00:00The biggest thing, like, I don't never try to go at war with the fans.
00:03So I think the biggest thing is just, you know, ready for support,
00:06ready to feel their energy, ready to get this big dub for the city of Cleveland
00:09and, you know, continue this great feeling that we have this week.
00:13So that's my motto is just keep pushing forward,
00:15finding ways to win on Sunday to, you know,
00:17take advantage of the opposing team and get a W.
00:21As always, you can listen to this show and all of our local shows on a fan,
00:25on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts,
00:27or take the fan with you wherever you go.
00:30Listen to us on the Odyssey, iHeartRadio, or TuneIn app.
00:33Spencer, you know me and you have not done together in about a month?
00:38Talked about the Browns.
00:38Talked about the Browns.
00:39It's been a lot that's happened since we talked about the Browns, man.
00:42So let's just get right to it.
00:44We know what the major talking point has been this week,
00:49and it's been a lot of conversations about, you know,
00:54people encouraging the fans not to boo,
00:56a lot of back and forth.
00:58You've seen some fans rebuttal, like,
01:00how in the hell are you going to tell me how to move?
01:03And as you've known, maybe you don't know,
01:06maybe you've kind of picked up what I've put down.
01:08I no longer really share my opinion on the Cleveland Browns on social media.
01:13I think that the...
01:15It's honestly a good...
01:16The rebuttal...
01:17Good philosophy to live by.
01:18The rebuttal, the engagement,
01:20sometimes can be a bit disrespectful.
01:23And for me personally, you know how I'm wired.
01:25I really can't take too much of that.
01:27Right.
01:27If I have to deal with that,
01:29I am going to wait till I am on the clock actually doing my job to give my opinion.
01:34That's fair.
01:34I respect that.
01:35This is my thought process on the booing.
01:37Me personally, bro,
01:38I am never in my life going to tell fans how to fan.
01:41Right.
01:42You bought the ticket.
01:43You invested your time.
01:44You've invested your emotions into this team.
01:47You've invested so much.
01:48There's some type of nostalgic that's associated,
01:51whether it be with somebody that's no longer living, et cetera.
01:54However, if you want to boo that show right,
01:56personally, this is just Earl D.
01:58Maldon, Earl to Pearl.
01:59I wouldn't boo Deshaun Watson coming out that tunnel on Sunday.
02:02And here's why.
02:04Bro, the Cleveland Browns are coming home at the win of the game
02:06that most people did not expect them to win.
02:09And Watson played a huge part in making that happen.
02:12They didn't have much of a running game to lean on throughout that game.
02:15And we'll get into that as we go out this show.
02:17But in the second half, I thought he made plays when they needed him to.
02:21He threw two touchdowns, one to tie the game,
02:24one that eventually took the lead.
02:26And I don't believe that a good half erases everything that's happened
02:31during his tenure in Cleveland that's been disappointing.
02:34But I also don't think it has to.
02:36I think for Deshaun, personally, bro, this is –
02:39that second half should be a confidence builder.
02:42And for the Cleveland Browns collectively,
02:43it should be something that they build on.
02:46This is the home opener.
02:47You just won a game.
02:48Your quarterback just played well when it mattered.
02:51In my mind, why wouldn't the energy walking into the stadium be?
02:55Let's just see if they can carry this on.
02:56Now, if he come out there and he plays terrible,
02:59the fans are going to react however they want to react.
03:01And I understand that.
03:03But this notion of, you know, booing before the game even starts,
03:09that's just not something that I would do.
03:11I would much rather see Cleveland give this entire team some energy
03:14and see where it goes from there.
03:16We've talked a lot about momentum.
03:17To me, momentum is real.
03:19And right now, the Browns got a little bit of it.
03:22And I just wouldn't be so quick to kill that.
03:24That's just my personal opinion.
03:26But I'm not here to tell people how to go about their family.
03:29No, and that's always been the key thing for me at the core of all this.
03:33And I certainly, like, in our time working together,
03:36I've come to appreciate that statement even more, right?
03:41Like, I can't sit on a pedestal and, like, tell fans not to do this,
03:47not to do that if you're a paying customer.
03:49Now, within reason, obviously.
03:51Like, I think if you go to a game and your whole goal is to throw out racial things
03:58or stuff like that, like, yeah, that crosses the line of, like,
04:02a fake contract, I guess, that you sign as a fan going to games.
