's not going to be the first time that a team has rigged captaincy, no matter what the players have
06:50voted on
06:51or what the coaches wanted, right?
06:53Like, there have been times where young players have been shoehorned into being a captain
06:59when it was the locker room, but it was the coaching staff encouraging that.
07:05Listen, I'm all for rigged results when it comes to Big Cat and Akron football
07:08and it comes to this competition, if that's what you're trying.
07:11We will, I'm sure.
07:12But if that's what we want to do, that's fine.
07:17Do you think Stefanski's were rigged or no?
07:19I actually, I pulled up his results from last year, oddly enough.
07:22It was Joe Flacco, Joel Petonio, Miles Garrett, three guys that are just not here,
07:27and then Denzel Ward and Corey Bohorkas.
07:29Yeah.
07:29Because they gave a special teams one.
07:30And I do think...
07:31Flacco got the captaincy for four games and then was booted.
07:34Yeah.
07:34And by the way, he was neutered by his coach.
07:37I expect Todd Munkin to be better than Kevin on this front.
07:40I didn't really trust anything Kevin did because he wasn't forthcoming.
07:43If Todd Munkin comes out and says the players voted Deshaun the captain, if that, again,
07:49this is a hypothetical, but one that makes sense if Deshaun's a starter, if that's what
07:54Todd Munkin says happened, I will be forced to believe him because Todd has been more truthful
07:58in the eight months that we've seen him than Kevin was in the previous six seasons, right?
08:03And I appreciate that Todd doesn't always tell you the truth, but he does say a lot of things
08:08that rhyme with the truth.
08:09I think he approaches the messaging thing the way a head coach does.
08:12And by the way, he does it by loving up his players in a way that I think is really...
08:17that I think is the right way to do this.
08:19So if he says it's the players, that's fine.
08:21Then the players made a mistake.
08:23Then the organization has to understand there's a fine line between starting a guy who, let's
08:30see if he can do anything for four to six weeks, and putting that C on his chest.
08:34There have been a lot of guys to wear that C on their chest that have brought on
08:38honor and acclaim to the Cleveland Browns and guys who have, you know, trimmed years
08:45off their lives, years off their careers.
08:48That C doesn't just stand for the 53 guys, 54 guys in the locker room right now.
08:52And it doesn't just stand for the guys that have played here.
08:54It stands for a blue collar, hard ass town that has gone through a lot and put up with
09:00a lot.
09:01Again, this is not about hating or loving Deshaun Watson.
09:06This is about the face of the Browns.
09:08Deshaun will be the starting quarterback.
09:09No one thinks he'll be the starting quarterback in week 10, let alone in 2027.
09:15Make him the starter.
09:16That's fine.
09:16You want to do your little games with this?
09:19That's fine.
09:20Even if Todd wants to make him the starter.
09:22I get it.
09:22I disagree with his ideology, but that's fine.
09:24We can disagree.
09:25It's football.
09:26None of this is...
09:27None of this is...
09:28You know, nobody's 100% proof here, right?
09:31We all screwed things up, but you make him a captain, and that is just a kick in the
09:35gonads to enough Browns fans.
09:37It makes no sense to me.
09:39And again, I know they won't ever do anything with the intent of spitting in people's face.
09:44That's why I'm saying you need to understand the consequences of your actions here.
09:49There's no consequences for them doing this.
09:50You say the consequences.
09:51There's no consequences.
09:52They'll name him the captain the same way they did in 2023 and 2024.
09:55Fans will be probably the same level of outrage they are in just Deshaun Watson's existence.
10:00The captaincy is not going to tip him over.
10:01But what repercussions would come of it?
10:03We're just getting all big, mad, and angry?
10:05You're right.
10:06I guess we should just eat crap.
10:07I guess that's what the existence is.
10:09You're right.
10:09That's basically what they told us with this.
10:11That is the cynicism that we live in now.
10:13That's basically what they told us with this.
10:14None of this matters.
10:14You can do whatever you want as long as you've got enough money.
10:17As long as you've got enough power.
10:18Screw the rest of us.
10:19Tell me where we have an ate crap in the Deshaun Watson fiasco at every stage and every step of
10:24this.
10:24But I think that's the point.
10:24I think there's a level of class here.
10:26If you want to do this in a classier way, and none of this has been done in class,
10:30it's all been done in cynicism in the name of getting godless more money for a family who already got
10:35more money than God.
10:36Him starting is the slap in the face.
10:38If it's a captaincy or not, it doesn't do anything for me.
10:40I'm surprised you don't understand the difference between that.
10:41It just doesn't matter to me.
10:42He's already been a captain twice.
10:44This isn't going to change anything about it.
10:46And if the teammates are the ones that are voting on it, which I guess we've got to find out.
10:49We've got to ask Munkin who actually is in charge of this.
10:51But if the teammates are voting on it, then clearly they don't have an issue with it.
10:54Him already being a captain twice was a problem.
10:57Doing it two times previously doesn't make it any better.
11:00And the justification of whether it's Todd Munkin or whether it's a player doesn't make it better either.
11:04I don't remember anybody complaining about it in 2023 or 2024.
11:07If they did, they were softer on it than I remember.
11:09I think, well, then I must have been completely flaccid because I did have a problem with it.
11:13Maybe.
11:14Specifically in 2024.
11:16I believe you if you tell me you did.
11:18I don't have a recollection of that because I don't remember every take you've ever had.
11:21I'll be honest with you.
11:21This one upsets me a hell of a lot more than it did in 2024.
11:24I get it.
11:25For me, it's just a label.
11:26It is what it is.
11:27I mean, these are pros.
11:28This isn't high school football where it's like you're the captain of the football team
11:32and you get to have the designation with that and everything that it tries to accompany that.
11:35It's pro football.
11:37I understand it's the pros, but that does mean something to fans.
11:41It does.
11:42Being the starting quarterback is bad enough.
11:45All right?
11:46It is.
11:46That is enough of a slap in the face.
11:48It's a double down.
11:49Most teams have five, six, seven captains at this point anyway.
11:52You made me do it.
11:52The amount of captains we have on these teams, the numbers have only increased and have only
11:56gotten so large to the point where it almost just becomes meaningless.
12:00It almost just becomes who sells tickets more so than anybody that actually leads the team.
12:04I think that's your opinion on captaincy.
12:06Miles Garrett has been a captain basically the entire time he was here.
12:09Nobody thought he was a great teammate.
12:11Yeah, but Miles Garrett at least went out there and honored the Browns by playing as well as
12:15Miles Garrett could.
12:15Sure, but it's not a reflection of whether or not people think you're the world's greatest
12:19to anything outside of just being a good football player.
12:21That's it.
12:21Yeah, but he's not a good football player.
12:23And he hasn't represented the Browns with any...
12:27I wouldn't have given it to him in 2023 or 2024.
12:30I think you're speaking on your own.
12:31I bet you there are more fans out there who actually do care about this.
12:34I think you're downplaying it a little bit.
12:36I think there are plenty of fans who actually care about this.
12:39I'd love to hear from him.
12:392-1-6-4-7-4-double-0-92.
12:41Dial it up.
12:41At Nick Wilson says, at Jay Peterlin.
12:43Let us hear it.
12:44My off base on this is him being named captaincy, something he's been named twice already,
12:48is that a massive deal?
12:50Is that a spitting in the face of Browns fans across the nation?
12:52I would argue him playing week one is the bigger slap in the face and will always be that.
12:57Giving him something he's already been awarded twice in his Browns career just doesn't do anything for me.
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