00:00The very first time, they didn't boo him.
00:03Audio courtesy of the Browns Radio Network.
00:05Flagship hope for Cleveland Browns Football 92.3, the fan. Hello.
00:08They definitely cheered him when he got injured, though.
00:11Well, the first ever time that he went out there, they didn't boo him.
00:15There were some people kind of like, okay, this is a little bizarre,
00:18but there were plenty of people that were cheering when he went out there
00:21the very first time he ever went out there.
00:23What game was that?
00:25It was a preseason game.
00:27It was in the preseason.
00:28All I remember is the Houston game.
00:30No, no, no, no, no.
00:31This was preseason.
00:33The very first time in Cleveland when he went out there.
00:37They didn't boo him when he went out there in the preseason.
00:40And, well, first off, you said you didn't care last week.
00:44You definitely care.
00:45100% you care.
00:46You knew that wasn't true when he said it,
00:47and I don't think you disagreed with me on that.
00:49Did you disagree with me on that?
00:50Okay.
00:51No.
00:51All right.
00:52So I went through a range of emotions, all negative, all bad.
00:58I don't want to cut off her nose to spite her face.
01:04Like, the penalty that you take by cutting him is massive,
01:10and it would affect whoever you draft next year
01:13because you want to be able to wait until June.
01:16What did Jack Duffin say?
01:18200 days until they can cut him?
01:19Okay.
01:20It's a long way from now still.
01:22You want to be able to wait until noon, but you really – or not until noon.
01:27Noon is when Todd Munkin starts talking.
01:30You really want to wait until June, but after what he said on Saturday,
01:35it's very, very hard to wait until June.
01:38And then after what he played like on Saturday, it's very hard to wait until June.
01:42So, again, this just becomes another sentence or another year on Brown's prison.
01:48Like, that's what it is because he goes out there.
01:51He says what he says.
01:52It challenges the media, calls out the fans, challenges the fans in so many ways.
01:58Like, I'm sorry, the fans threw the two interceptions in the second half of the preseason?
02:03Well, Kenny, he's got third-teamers playing around him.
02:05You're playing against third-teamers.
02:07I'm sorry.
02:08Were you not an all-pro at one point?
02:09And people are sitting there looking at this guy.
02:11We're actually – and I understand it's before a season, Anthony.
02:14So, some people, like, want to shake whatever fruit might still be there.
02:18And like, well, you know, he could always go back.
02:20It's like, no, he can't.
02:21You're playing against third-teamers, and this is what you do?
02:24This is what the offense was?
02:27Shot put in passes again.
02:28And remember, what was the weather like?
02:31Not too terribly good.
02:32And we go back to 2020 when it was not too terribly good,
02:35and he played like garbage for the Houston Texans against the Cleveland Browns
02:38and a loss against the Cleveland Browns.
02:39So, whether it's the weather, whether it's his own head, I'm tired of asking.
02:43I'm tired of wondering.
02:44I don't care anymore.
02:46I don't think Browns fans care anymore.
02:48And they just as soon wish he was cut.
02:50But I can't cut him, and I don't want them to cut him
02:53because it would be such a penalty going into next year
02:57that whoever's playing quarterback in college right now
02:59who will end up being our quarterback next year,
03:01that person is going to have to bear the brunt of that going,
03:04well, what is it, $86 million?
03:08Okay, so we can draft him,
03:10but we really can't put a whole lot around him
03:11other than the other guys we draft.
03:13Just keep moving that money ahead.
03:14So, this is where we're at.
03:14Go ahead.
03:16It was just an outrageous day for a preseason game.
03:22It's August 24th.
03:23I swear to you, Kenny, I was barely going to pay that much attention
03:29just because, like, you know, I don't put the stock in these preseason games.
03:34I don't live and die with them.
03:35I mean, I'm looking around.
03:36I know you don't.
03:37You know, Jack Strand, a preseason game legend over the weekend.
03:41Joey Aguilar, 9-10 for Jacksonville.
03:44Like, there's so little resemblance to football,
03:48actual regular season football when these,
03:52and yet we're forced in Cleveland to have to overreact
03:54to every throw of the preseason.
03:57But I think it was pretty clear that Deshaun Watson,
04:02who looked fine against Chicago,
04:04to the point where Chicago,
04:07their people were telling Albert Breer that,
04:10oh, yeah, Watson was way better than Shador Sanders.
04:14And then a week later, what changed?
04:15Oh, a home game.
04:16A home game.
04:17It's pretty clear that he buckles to the fact that people hate his guts.
04:22And that doesn't happen on the road so much.
04:25Maybe it would if he was good, but he's not good,
04:27so nobody cares about him on the road.
04:28So at home, he goes out there and looks like he can't play the position again,
04:34which, over the last two weeks, he's looked just fine,
04:36according to everybody, whether it was in camp or whatever.
04:40He might have been just nudging out Shador Sanders,
04:42but he didn't play well enough to look like Josh Allen
04:45or anything like that.
04:47And he comes out and he looks like he physically cannot be a quarterback in the NFL.