04:06But listen, like, for a lot of these fans, the only place they truly feel like
04:11they're heard sometimes, I think, especially throughout this entire
04:15Deshaun Watson debacle, is in the stadium on Sundays when they have a chance
04:20to show up and voice their opinion.
04:22Like, I don't know if they feel like they're heard most of the rest of the year.
04:25So I can totally understand, to your point, why there's a lot of fans who are like,
04:30listen, one half of good football, we've seen that from Deshaun.
04:33We saw that back in Baltimore in 2023.
04:37Like, that ain't enough to erase this four, now going on five years
04:41of a miserable experience that we've had to live through.
04:44So, yeah, I'm glad that they won.
04:46I'm always going to rep the Browns first.
04:48But I still don't like this guy, and I still want him off my team.
04:53Like, I think there are some fans that still feel that way
04:55and probably will still boo tomorrow when he runs out of the tunnel.
04:59But, to your point, I don't think it can be understated how much that win last week
05:04and the performance he had in the second half means to Deshaun Watson
05:10in the present right now.
05:12Because, A, Earl, if he had lost that game and looked bad doing it,
05:16That would have been his last start.
05:17We'd be talking about Shador Sanders starting under center right now.
05:21B, I don't know if I said one and I just did the one and B thing or A and
05:26B, whatever.
05:28But the second part of this is it also means a lot because we are talking about him
05:34being the starter for this game and coming out to whatever reaction.
05:39The sense we're getting around that this week, what it would have been
05:42if they had lost that game, is way different.
05:45Because, again, I still think people are going to boo some,
05:49but I think it's going to be a lot less, like, volatile as it would have been
05:54if they had lost that game and they weren't one and one
05:56and people didn't feel, like, good vibes about the way the team's playing right now.
06:00I 100% believe that.
06:02So, ultimately, he's going to run out.
06:05Also, I do think the Browns knew what they were doing.
06:09PR 101 bringing Nick Chubb back this weekend to have him retire with the organization.
06:17I'm assuming he's going to be the Guitar Smasher tomorrow,
06:20and he's going to be out there pre-game, celebrated.
06:23They did this once before with Nick Chubb.
06:25Correct me if I'm wrong.
06:26Ohio State Marching Band will be in the building, too.
06:28Ohio State Marching Band at that time.
06:28Oh, yeah, they turned it up.
06:30They're pulling out all the stops.
06:30We're wearing the brown helmets.
06:31We're wearing the all-brown uniforms.
06:33It's going to be lit.
06:33They're pulling out all the stops.
06:35And so, I think, like, they did this once before.
06:39The game Deshaun got hurt, that was also the game that Nick Chubb came back.
06:43And so, when they announced the offense, they had Nick Chubb,
06:45usually the quarterbacks last, they had Nick Chubb run out last
06:48so that it would go from booze to quickly cheers.
06:49So, they did this on purpose.
06:51But, with that said, like, I do think that largely it's going to be more of a mixed reaction.
06:56I think there'll be a lot of people who show up just ready to be indifferent
06:59about Deshaun running out of that tunnel and won't do anything pre-game.
07:03But, let's face it, how they handle him the rest of the way,
07:07how he's treated the rest of the way for fans,
07:10is going to be entirely dependent on how he plays in this game.
07:13If he plays poorly, the boos are going to be back.
07:15And, again, that's within the fans' right to do so.
07:17But they should be, though.
07:17And that's the thing that I think some people need to understand.
07:20If you just – first of all, let's stop isolating Deshaun.
07:24He's a part of this team.
07:25So, if this team comes out here and this team does not perform,
07:28they are going to hear the boo birds.
07:30Spencer, you and I both get the wonderful opportunity
07:33to cover the Cleveland Cavaliers in person.
07:36And we know Rocket Arena is one of the best basketball atmospheres
07:40in the entire NBA.
07:41Our fans are loud.
07:43They are proud.
07:44And it is a home court atmosphere that, in my opinion,
07:49is not second to many other teams.
07:51But you and I have both witnessed the Cleveland Cavaliers
07:55come out there and play horrible.
07:56And everybody in that arena, let them know it in real time.
08:01And so, it is not far-fetched that a fan will boo
08:05if they don't like the performance that they're seeing out there
08:08on that respective playing surface.
08:10That's just part of the game.
08:12And I think that us in the media, not necessarily you and I,
08:17have put a hyper-focus on how much the fans booing or not booing
08:23is going to live rent-free in his head.
