The Cleveland Browns soon-to-be owner Jimmy Haslam III (hereby known as JH3) stepped down from CEO of Pilot Flying J yesterday, retaining the position of Chairman.  He will be replaced by John Compton of Pepsi, presumably hand-picked by JH3 for the endeavor.

The timing of this move - coming 2 days after JH3 witnessed just how far the Browns still have to go on the field - is not lost on this fan base.  The assumption?  That JH3 feels he has to throw himself into the task of cleaning up this steaming pile of rhino dung full-force.

We wish him luck on this daunting quest.  

Help us, Jimmy Haslam Kenobi.  You are our only hope.

INDIANS ANNOUNCE 2013 MLB REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE

Tribe Opens Season at Toronto Tuesday, April 2 vs. Blue Jays

Home Opener Monday, April 8 vs. New York Yankees

CLEVELAND, OH --- In conjunction with all 30 Major League Baseball clubs, the Cleveland Indians have released their preliminary 2013 MLB regular season schedule.  The Tribe will open the 2013 season, their 113th campaign as a member of the American League, on the road for a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, April 2. 

After traveling to Tampa Bay for a three-game series against the Rays, the Tribe returns to Progressive Field for the home opener on Monday, April 8 vs. the New York Yankees.  The first homestand will consist of a four-game series against the Yankees (April 8-9-10-11), three games against the AL Central Division rival Chicago White Sox (April 12-13-14) and a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox (April 16-17-18). 

Highlights of the 2013 Cleveland Indians Regular Season Schedule:

• The Tribe’s first homestand begins on Monday, April 8 against the New York Yankees, and includes ten games against the Yankees, White Sox and Red Sox.

The Tribe heats up Progressive Field for eight summer weekends from May 31 to September 2. The Tribe will play 41 home games from Memorial Day (May 27) to the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (September 1) – including Father’s Day vs. the Washington Nationals (Sunday, June 16).

• Number of Home Games By Month: April – 11; May –17;  June –11;  July –16;  August – 11;  September – 15

• The longest homestands of the year include 10 games to open the season (New York Yankees, Chicago and Boston) and 10 games from July 5-14 (Detroit, Toronto, Kansas City).  The longest road trips of the year include 10 games between April 19-29 (Houston, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City) and June 24-July 4 (Baltimore, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City).

• The regular season will conclude with a four-game road trip against the Central Division rival Minnesota Twins (September 26-29).

• Interleague play in 2013 features matchups against the NL East. The Philadelphia Phillies come to Progressive Field for the Tribe’s first ever April interleague matchup (April 30, May 1). The New York Mets and Washington Nationals also visit Progressive Field, September 6-7-8 and June 14-15-16, respectively. The Tribe will travel to take on the Atlanta Braves (August 27-28-29) and Miami Marlins (August 2-3-4). 

• The Indians and Ohio rival Cincinnati Reds will meet four times in back-to-back, two-game home and away series (May 27-28-29-30).

• The Astros join the American League in 2013 and take on the Indians in Houston (April 19-20-21) and at Progressive Field (September 19-20-21-22).

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced their promotional schedule on Tuesday for the upcoming 2012-13 NBA season and the biggest takeaway is the team is rolling out yet another alternate uniform.

According to the team's website, the gold uniforms will make a "bold on-court debut" at the home opener against Washington on Oct. 30. The gold uniform will serve as the team's "permanent official alternate" to the home white uniform and will be worn "substantially" throughout the season. (We imagine it will be as permanent as all the other alternate uniforms the Cavs have rolled out the past few years.)

The uniform is bright gold with a wine CAVS wordmark across the chest. The team's "DNA statement" (oh, geez), All For One. One For All will be printed on the inner-collar, just like it is on the home and away jerseys. The Cavaliers “C” is centered below the neckline and the secondary logo “C-sword” appears on both sides of the shorts.

It's not a bad look, all things considered, and should serve its primary directive: to separate fans from their money as they look to replace or add to their collection of Cavs jerseys.

We still wish the Cavs would just return to their wine-and-gold Miracle of Richfield jerseys on a full-time basis, but then that wouldn't be "marketing," now would it?

Now, the Christmas Story Bobble Leg Lamp giveaway is another story. That there is a major award if we ever saw one.

(Photo courtesy of ClevelandCavaliers.com)

A collective bargaining agreement appeals panel overturned the NFL’s suspension of four players – including Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita – for their involvement in the New Orleans’ Saints bounty program, according to NFL.com.

That means Fujita could be on the field for the Browns when they open the season on Sunday against Philadelphia.

While the ruling lifted the suspensions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still has the power to suspend the players at a future date if he can prove there was an intent on their part to injure.

This is good news for the Browns, who are painfully thin at linebacker due to injuries to Chris Gocong and James –Michael Johnson.

The team can activate Fujita without cutting a player to create a roster spot, according to Jason La Canfora, but can still only dress the NFL maximum number of players.

Fujita received a three-game suspension for his allegedly contributing money to a pool that paid Saints players for intentionally injuring opponents.

“I’m overwhelmed with all the support,” Fujita Tweeted after the announcement. “Thank you so much everyone. Can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

Middle linebacker and defensive team captain D’Qwell Jackson welcomed the news.

“It’s a guy that we all well respect in the locker room,” Jackson told The Beacon Journal. “We hate to see him go through this ordeal. He just had a new baby in the family, and he’s gotta deal with this cloud that’s over his name right now. If you know Scott, you Scott’s a great guy and you hate for any guy to go through what he’s going through right now. To have him back and have him not deal with it at all for the short term is great for him.”

