Mid-week thoughts

As a general rule, I try to steer clear of any stories involving the media. Having been a proud member of the Fourth Estate for more years than I care to admit, poking my head into such matters would be considered prejudicial by some.

I have dealt with that, both in the print medium and on radio, and remained on the sidelines while former colleagues took on fire from fans upset with how they did their jobs.

But an incident the other day in Berea involving a former co-worker of mine at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the quarterback of the Browns made news on a national level.

It caused me to temporarily break my rule – it will not be broken again – because it involves the good and welfare of a football franchise I have loved since I was in grade school. It needs to be addressed.

The protagonists are Tony Grossi and Baker Mayfield, whose professional relationship is what can be best described as edgy. And it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Mayfield, after answering a few questions from Grossi the other day well into a news conference with Cleveland media with regard to a situation in the Browns’ latest loss at New England, stormed out after pointedly calling one of them the “dumbest question.”

First, full disclosure. I have known Tony for 35 years. He is an honest (yeah, I know, hard to believe), hard-working (ditto) reporter who feels emotionally about the Browns as I do. If you think he enjoys covering this seemingly ill-fated franchise for the past two decades, guess again.

Tony, known by many Browns fans as the main reason Art Modell is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to his lobbying efforts against such an election, does not lob softball, sycophantic questions as do many other reporters. That is not his style.

He has lugged the sobriquet Mr. Negative around since 1999 covering this football team because he wrote the truth. Not the truth as someone else saw it. The truth as it really was. Fans had a difficult time handling the truth. Thus the negative label.

Tony got into trouble with Mayfield even before he arrived in Cleveland as part of  his pre-draft visits prior to the 2018 college draft. He wrote Mayfield allegedly asked for first-class airfare and accommodations, a suggestion that might have been interpreted the kid was a prima donna.

He believes that was the catalyst that led to the confrontational relationship he has with the second-year quarterback, who apparently hasn’t let it go. “I think it goes back to the pre-draft conversations we had, things I said, things I wrote. OK, fine, but you have to move along,” he said.

I also can guarantee Tony does not like to be part of the story. Journalists want to write stories, not be part of them.

There certainly are more important things with which Mayfield needs to be concerned. Like a 2-5 record, a three-game losing streak, an offense that has underachieved in six of the first seven games, not to mention preparing for a game Sunday in Denver.

He needs to put everything in perspective and not let an incident such as this upset whatever routine he maintains during the regular season.

Like it or not, Mayfield is the face of this franchise. His brash persona is, in some ways, engaging. He is the alpha male in the Cleveland dressing room. As he goes, so go the fortunes of this franchise. It’s really that simple.

Everything he does, whether it’s doing commercials, throwing touchdown passes, making visits to hospitals, he represents not only himself, but the team that signs his paychecks.

Pulling a childish stunt like that with Grossi does not help his image and paints another stain on a season that began with so much hope. More than a few national  pundits have piled on with the notion this is just another stick of dynamite for a franchise in the midst of a large explosion.

Mayfield needs to grow up. Being a professional athlete, especially one with such a high profile, he needs to understand the media is a necessary evil and tolerance is his greatest ally.  

This latest incident no doubt will divide Browns Nation, most of whom will side with Mayfield, primarily because of a 2018 season that came from out of nowhere. But that will not solve the problems that currently hamper this team.

And that, with nine games remaining on the schedule and an outside chance to qualify for the postseason, should be the most important goal right now. Fighting with journalists and piling up personal points in the process is not.

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Brief anatomy of the Patriots loss: Fourth quarter, the Browns railing, 24-10, coach Freddie Kitchens abandoned the run game after Nick Chubb gained the final three yards of his 20-carry, 131-yard afternoon over right guard on the first play of the quarter.

Kitchens subsequently dialed up 17 straight dropbacks for Mayfield, who was sacked three times, competed just five of 13 passes for 84 yards and scrambled for 18 yards. Two completions, one for 27 yards and another for 26 yards, were wiped out by offside pass interference penalties on Antonio Callaway and Rashard Higgins.

Still haven’t heard why Kitchens ditched the run game so early in the game. Just another piece of the Kitchens puzzle.

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Checking the won-lost record and progress of the Browns’ opponents in the so-called softer second half of the schedule, not including Thursday night’s result between Arizona and San Francisco:

Denver, Buffalo, Pittsburgh (twice), Miami, Cincinnati (twice), Arizona and revengeful Baltimore are 18-33-1. The 3-4 Steelers, after a rocky start, have played well lately in the absence of injured quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The Browns catch a break with new quarterbacks in Denver (Brandon Allen), Cincinnati (Ryan Finley) and probably Miami (Josh Rosen).

The Browns’ first seven opponents – Tennessee, New York Jets, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle and New England – are 36-17. The Jets own six of those losses.