Why take responsibility for something any sooner than you absolutely have to? A $50 million contract might be one reason. Common decency another. The combination of a looming NFL labor dispute and inevitable switch to new offensive and defensive systems for your NFL football team? Maybe less important if you knew your football team’s roster was at least a couple/few years away from properly filling out.
“Christ, Gil, you know me. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."
The story goes that shortly after he arrived in a trade from the Minnesota Vikings last October [5, four games into the 2010 season], a bewildered Jayme Mitchell asked a club official what everyone else was wondering.
Why would a team playing a 3-4 defensive alignment trade for a player who has only lined up as a 4-3 defensive end in his career?
“Just be patient. You’ll see,” was the reported response.
So now the Browns are playing a 4-3 and Mitchell is projected as the starting left end.
“Nobody ever said there was a plan,” Mitchell said on Monday. “But I could sense it.”
How so?
“Just the way some of the assistant coaches used to hint, or whatever,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know, man, I could just sense it was in the air.”
Something “in the air,” there had to be. The undrafted free agent with no career starts in five seasons who was available last October for a seventh-round pick is literally the answer to everything, which seems exactly right.
“When he signed, I walked in, he was sitting down and he stood up and I said, ‘Oh my goodness.’ He just kept getting taller,” Shurmur said. “He’s a terrific looking guy.”
Goodness gracious. So what happened with Brodrick Bunkley?
In theory, other NFL franchises might be more likely to deal with those that follow “a policy of not announcing or confirming trades until a player passes a physical” than those that will blow the whistle on damaged goods, all else equal. But what good does such a policy do if the trades have to be reported to the league office before the physicals happen? How strange is this?
First, Bunkley’s reported as “a no-show at Browns training camp” yesterday, despite having shown up on the league’s official list of transactions the day before.
Then the Eagles GM “tells reporters that Bunkley refused to report to the Browns after the trade.”
Finally, “a league source” clears things up by telling Mary Kay Cabot that Bunkley “reported to Cleveland on Saturday after being traded from Philadelphia, but the Browns had some medical concerns and the trade was nullified.”
Did he come to Berea? And nobody saw him? Is anybody interested in clearing up the inconsistent statements by the Eagles front office and Cabot’s “league source”? Does somebody have an airplane ticket stub we can look at? SHOW US THE CERTIFICATE.
Relatedly, all kinds of Braylon news at Pro Football Talk. First, that nobody seems to want to sign him, per Michael David Smith:
Braylon Edwards is one of the big names still available in free agency, and it’s not clear which teams — if any — are interested in signing him.
it’s important to remember that when a player with Edwards’ physical talents isn’t drawing much interest in free agency, there’s probably a pretty good reason for that. And the reason is that Edwards is often a bigger headache than his talent justifies.
Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com reports that the Jets wanted no part of Edwards, who was viewed as a diva in the organization. Throw in the fact that he was busted for drunk driving and the fact that he seems to be asking for more money than he’s worth, and it’s easy to see why the Jets would decide to move on.
Which makes it a perfect time for Braylon to go live-tweeting a knife attack by one of his homeboys on the kitchen staff at a Birmingham, Michigan bar, then lie about it. Not even kidding:
According to FOX 2 in Detroit, two people in Edwards’ entourage were arrested after allegedly assaulting employees at a Birmingham bar.
Per the report, Edwards’ friends got into an argument with the employees. The dispute made its way into the kitchen, and one employee was “sliced with a knife.” The wound required 14 stitches to close. Another employee allegedly was attacked with a fork. (Alas, the Placesetting Trifecta was not completed, possibly because Braylon dropped the spoon.)
Edwards reportedly posted the following on Twitter at about the same time: “Damn. Get ya knuckles ready” and “Don’t fight if. You don’t know how.”
Curiously, Edwards recently posted the following message: “Yo…Lost my phone last night someone sent tweets. Deleted them and changed my password. Sorry for the mishap hopefully never happens again!” (We’d like to think that, if someone found Edwards’ phone and realized they had access to his Twitter page, they would have been a lot more creative than “Damn. Get ya knuckles ready” and “Don’t fight if. You don’t know how.”)
Seriously, when does “somebody else sent those tweets” not work?
And on what other planet does the guy who saw this coming before anybody and did something about it end up losing his job for the effort? On what other planet is that guy not a hero?
Sorry, this Jayme Mitchell guy looks terrific.
Hope everyone has a decent Tuesday.