It will be interesting to see what the Browns do because, as Adam Schefter pointed out in a Tweet, coach Pat Shurmur has a rule that if a player doesn’t practice during the week, he doesn’t play on Sunday. Fujita has not been able to be with the team the past week because of the suspension.

But it sounds like Shurmur may make an exception in this case.

“We’ve got up until right before game time to put the roster together but I don’t see any reason why he can’t play,” Shurmur said in his Friday press conference.

In what comes as a surprise eleventh hour decision, four current and former New Orleans Saints players have had their suspensions rescinded, and will be eligible to play on Sunday.  This will likely only result in Cleveland's Scott Fujita (3 games) and former Ohio State standout Will Smith (4 games), who is still with the Saints, seeing action on Sunday.  Anthony Hargrove (8 games) is currently without a team, and the alleged ring-leader in a 2009 Bounty Scandal, Jonathan Vilma (season-long), is injured, and will not play.  The Saints General Manager and coaches suspended in the wake of this scandal were not part of the appeals process.

According to the Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns have been granted a roster exemption, so they will not have to cut anyone to make room for Fujita, but they can still only dress 46 for their opener with the Eagles at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday afternoon.  With the lifted suspension, the Browns linebacker will recover $214,705 in previously forfeited wages.  This news may not have come as a surprise to the 33 year-old entering his eleventh season, who told ESPN's David Fleming last week:

"The only reasonable thing for Roger (Goodell) to do now is admit mistakes were made."

After today's favorable news, Fujita added:

"I'm overwhelmed with all the support. Thank you so much everyone. Can't tell you how much it means to me."

For now, this is a temporary verdict, handed down by a 3-member Appeals Panel, who determined that the decision to suspend players for the pool of money issued for big plays in 2009 was not Goodell's decision to make, but the ball is in his court to determine whether discipline should be issued for playing with the intent to injure.  Goodell can make that decision at any time, but the league office has reported that it will not happen prior to this weekend's action.

Fujita signed with the Browns as a free-agent before the 2009 season, after spending the first eight years of his career with the Chiefs and Saints.  He has played in 19 games over the last two season, totaling 73 tackles and 3.5 sacks, which all came in the 2009 season.  While no one would define Fujita as a star, his availability will certainly be critical to the Browns, who are severely thin at Linebacker after being decimated by injury in the weeks leading up to the 2012 season.

The Cleveland Browns have decided not to have a moment of silence or acknowledge the death of Art Modell prior to Sunday's game against Philadelphia at Cleveland Browns Stadium

According to multiple reports, the Browns had planned to read a tribute over the public address system about Modell, but after team president Mike Holmgren met with Modell's son, David, the Browns decided to cancel the plans at the request of the Modell family.

"David told Mike that he really appreciated the call and the offer, but that he knew it would not be totally accepted by the Cleveland fans,'' Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne told The Plain Dealer.

It's the right move as there is no telling what the fan reaction would have been if the Browns tried to have a moment of silence or something in reference to the former owner that moved the team to Baltimore following the 1995 season. Of course, the team will probably still be criticized for not doing something, but that is better than the media backlash that would resulted if 70,000+ people booed during the tribute.

The NFL has asked all its teams to observe a moment of silence or acknowledge Modell, who owned the Browns from 1961-95.

It was reported by multiple sources (WEWS and WKYC) that former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell is very ill in a Baltimore hospital.  It has been reported that his vital organs are failing.  Family members, including his sons, John and David are by the 87-year old's side in what appear to be his final hours.

His wife, Pat (Breslin) Modell perished last October at the age of 80.  The two had been married since 1969, eight years after Art purchased the Browns in 1961.  Of course, it is not news to Cleveland that Modell ceased to own the Cleveland Browns in that capacity in 1995, when the franchise was re-located to Baltimore as a team with no history that was known as the Ravens.  He would own that team, until completing the sale of the Baltimore Ravens in 2004.  Though he owned the Browns through 17 playoff appearances, they only won a single NFL Championship under his charge.  It's been reported that his Baltimore franchise had some moderate success as well.

Modell, whose namesake is the very same of the New York based sporting goods chain, worked in marketing and PR in New York prior to purchasing the Browns for $4 million in 1961, staking less than 10% of his own money to make the purchase.  Though he basically created Thanksgiving Day and Monday Night Football, Modell is not recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Controversy, which ranged from firing Paul Brown in 1963 to contract disputes that drove star players (including Jim Brown) out of town, and of course, The Move tarnishes any legacy of goodwill that Modell may have had in Cleveland.

The inevitable news that follows this story promises not to yield a lot of grief from the die-hard Browns fans, many of whom consider the move to be the worst thing to happen to them, or at least their city.

Four young Cleveland Browns have switched numbers since the last preseason game and since multiple numbers have become available in the last week or so of cuts.

Billy Winn switched from 79 to 90
L.J. Fort from 40 to 58
Craig Robertson from 47 to 53
Josh Gordon 86 to 13 (although he reportedly wanted 12 and that dream died when Colt McCoy won the backup QB job)

Also, recently cut Brian Sanford was added to the practice squad and recently waived Scott Paxson has cleared waivers and been put on IR. Obviously Paxson was injured and that's likely the reason the Browns went out and claimed Ishmaa'ily Kitchen, the rookie defensive lineman out of Kent State.

Per multiple sources on Twitter the Browns have signed the following players to their practice squad:

FB Brad Smelley, WR Josh Cooper, T Jeff Shugarts, G Jarrod Shaw, C Garth Gerhard, DT Ronnie Cameron and LBs Solomon Elimimian and Ben Jacobs.

The Browns were also awarded LB Tank Carder from the Bills as well DT Ishmaa'ily Kitchen from the Ravens.

Smelley and Cooper were among the players cut yesterday by the Browns to get down to 55 players as the rosters were reduced.