Colt McCoy Says Goodbye to Cleveland Fans in Conference Call

Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy, who was traded to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday, had a conference call with the media on Tuesday. The Akron Beacon Journal did a great job transcribing the majority of the Cleveland-related questions.

McCoy said that he was not really kept in the loop about possible trades, although he had heard some speculation when he showed up to the team's offseason program with about 60 other players. When asked if he asked his agent about a trade, McCoy said, "I just told him that I wanted what’s best. I think there’s a situation that hopefully will work out the best for both us -- me and the Browns’ organization."

He should recognize a familiar face from Cleveland in kicker Phil Dawson, who signed a one-year deal with the NFC Champions in March. McCoy didn't have a chance to say a formal goodbye to Cleveland fans, but he did so at the end of his conference call:

"It happened so fast and it’s been good for me to have last night and this morning to think about that a little bit as I was on the plane flying over here. I want to leave as positive as we can. I thank the fans, I thank the city, I thank the organization. And from the bottom of my heart, I really hope that the fans and the city can see an organization that consistently makes the playoffs and obviously accomplishes their dream.

I talked to Mr. Haslam. I talked to Joe Banner. I talked to [offensive coordinator] Norv [Turner] and [coach Rob] Chud[zinski] and all those guys. And again, all those guys are new, so they don’t really know what it’s been like over the past few years. So there’s no hard feelings there. I wish them all the best. I probably didn’t mention it enough in my time that I was there how much I did appreciate the experience that I had there. And again, the ups and downs, the challenges that we faced, I would have loved to see that through.

But at the end of the day, hopefully this is a better fit for me and a great fit for the city of Cleveland because at the end of the day, they deserve a winner, and I’ll always be grateful for my time there."

It'll be interesting to see what happens with McCoy in San Francisco. There's no telling how Colin Kaepernick will hold up in terms of durability for a full season, as we've seen what happens to mobile quarterbacks in the NFL when it comes to injuries. McCoy could very well receive an opportunity to start at some point, so this situation -- playing with a much better supporting cast -- has to be a dream situation for him.