The Cleveland Plain Dealer website is currently featuring excerpts from Terry Pluto's new book on the Browns and their fans. One of the excerpts mentions Abe Abraham, 'the man in the brown suit' who used to catch/retrieve kicks behind the goalposts at the closed end of the Stadium.

I vaguely remember Abe- he was a mini cult hero- but not an attention seeker. I've had some links and references to him but they never really fit any articles I was working on.  This seems like a nice opportunity to present them.

Note on Abe from the Indian Fever blog.

Here he is during a game- go to 9:45. He is just under the left side of the crossbar.

In this one, at 9:20, he's the guy running out toward the end zone, from the bottom of the screen.

I am interested in any memories you have of him.

We assumed it was going to happen, and we were not wrong.  Eric Mangini confirmed today that Jake Delhomme would indeed be the Starting QB when the Browns take on the Fish on Sunday, thus increasing the odds of a Miami sweep of Cleveland in this week's sporting events.

Not that Delhomme is awful, just a clearly inferior QB option with Seneca Wallace available.

But there's not much we can do about it.  To quote Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall:  "So this is actually happening?  We're gonna let this happen?"

Thus, on behalf of Browns fans everywhere, I wish Mr. Delhomme good luck this week and implore him to avoid throwing the out to obviously covered Receivers.

Get well soon, Colt.

Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez became emotional when speaking at a university event last night. The event was set up to honor the 1985 football team that finished number two in the rankings, and the embattled coach addressed the crowd with tears in his eyes. With the Michigan football teams accumulating a 15-21 record during his tenure, many people think the University will fire Rodriguez and look for a new coach after the bowl game. Apparently, the coach is feeling the heat:

“I came here three years ago, leaving my comfort zone, because I thought this was a great opportunity,” he said. "I knew after being on the job for a few months there were going to be some challenges. And more come out in front of us. We never ran away from it.

The coach began to cry during his speech as he pleaded with the crowd, "My name is Rich Rodriguez,” he said. “I’m honored to be the football coach at Michigan. I hope you realize I want to be a Michigan man.”

Later, he said that he was drawing strength from a Josh Groban song, You raise me up. After tearfully reciting the lyrics of the first verse, he had the song played over the loud speakers. At the end of the song, he held hands with his wife and the emcee and raised his arms, awkwardly. Several seconds past before the rest of the room joined him. “This may seem kind of cheesy or sappy or what have you, but I’ve been listening to it the last few weeks, and it kind of fits the mood of what we’re in right now."

No, I'm not making this up. 

Part of me was waiting to see Tom Hanks bust into the ballroom and shout, "There's no crying or Josh Groban songs in football!!!"

According to the Canton Rep:

Colt McCoy went deer hunting with Peyton Hillis on Tuesday, a players’ day off and the only chance of the Browns buddies to take advantage of Ohio’s deer gun season.

Hillis said plenty of care was taken to go easy on McCoy’s ankle, which has kept him out of practice this week.

The trip was rainy and uneventful, with no shots taken.

While I question the effectiveness of trudging through the woods with what I hope is a huge inflated walking boot - I'm talking something big enough for Bubble Boy to live in - it is oh-so-heartwarming to see that the supposed Futures of our Franchise are getting along OK.

At least one guy will have Colt's back in the huddle.

Have no fear, Indians fans. The first major contract signing of the offseason is upon us. Jensen Lewis gets a $228,000 raise from last year, agreeing to terms on a one-year deal worth $650,000.

The other five players, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Joe Smith, Rafael Perez and Chris Perez were all tendered contracts, but none of them agreed to the contract. Largely, the deadline is circumvented via paper transactions and token contract offers.

Keep an ear out for the Indians to start negotiating with Scott Boras, the agent for Shin-Soo Choo. The Indians will likely try what they can to buy out Choo's arbitration years and lock him up through the 2013 season.

For now, however, the Indians will comb through the 30 National Leaguers and 22 American Leaguers who were non-tendered, including Russell Martin, George Sherrill, Willy Aybar, Manny Delcarmen, and a handful of other adequate major leaguers.