04:52And so what do you do with that information if you're the Browns
04:56when you can't cut him because of your own cap maneuvering over the last three years?
05:00And then with what he says to the fans yesterday and the nastiness about the fans
05:04and all the stuff that was just flat out,
05:06I don't understand to say it other than I just don't believe it to be true.
05:11Wait, wait.
05:11You don't believe what to be true?
05:12Well, the stuff about...
05:16It's just insulting.
05:19The time here.
05:20I'm sorry, you went to different countries over the first how many years
05:24of this relationship that we've all had together.
05:26You went down to Miami.
05:28You were not around your football team.
05:30You were not around the building.
05:31The only time you ever really came around was this last year.
05:35Oh, when there was competition to be the starting quarterback for the football team
05:38and you're trying to keep your career going.
05:39But other than that, in the previous years, you weren't around.
05:43And the charity work and being out there in public.
05:47Well, I don't know how much you've done other than the requirements
05:52of what you have as a player, so I can't really speak about that.
05:55But if we're going to talk about guys who are out and about in the community,
05:58I mean, there's about how many other Browns that we could think of
06:01off the top of our head.
06:01Like, yeah, you bought a football team helmets before.
06:04Congratulations.
06:04That's a good thing to do.
06:06You did do that.
06:07And I think he had a camp that he came to at one point.
06:10But other than that, it's like you weren't out there.
06:13You knew nobody wanted you out there.
06:15You knew nobody wanted to be around you.
06:16And it all culminated into this.
06:18But when you say it's personal, yeah, it is personal because of the performance.
06:23Because of it.
06:23Because a lot of us looked at it when the trade was made
06:26and all the other nasty stuff that came around with it and went,
06:29well, he is a high-level quarterback.
06:30Let's see how this goes.
06:32And then you went out there and you were terrible.
06:35Absolutely terrible.
06:35And one thing mounts on the other.
06:37And then we're looking at this going,
06:39when are we ever going to be able to get out of this contract
06:41that Troy Aikman called an albatross on national television?
06:44That we all did.
06:45And so, yeah, it becomes personal because of the performance.
06:49Because the only thing that tethered you to the franchise was the performance,
06:53was the contract.
06:55You didn't want to be here in the first place.
06:56The only time you ever wanted to be here
06:58was when we guaranteed every single cent of the contract.
07:01We were the first team out on a Thursday morning, correct?
07:04Correct.
07:05The first team out at 10.30 in the morning.
07:07And then we got him because we guaranteed the contract.
07:09He didn't want to be here.
07:10He doesn't like it here.
07:11We don't like him here, and the only thing we can do
07:14is wait and cross the X's off the calendar in the cell
07:18before we can get to June of next year.
07:20Because I have no other recourse.
07:23I have no other.
07:23Forget starting and being a backup or anything.
07:27Like, there's people who don't want him on the team.
07:29And I wish I could say, yes, cut him.
07:31Let's stop this charade.
07:33Let's stop this silliness.
07:34But the rollover money that goes into it,
07:36I have to think about the quarterback of the future.
07:39I have to think about next year's team.
07:42$86 million.
07:44You can't fart at that.
07:45That's a penalty.
07:46That's a huge, huge penalty, Anthony.
07:48So now I'm stuck with this guy that nobody wants to see,
07:51and he doesn't want to be here.
07:53And the genius cap maneuverings, I was told every single time,
07:57no, they have to restructure the money.
07:58This is brilliant.
07:59It's going to help us with these other years.
08:01Well, how did they do in these other years?
08:02They were terrible.
08:03They were a terrible football team with the exception of the Joe Flacco run.
08:05So it didn't help them then, and now it just compounds the issue worse down the road.
08:11And then it spills over.
08:13These games are supposed to be anonymous.
08:15These games, you are not supposed to make headlines in the preseason,
08:18unless it's bad, unless there are injuries, unfortunately, or help.
08:22Maybe even if there are fights in the stands.
08:24These are not supposed to be games that we remember.
08:27And now, unfortunately, this game is going to be remembered.
08:32Now, there is a chance.
08:33Maybe it's remembered for some good reasons for Shador and his future.
08:37Maybe years from now, Kenny, I know it's tough to consider this,
08:41but maybe years from now we're like, hey, remember that game
08:44where they came out and booed Deshaun Watson?
08:47Well, that was the day Shador Sanders, you know, took the ball and ran with it.
08:51I hope you're right.
08:51Maybe that would be awesome for everybody involved.
08:55But holy cow, what a terrible, terrible game.
08:58I mean, this was the lead.
09:00There's nothing going on in the NFL right now.
09:02There's a bunch of preseason games that no one's really paying attention to.
09:06This made all the headlines everywhere.
09:08All the football podcasts are talking about this, talking about the fans in Cleveland.
09:14While nobody is sticking up for Deshaun Watson's play,
09:17there are people wondering, like, are teammates upset at the way the fans have treated Deshaun Watson?
09:24Like, we have to deal with that conversation now?
09:26When they showed Denzel Boston on the field, when the fans started booing?
09:30Like, that's a rookie.
09:31Do we want to potentially contaminate a relationship with, you know, this next era of what could be young, talented?
