Marcus Benard's Season is Over, DE Auston English Called Up

Seems motorcycles and football players don’t mix.

Where was English on the day of the accident? Did he have a wrench in his hand? LOL

Go get ’em Sheard and Mitchell.

You should see Cleveland Frowns’ take on this. He is actually blaming the motorcycle accident on Mangini’s firing. I am not joking.

Brooklyn police say "there’s no way of knowing" how fast Benard was traveling at the time of his accident, and Benard himself claims to have been moving at 60 mph, but one witness reported that "Benard’s motorcycle passed him ‘at a high rate of speed’ and then crossed over all four lanes of I-71 before crashing into [the] guardrail." In any event, it’s probably a safe guess that Benard could have been driving safer (the legal charges against him certainly assume as much). And while we don’t and probably won’t ever know why he got into the accident, if we’re talking at all about increased risk taking as a result of depression, even if at the smallest margins, who could possibly blame Benard for being depressed?

Of course, decent and right-thinking Browns fans are all depressed enough about the roughshod that the Holmgren fiefdom has run over principles of honesty, integrity, accountability, and the one that a decent man who’s making obvious progress at an historically difficult job gets to keep that job. But for us fans this is all just a diversion. Imagine what it must be like for someone like Benard whose livelihood depends on it. To go undrafted out of Jackson State to the best story in Browns training camp just one year later, to become the team’s best pass rusher and lead its injury-crippled defensive unit in sacks the next season, and for a boss who supported you every step of the way through the harrowing ordeal of the premature birth of your son, a boss who made you the man you were, a better man. To go through all that only to see that boss summarily dismissed — against all notions of honesty, integrity, accountability and the one that a decent man who’s making obvious progress at an historically difficult job gets to keep that job — and to become a forgotten man in the regressive low-ceiling schemes* of that boss’s successor despite having made every effort to fit in. And all of that before ever having a chance to sign a contract for much more than the league minimum, which, had basic principles of honesty, integrity, accountability and the one that a decent man who’s making obvious progress at an historically difficult job gets to keep that job been honored, would have been something you’d have certainly had every chance to have done. Now, who knows?

Talk about the pits.

On one hand you might want to say, "that’s life in the big boy’s league," but in truth it all gets right to the difference between firing a head coach who deserves to be fired, and firing one who doesn’t deserve to be fired at all. It’s all real life either way, and when you pour gasoline on a garden that has something that’s actually growing in it, you’ll destroy more life than you would have if you’d have done the same thing to a garden that’s barren. Really sad, whether the motorcycle accident has anything to do with it or not.

Here’s wishing Benard a speedy recovery, and that an organization with more respect for basic principles of honesty, integrity, accountability, etc., gives him a chance to get back on track.

I still think it was probably not the right move to fire Mangini, but this guy needs to get over it. He’s jumped the shark with this.

It sucks what happened, but putting him on R/NFI list is probably for the best. There was too much going on already and he was barely seeing the field. English looked great when he got a chance to play and I am excited to see what he can do in the regular season.

By the way, my statements re Frownie jumping the shark do distract from the fact that I think this sucks for Marcus and I hope he is back next year. He is a good player and seems like a good guy. We all mess up sometimes. Hopefully, he learns from it.

I really wanted Benard to do well, but for everyone not named Marcus Benard there is a silver lining. First, he was the backup and not the starter. Second, English gets a chance to flash some potential in regular season games.

I hope I am wrong, but this season seems to be heading into a tail-spin. If Shurmur can pull them out of it, it will tell is a lot about him as head coach.

I don’t get why people are jumping all over saying the season is going into a tailspin and the Browns are sliding (not trying to rag on anyone here specifically), especially those in the media. I watched the Accuscore video on ESPN for this game and they said the Browns slide will continue? What slide, we have only lost ONE in a row. Come on.

This team is 2-2 and have been in all the games they have played except one, which was against a team that has been playing very good. This team is coming off a bye and they have had two weeks to work out the kinks and figure out what isn’t clicking. Honestly, I am optimistic and I can see us having a decent shot to win against Oakland.