Random Thoughts as December Dawns

Limping to the Finish

The Browns have shot this season all to you-know-where. No news there. It was sad to see Brady Quinn sidelined for the year with a broken finger, just when he was getting the chance to play. It was just as sad to see Derek Anderson go down with a season-ending knee injury in Sunday’s loss to Indianapolis. That some fans jeered as he was helped off the field is distasteful, but then, Browns fans are so frustrated and fed up after 10 years of mostly blatant ineptitude that some of their wrath is bound to be misdirected. It was reminiscent of several years ago when Tim Couch left a game to similar derision, a scenario that was the beginning of the end of Couch’s run in Cleveland.

That said, I was struck by something Anderson said after the game. When asked if we might see Josh Cribbs at quarterback, Anderson responded with a jeer of his own and said anybody who thinks that would have to be “on crack.” You don’t put a receiver at quarterback, he said tersely.

And I thought, why not? First of all, he was a quarterback all the way through his playing days at Kent State. Furthermore, we’re talking about the one guy on the entire roster who consistently, week in and week out, makes plays. Every kickoff or punt return is cause for excitement when the ball is in Cribbs’ hands. Every opposing kickoff or punt return is cause for excitement when Cribbs has a shot at making the tackle -- which, more often than not, he does.

When the Browns started this long downward spiral, Cribbs was one of two players (Jamal Lewis being the other) who dared to say what others only thought: That perhaps some players were guilty of quitting. He later apologized, sort of, because it was the politically correct thing to do, but his words carried weight because, well, he never quits. This on a roster with too many people who seemed to be going through the motions.

This week Cribbs was quoted as saying yes, he could play quarterback, because he did it all his life before the NFL. He admitted it probably wouldn’t happen, but the point was made. “I want the ball in my hands,” he said.

So do the rest of us. I understand turning to Ken Dorsey to steer the sinking ship and I wish him well, but I couldn’t disagree with Anderson more when it comes to Cribbs. If you ask me, if there were 22 guys with number 16 on their jerseys, or at least number 16’s heart in their bodies, this franchise would be a lot better off.


On the Cavaliers…

Earlier this year I bemoaned the presence of Ben Wallace in the Cavs’ starting lineup, because of his age and his offensive shortcomings. It’s early, and the long season could yet take its toll, but I’m happy to admit that, thus far, Big Ben has made me eat those words.

The Cavs are playing championship caliber basketball, and Wallace is a big part of their success. His defensive intensity and rebounding prowess have helped fuel their recent run. I was concerned that perhaps he’d lost the one aspect of his game that had made him so formidable -- that being his intensity. My concern was misplaced. He’s been a one-man wrecking crew at times, and his teammates have picked up on it. That’s leadership, and I tip my cap to him.

Momentum is a funny thing in sports. As miserable as the Browns’ performances have been -- and as much as one lousy game fuels another -- the Cavs’ performances have been dominant. Players are feeding off of one another, and Mike Brown is doing a remarkable job of getting people their minutes.

Give credit to LeBron James on that count. His minutes per game are finally down to a reasonable level, and he’s not complaining at all. He’s getting much-needed rest because the Cavaliers are simply overpowering most of their opponents, and he’s not needed in the fourth quarter of many of those games. As his minutes decline, Brown can spread them among the Cavs’ bench players, and everybody’s happy. You get the sense that LeBron is less interested in accumulating personal stats than he is in getting the ring, and when your leader exhibits that approach, the rest of the team will follow.

Mo Williams and Delonte West are quickly becoming one of the best guard tandems in the league. And Zydrunas Ilgauskas just keeps rolling along, giving other teams fits with his offensive rebounding and outside shooting. Meanwhile, the bench is the deepest it’s been in years -- maybe ever -- and continues to make meaningful contributions night in and night out.

This team is good. Very, very good. I’m already looking forward to May and June.


High school football

I was treated, along with the rest of our town in North Canton, Ohio, to a remarkable season by the Hoover High School football team. The Vikings defied most preseason forecasts by losing just one game in the regular season, winning the Federal League title with a perfect 7-0 league mark, and going on to three straight playoff wins and a regional title.

That’s where it ended, of course, as the Vikings ran into the buzz saw that was Cleveland St. Ignatius in the state semifinals. The Wildcats went on to win the state championship in Division I, but Hoover’s overachieving roster will go down as one of the best teams in school history.

St. Ignatius is to be applauded, but I was struck during the postseason by all the talk of their 10 state championships in the last 20 years. I was reminded of a column last May by Bob Dyer of the Akron Beacon Journal, in which he wrote of the disproportionate advantage that parochial and private schools have over public schools in athletic competition. The stats that he cited were undeniable.

The playing field isn’t level by any means when it comes to private and public schools in Ohio. It’s not the private schools’ fault, of course. But, on the whole, it’s tough for public schools to reach the highest rung on the ladder on a consistent basis. A look at St. Ignatius’ web site reveals that it’s run more like a college than a high school, complete with a sophisticated advancement office that is only too happy to share information about annual gifts, capital gifts, and planned giving. Families pay tuition for their children to attend there. Even the web site suffix, “.edu,” is the one typically used by colleges and universities.

The two schools featured in the Ohio Division I championship game -- Cincinnati Elder being the other -- are both private, all-boys schools. And, unfettered as they are by geographic restraints, they welcome any student who can make the daily drive to their often glittering campuses -- and who can afford their rather hefty tuition fees.

Before Hoover’s game with St. Ignatius, Viking coach Don Hertler put it as politely, and plainly, as it can be put: “They’ve got kids probably from five counties, and we’ve got them probably from five neighborhoods.”

Officials from the Ohio High School Athletic Association acknowledge the disparity, but also lament the complexities involved in operating separate tournaments for public and private schools. I can understand their dilemma, but anyone who saw the St. Ignatius-Hoover semifinal and didn’t come away scratching their head over the issue just wasn’t paying attention.

Again, it’s not St. Ignatius’s fault. The system is what it is. But schools like Hoover only get so far every so often. Perhaps they can find some consolation in the fact that, among public schools in Ohio, they were one of the top two -- the other being the Pickerington Central Tigers, who were a perfect 13-0 before losing to Cincinnati Elder in the other state semifinal game.

Hoover’s football team wasn’t the only one of the school’s squads to make it so far this fall. The girls cross country team, a remarkable collection of talented runners from a small town of 15,000 people, was edged out at the state meet by the perennial powerhouse team from Magnificat High School in Rocky River, a suburb of Cleveland.

Magnificat was nowhere to be found in the boys’ race. That’s because it’s a private, all-girls school.

I checked their web site, too. They have five people in their advancement office.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And so it goes.