09:38I'm sorry, young man.
09:38You're just going to have to put your head down and get to work.
09:40This is professional football.
09:41They boo.
09:41This is what they do.
09:42They boo.
09:43Yeah, but they boo here more.
09:44They really do.
09:45They boo here more than some of the other places, yes, because they don't have a lot of good football
09:49to cheer.
09:49So what do you do when you can't cheer and you're watching professionals out there?
09:53Again, if this was a 10U team or a high school team, even college at some level, not major, but
09:59even college at some level,
10:01I wouldn't be down with the booing.
10:03This is professional football.
10:04This is part of the deal.
10:05This is what you do.
10:06If you don't do well, they boo.
10:08And you haven't done well for a long time.
10:10What an indoctrination for the rookies who have their first game, and on the first drive, they're booing while they're
10:17all out there.
10:18You know what I mean?
10:18Yeah, I understand.
10:19They know who it is directed to, but I have no idea how popular Deshaun Watson is in the locker
10:25room or anything like that.
10:26I have no idea.
10:27I know people try to make the internet try to make it a Jerry Judy picking one quarterback over the
10:32other scandal over the last few weeks.
10:35I hope that stuff dies down because I think, you know, whoever's out there, whoever's the starting quarterback, and if
10:39it is Shador,
10:40if we find out today that it's Shador, I think there will be no shortage of guys that are rallying
10:44around Shador.
10:45But if it's Deshaun Watson, like, the teammates, their goal, they're supposed to have tunnel vision on this stuff.
10:52They're supposed to embrace whoever the quarterback is, even if it's somebody that we as fans can't stand, we hate,
10:58we want out of town, whatever.
11:00And there is a very interesting dynamic there at play that will exist that the players want to be supported.
11:07And if they think that the quarterback is just going to get booed mercifully from moment one, like, that's going
11:13to sour some players on the fan base.
11:15It will.
11:16It is a microcosm of everything.
11:18Well, it's a big thing, but it is such an indication of how things have been where Nick Chubb, one
11:25of the most beloved athletes in Cleveland history,
11:27let alone Cleveland Browns, he retires in less than 24 hours.
11:31I got a quarterback that I can't do anything with because of the guaranteed contract calling out the fans.
11:36Oh, it's personal.
11:37It's not performance-based.
11:38Did you see yourself against third-teamers?
11:41Oh, he's playing with third-teamers.
11:42Yeah, you're against third-teamers.
11:43You're supposed to be still better than all that.
11:45Like, yeah, you're out there playing with guys who are going to be going professional in something other than sports.
11:53And that's the performance you turn in?
11:56When the pressure's on to solidify your spot, you're back at home, you can quiet down anybody by going out
12:03there
12:03and just turning around and having a good performance, a decent performance, and that would be it.
12:08And you turn in that and you say it's personal?
12:10Hell yeah, it's personal.
12:12Because they've had to sit here and watch garbage football and talk about missing links this entire time.
12:17And I got a guy who just retired less than 24 hours earlier.
12:22And why does everybody love him?
12:23Because it wasn't that he was just quiet, and he was quiet.
12:26It wasn't just because he handed the ball off and that made your uncle happy about that.
12:30It wasn't just that.
12:31It's that he always acted like he was above it.
12:33When all the other things were getting dramatic and stupid and people were acting like morons,
12:39Nick Chubb didn't act like that.
12:41And I found it so poetic that on the day, right after Nick Chubb retires,
12:47and we all remember the conversation we had even on Friday about the captaincy,
12:52that he retires and then I got the guy who they once tried to make a captain
12:55just kind of going scorched earth with the fans.
12:58After we had the conversation about whether he could be the captain.
13:01Good season we have here.
13:02A good career you have there.
13:03And just let it be known, I said this about a former head coach,
13:06and I'll continue to say you can have all the money in the world.
13:08You can't buy respect, you can't buy happiness, you can't buy love.
13:13That's where it's at.
13:14Because if you were just happy with the $230 million guaranteed,
13:17you wouldn't give a damn, you wouldn't care.
13:19He cares.
13:21It bothers him.
13:22Great.
13:22He completely buckled.
13:23Good season.
13:24I think he thought this was going to be,
13:26ah, just kind of lollygag out there in the third quarter.
13:30You know, there was an hour rain delay.
13:31I'm going up against schmucks.
13:33Like, this is going to be a joke.
13:34I'm going to win the starting quarterback job.
13:35I've been a national champion.
13:37I've been a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist.
13:40I took the league by storm when I started the league.
13:42And he went out there and he embarrassed himself.
13:44That was back then, because nothing's in front of you.
13:47Nothing's in front of you.
13:48I have absolutely zero faith in him as a starting quarterback in this league.
13:53I didn't have much before.
13:54I have absolutely zero after that mind-numbingly bad performance
13:59that you turned in on Saturday against third-teamers,
14:03and that's what you turn in,
14:04and we're supposed to make you the starter?
14:05Really?
14:07And all that said, as much as I want to cut him, I can't.
14:11So what do I do with this guy?
14:13Because now he's literally an albatross.
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