Browns fans need to relax

I love Browns fans for any number of reasons, not the least of which is how seriously they take their football.

Take the latest round of Organized Team Activities (OTA), for example.

How many fans around the National Football League place their teams as intensely under the microscope as Browns fans? That's a rhetorical question.

For the last couple of weeks, the Browns have pranced around their Berea training complex in shorts, helmets and no shoulder pads.  And yet, fans scrutinize them as though they were in full uniform.

Sees if this sounds familiar. Jason Campbell outplays Brandon Weeden in the OTA today. The Browns are having trouble adapting to Ray Horton’s new defensive scheme. Norv Turner reams players after blown assignments.

You gotta laugh. Guys running around in shorts just trying to get familiar with a new coaching regime and every little move is taken so seriously. As though what happens in these little sessions designed to bridge the gap between minicamps and eventually morph into training camp really mean anything.

They are nothing more than walk-throughs and run-throughs as the players and coaches establish a relationship so when training camp actually starts, confusion will be reduced to a minimum and the comfort level is increased.

And yet, fans glom onto every little tidbit, every little nugget, every little whatever as they eagerly await the beginning of training camp in about seven weeks.

Quite simply, they cannot get enough of their Browns.

Nothing wrong with that except that it blurs the perception between what is real and what is nothing more than players just going through the motions of playing football.

Whether or not Weeden has a bad day does not make him any less the starting quarterback than it does making Jason Campbell the opening day starter.

That leg injury that has kept Trent Richardson from participating in off-season practices? Not to worry. He’ll be ready for the regular season.

What these athletes do padless and in shorts has absolutely nothing to do with what they do in full uniform. There is no hitting, no major contact of any sort.

If nothing else, OTAs and minicamps keep the players in shape (in some cases gets them back in shape) as the regular season approaches.

No, the best time to judge players is when they are in full uniform and actually playing against another team. Definitely not when they are half dressed.