08:25I think that Deshaun himself should be looking at the second half
08:29of that Tampa Bay game as a confidence builder, as a momentum builder.
08:34He said that he went in there at halftime and he told Todd Monk,
08:37hey, trust me.
08:38Trust me a little bit.
08:39You come out and you go, what, 17 for 21, 183 yards,
08:43and two touchdowns, and you lead your team to victory?
08:47Yeah.
08:48And now you're coming home?
08:49Not only do you have a personal building block for yourself,
08:52but this team as a collective, you should be able to take that momentum
08:55coming into this thing and realize, okay, my coach's offense worked.
08:59All we got to do is execute this.
09:01And I'm coming home now to play in front of my fans,
09:04and I'm going against a team in the Carolina Panthers who's pretty damn good.
09:07Yeah.
09:07They got a solid offense.
09:08But did you know what?
09:09That defense, it can get got.
09:11So if we can execute what Todd Monk can put out in front of us,
09:14just maybe we can walk into Thursday night 2-1.
09:17That should be the mentality coming in from the fans, in my opinion.
09:20Yeah, no, I agree.
09:22And I think part of the reason why we've hyper-analyzed the fans' reaction
09:27and how much that lives rent-free in his head, Earl,
09:30is because I think he's basically told us that it has.
09:35Verbally, he said it hasn't.
09:36But what he said after that Bills game, when we see on tape a guy
09:42that just didn't look confident a lot of times,
09:44that to me spoke to a guy who just was kind of, I think,
09:49wrapped up too much in what people were saying about him.
09:51And I do think in that second half there was something freeing about the way he played
09:55where maybe finally he can get over that and just play good football.
09:59You were there Wednesday when he spoke, right?
10:00Yeah.
10:01All right, so this is a healthy conversation.
10:02I was not there Wednesday,
10:04but I'm going to ask you questions based on a previous role I used to hold, right?
10:08Sure.
10:08When I was supervisor at Earl B. Turner-Clarker Courts.
10:11Shout out to everybody at Earl B. Turner-Clarker Courts.
10:13And I took a management course class for Cuyahoga County and for the state of Ohio.
10:17And they talked about body language being the nonverbal stuff,
10:21being a major part of communication.
10:24To me, from afar, when he was speaking,
10:27that's the most confident I think I've ever seen him at the microphone.
10:30I agree.
10:31That's the most relaxed I've ever seen him at the microphone.
10:34That's the most engaged without –
10:36At least since he's been in Cleveland.
10:37Yeah, like it's the most engaged without being defensive that I had seen him in a while.
10:42Did you get that same energy from Deshaun?
10:44I did.
10:44He felt like both after that game on Sunday in Tampa and on Wednesday,
10:50like this was the version of Deshaun that I think when they traded for him,
10:55they thought they were getting.
10:56Like a confident guy who really – this was the first time that if Deshaun says,
11:03I'm not worried about the boos, like he kind of said on –
11:06I mean, I did think his answer was kind of silly where he was like,
11:09I'm not trying to – I never tried to go to war with the fans.
11:11I think that just made people kind of – when you use a word like war,
11:14I think that got fans a little riled up.
11:15But him saying that, I think it was one of the first times I kind of believed him.
11:19Like, yeah, I think he's finally in a place where he's just trying to play football.
11:23And that's good.
11:24Like, that's what you want.
11:26And if he does that, again, the boos will dissipate.
11:29The boos will go away.
11:30For the most part.
11:30I mean, again, to your point earlier, one half, one game and a half
11:35isn't going to forgive this entire ordeal.
11:37And by the way, part of the booing too is with the organization.
11:40Because this fan base is also frustrated with this organization for taking a time period
11:44where they felt like they were really building momentum.
11:46They had made the playoffs in 2020.
11:48They had this great running back in Nick Chubb.
11:50They had one of the best players in football in Myles Garrett.
11:52They had a quarterback that I understand was probably never going to be the franchise guy,
11:57but that was good and that loved the city and rallied around the city.
12:00Like, they felt like there was some real momentum.
12:02And then you ripped the carpet out from underneath them when you made this trade
12:05and it didn't work.
12:05So I think it's like, yes, a lot of that is directed specifically at Deshaun,
12:09but some of it's about the organization making this move in the first place too.
12:12And so it's all encompassing.
12:14But if they go out and they win, a lot of that will go away.
12:17Yes, maybe not all of it, but a lot of that will go away.
