Even the pre-season games don't tell you anything about the relative performance of the teams. I know nothing. You know nothing. Peter King and Dr. Z and Len Pasquarelli and Bob Costas and Joe Theismann all know nothing. We are a population of Sgt. Shultzs. Of course, by roughly mid-season that will change, Joe Theismann excepted.
So no fair holding anything written in this column against me. I'll be back in a few weeks with a betting primer and then we'll plunge headlong into the second half of the season once there is a nice fat statistical sample to work with.
Post script: We have a perfect object lesson. Almost as soon as I posted this column, Big Ben's appendix decided to give it up. This means The Roethlisbergermeister will be out the first few weeks of the season, which happens to coincide with the most brutal part of the Steelers schedule. So they'll be facing the Dolphins, Jags, Bengals and possibly Chargers with ex-Lion Charlie Batch at the helm. I don't think it'll stop them from getting to the playoffs and therefore shouldn;t relly impact their ability to repeat. But if you picked the over on 10.5 wins for the year, well, this is me wagging my finger at you.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
"Hey, did you know Jerome Bettis is from Detroit, the very city where he won the Super Bowl?"
No. WAY.
You know, they really should have promoted that. It would have been a great storybook ending.
2 - Craig Lyndall
I know it is fun to just dismiss the Browns. And while I know they don't have a realistic shot of taking their uber-competitive division this season with the likes of Cincy, Pittsburgh and even the Ravens with Steve McNair, your covereage here just looks lazy.
Kamerion Wimbley, the Browns first round draft pick looks excellent. Willie McGinest and Ted Washington were brought in to help an extremely poor run defense. Braylon Edwards made it back from ACL surgery as fast as anyone that I can ever remember. Kellen Winslow is finally back from crashing his motorcycle last off-season. Joe Jurevicious was brought in to help bring some additional efficiency to the passing game. Now, I don't expect you to spend all that time on a team that will go 9-7 if everything goes their way, but to skip out on all those changes and additions seems to be a bit dismissive.
The Browns lost LeCharles Bentley, but he wasn't the only reason that most people were giving the Browns the highest marks for off-season activity.
3 - david mazzotta
That's an excellent summary of the Browns, Craig.
I've always liked Jurevicious, and Braylon Edwards is my Wolverine homie, but..."Interesting" is still a stretch.
Events conspired to give Winslow the *second* most important motorcycle accident recovery. That's a bad break if there ever was one.
Even the bookies gave them the shrug line (100/1).
They just don't set my fingers a typin'.