Lamar, NFLPA, Owners…No, This is CLEVELAND’S FAULT!

I can’t wait for opening day of baseball season. I’m so freaking exhausted by the Lamar Jackson saga and the daily onslaught of opinions that I just want someone to wake me up when it’s all over. Sometimes I get ticked off at Lamar for his foolish decision to represent himself, and sometimes I question EDC and the organization– which has shown some chinks in the armor in terms of team unity during this whole process.

But honestly? I blame the Cleveland Browns. There, I said it.

I know that sounds simple, maybe too simple, and that “Cleveland sucks” doesn’t leave a lot of room for pontification on ESPN or sports talk radio—but it’s as simple as that. Had they not signed Deshaun Watson to his head-scratching $230 million guaranteed contract, I honestly think Lamar and the Ravens would’ve already reached a deal. Period.

It’s just my opinion–but I’m sticking to it.

Lamar having an agent would’ve helped, of course, but the bar of stupidity was set sky high by the Browns–a bar they seem to enjoy restablishing on an annual basis. I’m fine with them destroying their own football team, and I do appreciate them being so inept that it warranted them coming to Baltimore to become the Ravens–I really do. But their collective buffoonery is now impacting the entire league, starting with the Ravens and Lamar. Hence, the situation we are currently in.

DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA are crying “collusion” among the owners since no one has made Lamar an offer yet—and I understand why. It seemed odd, to say the least, that five teams would release statements saying  they were not interested in Lamar at the start of free agency.

But ask yourself this: did it really require collusion for the other owners not to be as dimwitted as the Browns front office? Did the other 31 owners need to have a clandestine meeting in some underground bunker to decide they didn’t want to follow the Browns’ brainless lead? I’m not saying there wasn’t collusion–there very well may have been–I just don’t see it as a necessary evil. Not in this situation.

.@KVanValkenburg on Lamar Jackson contract: “No team is going to repeat the Haslem’s bad decision [of a fully gtd deal]. NFL teams, whether you want to call it collusion or not, said we’re not gonna do what the dumbass Haslems have done. It’s a bad decision.” #Ravens

— Glenn Clark (@GlennClarkRadio) March 21, 2023

One can assume the owners all have each others’ digits? When Watson signed with the Browns last year, the “collusion” may have been as simple as a text:

Owner 1: stupid a** Browns.

Owners 2-31: yep. (laugh emoji)

There’s your collusion.

These are billionaires. They’ve spent their entire lives making money, and perhaps just as important, not losing it. They love making money even more than they like owning football teams and getting massages. Why would they need to conspire to know that signing a running quarterback (one who missed his team’s final games of the past two seasons and final snaps of the last three) to a $200+ million guaranteed contract is a bad business move?

I’m not being naive. There may have been collusion, but I’m tired of listening to everyone point their fingers in the wrong direction. This is a direct result of the Cleveland Browns and their abject asininity.

If you’re a fan of another team and it sounds like I’m just a bitter Ravens fan—which is true but not important right now–just wait. The unwelcome ripple effect this could have–depending on who Lamar eventually signs with and for how much—might be coming to a town near you.

For now, I applaud the other 31 owners. Mainly for not letting a disgraced quarterback and a historically awful franchise set the trend.

If you owned an NFL team, would you be looking to the Cleveland Browns for your next move—or would you try to do the opposite?

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