Browns Diary, Week 5: A Sinking Ship

Washington 34, Cleveland 13

The great receiver Raymond Berry once told me a story. His Colts were trailing late in a game, and Berry did something that he never did: He ran the wrong route on a pass play. The throw was perfect and on time to the spot where he was supposed to be. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there. A defender was instead. The interception basically ended the Colts’ chances.

The quarterback walked off the field without making any gestures toward him. There were no hand movements to indicate that Berry zigged when he should have zagged. The quarterback simply looked down at the ground. When Berry came over on the sideline to apologize, the quarterback pointed at himself. After the game, when reporters asked the quarterback what happened, he took all of the blame. “I misread the defense,” he said, or something to that effect.

Only when no one was looking, not even teammates, did John Unitas skewer Raymond Berry for running the wrong route.

“That,” Berry told me, “is a quarterback.”

Settle in. This might be a long one.

Here’s what I think—and this admittedly is based only on intuition, instinct and a lifetime of watching the Cleveland Browns play football: