Dogs Bark, Birds Fly, Lawyers Complain

Color us interested by all the run that agents for Terrelle Suggs and Josh Cribbs got in the Plain Dealer yesterday for complaining about injuries suffered by their respective clients in Monday night's game between the Browns and Ravens.  We recall seeing a headline at Cleveland.com yesterday lumping the stories together on the front page, along the lines of "agents* for Cribbs and Suggs complain about hits, more inside." 

While our more interesting questions are for Cribbs' agent, let's talk about Brady Quinn's allegedly "cheap" shot on Suggs first.  The sporting press has always been quick to target pretty-boy Quinn for criticism, so we're not particularly surprised to see things blowing up a bit here, especially with public distaste for the league's protection of quarterbacks at at all time high.  But it's hard to imagine that Quinn's hit was anything more than a frustrated quarterback doing his best in the heat of a bad bad moment to prevent a second interception from being taken to the house on consecutive drives.  Have a look for yourself and ask, how would you have made the tackle there? 

Bummer for Suggs and the Ravens to be sure and probably deserving of a fine, but we wouldn't let it bother us too too much if we were Quinn.  It's easy to see why the Ravens would crow here, especially in view of the Tom Brady Rule, but its doubtful that they're honestly as upset with Quinn as they make out to be in the press. 

What bothers us by far the most (but doesn't surprise us in the least) about these two Monday Night mishaps is all the guff that Mangini's taking for having Cribbs out on the field trying to score on the game's last play.

"I can't even put into words how upset I am at them for leaving him in like that,'' said Cribbs' agent J.R. Rickert . . .

And of course, Rickert's not alone in expressing outrage here, manufactured or otherwise.  The reaction by the Plain Dealer's Bill Livingston is typical: "Lateral misguided, just like the coach," he says.  But even Livingston admits that taking a knee on the play would have been "bad form" on the part of the trailing team.  Bad form to take a knee, yet it's "cockamamie" to try to put some points on the board.  Because that was the point, Bill, since you asked what "the idea" behind the play was.  It's the same idea behind the reason that taking a knee would have been bad form.

And it's the same reason why we've seen it thirty-thousand times; a team running plays with its starters until the end of a game, even against backups, even when it has no chance of winning, in an effort to put some points on the board.  Here it's worth remembering that the plays don't count in practice or the pre-season either, but the starters play in those.  As Browns fans, we're as down as anyone about Cribbs' getting hurt, but we certainly appreciated the effort on the final play, and certainly preferred it to taking a knee, or a run up the middle.

Another thing of which we're certain is that if we were one of the most explosive players on the Browns offense, like Cribbs, we'd have wanted to be on the field for that play too, no matter what our agent might have said after the game.  We'd love to hear an honest answer on that question from Cribbs.  Of course we won't get one, but we'd be shocked to hear Cribbs tell us that he didn't want to be out there himself.**

But on with the witch-hunt anyway, clutching firmly to the 20/20 hindsight.***

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*It's possible that Cribbs' and Suggs' agents aren't attorneys, but we think it's safe enough to assume that they are, or close enough.  

**Which is another good reason why now might be a great time to rework Cribbs' deal.  

***It's understood that Mangini said "he'd do it differently" if he could run the play again.  Of course that's what he said.  It's not like the guy's a jerk or something.