QB Controversy in Cleveland? Really?

Browns Backers, 

duel - Any contest between two persons or parties.

With the NFL regular season a little over five weeks away, training camps have already started all across the league and with fans flocking in droves to havens such as Berea, it will be their first opportunities to see new faces such as C Alex Mack, WR’s Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaqoui.

But the main attraction of Browns training camp 2009 will be the winner-takes-all high stakes poker style duel between 2007 Pro Bowl QB Derek Anderson, and Notre Dame heartthrob and area hero, QB Brady Quinn 2009 looks to be an intriguing year to say the least.     

I’ll come straight to the point this year, this is Brady Quinn’s team now and his job to lose and the reason why I say that despite liking Derek Anderson is the fact that the Browns organization have more financially and marketing wise invested in Quinn than they do in Anderson.

In terms of letting a late first round pick ride the pine for the least two seasons and having $5 million tied into Quinn makes Quinn the logical choice and since he is the perceived “face of the franchise” then it should only be fair for him to start right?

Maybe.

Considering that three games is not a lot to judge and fairly evaluate Quinn, but is it also fair to him and his confidence to hand him the NFL’s most anemic offense? I am being completely honest and non-biased when I say that Brady sells, he sells his good looks on magazine covers and Subway and female Browns fans swoon over him “Twi-hards” envelop Robert Pattinson from Twilight but will it translate into putting points on the board and getting wins?

I love a good homecoming story like everyone else does but I find it so funny that everyone says that Quinn is a “hometown boy” He is from the greater Columbus suburb of Dublin and last time I check Columbus and Cleveland are two completely different cities!

If you want a real hometown boy think Ravens QB and Ohio State alumnus, Troy Smith who is from the East Side tough neighborhood of Glenville, or even the Browns newest WR, Brian Robiskie of Chagrin Falls.  Since when did being a “hometown boy” make you an automatic god in the eyes of Browns fans?

Don’t get me wrong I know my history of sports inside and out, and the pantheon of great Browns QBs is generally considered in no particular order, Graham, Ryan, Kosar, Sipe and Nielsen and with the exception of Kosar no other QB is from the greater Cleveland area, let alone Ohio.

Otto Graham is from Waukegan, IL, Bill Nielsen is from Los Angeles, California, Frank Ryan is from Fort Worth, Texas and Brian Sipe was from San Diego, California and most recently Trent Dilfer was from Fresno, California.

Do you remember all the hype and ink about QB Charlie Frye and that he was going to be the next “Brett Favre” and that since he was from the humble borough of Willard, Ohio and was a Browns fan that he was going to be a great QB, and then he played and we all know how that ended right? 

Which brings me to the perceived villain in this QB duel, a 6-6 gun-slinger from Scapoose, Oregon named Derek Anderson who had a breakout season in 2007 that landed him in the Pro Bowl, albeit a alternative, I sure he is still saying “mahalo” but this whole QB controversy is a ruse and a polite formality to only drum up interest from other teams in hopes of adding a QB.

There are some rumors that Seattle, Minnesota, San Francisco and Carolina might be interested and if you talked to the average Browns fan you would swear he was as devious as Michael Vick and as self-absorbed as Brett Favre, minus the dog-fighting and media circus.

Anderson in his own right had played fairly well enough to not lose his job because he knew he was one bad INT away from the “Brady, Brady!” chants but was benched in Week 10 for Quinn and would ultimately end his 2008 campaign with a calf injury, but in 25 starts he is 13-12 with 43 TD’s, 35 INT’s a 75.1 QB rating to go along with 6,195 yards passing.

And while fans want and demand Quinn it would not surprise me if Anderson starts and considering that Mangini didn’t draft Quinn, Mangini owes Quinn no loyalty, but in all honesty this duel is not even a draw or a dramatic sudden death shootout but a sad joke to both players involved and expect Quinn to line up under Mack against Minnesota in five weeks.

Till then,
Dawgfather