Colt McCoy Starting for Cleveland Browns: Time To Put Bad Weather Talk To Rest

The Cleveland Browns have made a move that will warm up the hearts of Cleveland, which has been dealing with temperatures in the teens along with on and off blizzard-like conditions the past week-plus.

Browns head coach Eric Mangini has named rookie quarterback sensation, Colt McCoy, the starter for the remainder of the season.

President Mike Holmgren has sent a few quotes out to the media the past few weeks, since McCoy went down with a high ankle sprain, saying that he really hoped McCoy would heal quickly in order to see how the young quarterback faces the cold, wind and snow in Cleveland this time of the year.

McCoy does not possess a Brett Favre-like cannon for an arm, but what is similar to Favre is the fact they both grew up in the South playing in warm weather before landing on a cold weather NFL team to start their professional careers.

Favre was able to rocket the ball through the cold Green Bay winters for the Packers, but McCoy has the accuracy to his advantage and a big, bruising running back behind him who is built to run on cold weather in Peyton Hillis.

With many Browns fans still on the fence about McCoy and if he really is the future of the franchise, those are the same fans who are questioning McCoy's ability to throw the ball in the Cleveland weather.

Those fans need to take a step back in time and look at two previous Browns quarterbacks who did not have the biggest arms in the NFL during their respective times, but they both had the ability to be accurate enough to manage in bad weather.

Those quarterbacks are Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar.

In 10 seasons with the Browns, Sipe managed a 56.5 completion percentage which may not be a jaw-dropping percentage, but Sipe did managed to be the NFL MVP in 1980.

In his nine seasons with Cleveland, Kosar managed a 58.8 completion percentage in terrible weather and he took the Browns to two AFC Championship games.

Both quarterbacks were not gunslingers the likes of a Favre, but the point is that their arm strength didn't matter because they were highly intelligent quarterbacks who successfully played in Cleveland weather.

McCoy brings with him a moxie that has not been seen behind center since the days of Kosar and he too is highly intelligent and has already shown that he can read NFL defenses and make adjustments to put the Browns in a position to move the ball.

This will not change in cold weather and McCoy will get Browns fans excited as the 2010 season closes out since he will be starting against all three AFC North division rivals.

Browns fans will see that McCoy could very well be the next incarnate of Sipe or Kosar or whoever you want to compare him to, but what is most important is that he has the winning attitude and that is something that is tough to find in a fresh rookie straight out of college.

(Also posted on Dawg Scooper: A Cleveland Browns Source)