Excellent article.

Dawg Pound Mike is an embarrassment.

Good reading. I particularly enjoyed this:

What started as an expression of anger somehow mutated into stadium atmosphere items (too much security, ring of honor). Somewhere, fans got a bit of a bait-and-switch. This was about a perpetually incompetent Browns team. Now it’s about being able to swear in the Dawg Pound?

It’s hard to even agree or disagree about a protest if it’s unclear what the purpose and objective is.

Thank you for posting this intimate insightful article.
It´s a man sharing his painful love affair with a city and it´s football team. Unfortunately it also transports a message of resignation and timidness. He is simultaneously lauding the fans´ loyalty and perseverance, while trying to discount the validity of one third of theirs concerns and justification in finding a way to voice their displeasure.
I welcome the upheaval and the righteous anger, it´s a genuine response to a self limiting club culture. I will not discourage their indignation, because I think it will bear the fruit of a more likable and able franchise, if channeled into producing a vision representative of these paying customers, as well as those lending their support measurable in heart, enthusiasm and idealism.
We´re more than willing to help this one third to structure their thoughts and ideas for a sporting club with a big future. Just find a way to distill majority decisions, into a reviewable format for the FO´s consideration. You must find a way to generate meaningful discourse between the fan base and the franchises representatives.
We could generate meaningful questions during the week, and then set up ballot boxes in the stadium to collect the fans´ answers while the crisis lasts.
Like I said, meaningful discourse must be created. I trust the Cleveland Browns fans´ creativity, ingenuity and initiative.

The club must consider these majority conclusions, but has to reserve judgement as a professional franchise with financial and image considerations, as well as conserving an ability to be strategic based on internal knowledge and matters of secrecy conducive to making good decisions.

I think this fanshot points to a great article. But I think the author is somewhat holding up a straw-man when it comes to calling it a “boycott”. It is not a boycott. It is about the most minimal thing a group of fans can do to say “this ain’t what we want.”.

I wrote the following in another thread:

I’m actually coming around on the whole Brown-out thing. I normally would not think of bad football as a "cause" and be involved in more protest than writing here. But I have tickets to Monday night and there are some things I like about the idea:
1. It doesn’t cause the organization or players any real harm.
2. It seems like Lerner DOES care about this kind of thing and that the idea of it might have stirred him into action.
3. I like the idea that this will be Monday Night Football and they are sure to point it out and show a bunch of orange seats instead of people.
4. Though it doesn’t accomplish anything concrete it does put the stick in between the bars to "rattle the cage".
5. This team is last or near the bottom in almost every statistical measure. Why not?
It will be interesting to see how many fans actually sit out the kickoff. I expect a rather large Ravens contingent this year so it may not make that big of an impression even if a large number of fans observe the protest.

Having said all that, Barry makes a very good point about “Dogpound Mike’s” lack of focus on a clear objective and general goofyness. It doesn’t make a person want to be a part of the thing that’s for sure. I also like what he said about Lerner. People are definitely over-reacting to his handling of the situation and ascribing all kinds of evil intent that I believe is totally misplaced.
So in the end, I’m still kind of up in the air on the idea but leaning a bit more against at this moment.

Good article. I’m not 100% behind this protest, and if I had tickets to the game, I’d probably get to my seat before kickoff.

But I will still defend Mike and Tony for organizing this protest. They aren’t focused enough and that is probably because their frustration is misplaced to all sorts of aspects. But I agree with their goals of bettering the gameday atmosphere, enshrining Browns history in a better way, and getting Lerner to speak directly to the fans. Further, while they might not get any award for organizing a movement or media relations, these two guys have made their voice heard through the media and have communicated their frustration directly to Lerner.

I’m still not sure what I think of this situation overall. I kind of wish Mike and Tony didn’t start this, if for no other reason, like McBride says, because it has prompted fighting between Browns fans, when we should really be united.