One name that may have garnered the Wahoo's interest, Jose Lopez, was acquired by the Colorado Rockies via trade prior to the midnight ET deadline.

If any more letters from ownership are forthcoming regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers, let’s hope Dan Gilbert looks at his roster and the temperament of his team before his mouth goes writing any more checks his ass can’t cover.

The Cavaliers as a team bowed before their deposed king on Thursday night in a nationally televised embarrassment that was worse than any montage of drives, fumbles, moves, extra inning losses or anything else in recent memory.

That was a gutless and heartless performance Thursday that validated the Whore of Akron’s decision to seek his glory elsewhere. If it wasn’t Anderson Varejao and Antawn Jamison with pre game hugs it was Daniel Gibson chatting up LeBron in front of the Cavs bench while being beaten mercilessly on the score board.

Talentless is forgivable Mr. Gilbert. Heartless and gutless will keep us home regardless of whether we’ve already paid for tickets.

Many Bowl projections have Ohio State slotted as an at-large team to play in the Sugar Bowl. With Wisconsin destined for Pasadena, the Sugar Bowl will likely make a choice between Ohio State and fellow Big Ten member Michigan State to be paired against an SEC team. The Buckeyes and the Spartans have identical records of 11-1 (7-1 in league play), so deciding which team gets selected will fall to other factors. 

Ohio State has the bigger brand name, while Michigan State is more of a reemerging team with an "underdog" feel to it. Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan recently addressed the difficult decision, "I've got to believe with the likes of Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State, and all of them ranked in the top 10, any one of those teams would be very desirable."

He later added, "The conventional wisdom suggests that both Ohio State and Michigan State are viable options for us and very attractive options."

Unfortunately for the Spartans, the decision will likely come down to which fan base will sell more tickets to the bowl game, and which team will attract the most national interest (read - television ratings). With Buckeye Nation being one of the largest fan bases in the country, Ohio State holds the edge in both areas.

We won't know for sure whether Ohio State gets the BCS bid over Michigan State until this (Selection) Sunday, but it would be a big surprise if the Spartans were picked over the Buckeyes. 

The Indians have six players to tender contracts to before the midnight ET deadline tonight. Those six players are Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Chris Perez, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, and Joe Stiff, er, I mean Smith.

Clearly, four of those are no-brainers. The likelihood is that the Indians will tender both Jensen Lewis and Joe Smith as well. Both Lewis and Smith are arbitration-eligible, but coming off subpar seasons, neither player has a lot of bargaining power in negotiations. Combined, they should make close to or under $1M.

The only Indians who currently have contracts complete for the 2011 season are Travis Hafner (13M), Grady Sizemore ($7.67M), and Fausto Carmona ($6.288M), giving the Indians financial commitments of nearly $27M. With the payroll expected to be around $50-55M, we will be seeing lots of $400k contracts to go along with raises for Choo, R. Perez, and Cabrera.

Mo Williams and LeBron James haven't spoken in months. But apparently Mo is looking forward to tonight's 8pm TNT-televised return of #23...err #6 to 'The Q'.

"We're excited about tonight," Williams offered to a media assembly rivaling the NBA Finals. "That's all I'll say. I can't stress that enough."

Mo also wore a Red Sox jacket following the Cavs workout this morning. Kind of odd given LBJ's Yankees fetish, no?

My concern is that Mo really does think is a big game.  You see, I can’t get past the fact that Mo has had some trouble swallowing past that lump his throat during the playoffs over the past couple seasons.

I think I’d feel better if he was looking at this ballgame like a January game against the Grizzlies.

OSU President  Dr. Gordon Gee is regretting his widely quoted comments of a few days ago, and has decided to refrain from engaging in football talk in the future.  Gee pokes fun at himself  for presuming to know the first thing about the sport...

"What do I know about college football? I look like Orville Redenbacher. I have no business talking about college football,"

"I'm very blessed to have the best athletic director and best football coach in the country," Gee said, the newspaper reported. "They run the athletic program and I run the university, and I should have stayed out of there. What I should do is go over to the surgical suites and get my foot extricated from my mouth."

He's got a point.