Brutus_buckeye

While you can never tell, if the fact pattern is the same as what the other grand juries heard, you would think that they would come to the same conclusion. I think the Browns knew this before they traded him. Yes, there is still the 2% chance they get burned but It is pretty unlikely at this point.

They may not own the lot in the rear. It could be split amongst the other buildings on Race.

Agree with that assessment but with a caveat. In my opinion, I think a tuna sandwich would win Portman's seat this year with an R behind their name. So while that bodes well for a person like Gibbons or Mandel, it does not necessarily mean that will be the same calculus when they run for re-election in 2028. If you are looking for someone who will win multiple terms in any electoral environment, I think Dolan is the best person for that.

No team is going to take him unless the Browns eat a big chunk of the contract. I think he gets traded either right before or during training camp as some other team suffers an injury to one of their QB's and needs a strong backup to come in. At that point, the Browns would have a lot more leverage in trading him but would still have to eat a chunk of salary for the year. Cap space wont be as big of an issue at that point since the year is mostly settled at that point, so whatever money the Browns save for him in the summer is just actual cash to the bottom line at that point. Baker needs to be adjusting his attitude though and realize that he is not going to sniff a starting QB job in 2022 and if he does end up starting, it is going to be on a bad team from here going forward.

The Mayfield problem is that teams do not want to give up a mid round pick for him AND be on the hook to pay him $18 million this season. The Browns wont cut him because they still need to pay him. If a team could get him in the $5-$8 million range, I think there would be a bunch of teams fighting for his services.

The thing that I find most fascinating is that even though NE Ohio tends to be a pretty liberal bastion and SW has been much more conservative but if you look at Republican politics over the last 20 years it is still dominated by NE Ohio Republicans. Husted, Larose, Renacci, Mandel, Gibbons, Dolan, are all current prominent players with NE Ohio roots. While certainly there are other Republicans from Central and SW Ohio who win office (Portman and Dewine being 2 for example) it seems that NE Ohio punches above its weight in Republican state politics.

Dolan is running in the Anti Trump lane for sure. It may be a good strategy to try and split the vote but I do not think enough non-Trumpers will likely vote in the primary. Heck, FWIW, I rarely vote in primaries. Usually, it takes an issue like a school levy or something like that to get me to vote in a primary, but that is just me. Dolan is comes from a well heeled Cleveland family. His family owns the Tribe. He is very much an establishment type figure and tends to be a much more pragmatic figure. He came from the prosecutors office. He is the adult in the room type personality.

Agreed - but I hate his radio commercials

Agreed. While I am not really a fan of Gibbons, he was acting reasonably and Mandel looked a bit unhinged.

That is a reasonable take as well. I will say though that there were 13 teams interested in bidding and 5 finalists willing to meet Houston's price in draft picks to get into the room to pitch Watson. Of those, the one team (probably Indy) was disqualified because Houston did not want to trade to a division rival. Therefore, you could say that 1/2 of the finalists were willing to guarantee the money. Carolina, was the only one who openly was quoted as having cold feet. Also, for what it is worth, the reasons for getting cold feet are not really mentioned. Yes, it could have been from his prior legal problems, or it could be because NFL teams rarely do full guarantees on money, it could be a combination of both. That is the one thing we do not know.

the key quote in the article "The Browns were one of 13 teams to express interest in Watson, who held a full no-trade clause. That left him in control of the proceedings. He reviewed the rosters of all 13 and submitted a list of five for which he was willing to waive his no-trade clause. The Texans eliminated one of his five teams because they were within the division. The four finalists were the Panthers, Saints, Falcons and Browns." Also - the article further goes on to state that his only reason for turning Cleveland down at first was that he was not familiar with Cleveland where he knew the Southern cities. It said that when the Panther's balked at the guaranteed money, Barry sensed a crack to get back into the sweepstakes for Watson. Furthermore, it was stated that Watson's agent did not shop the Cleveland deal and one of the other suitors were upset they never had the opportunity to match the Browns offer and they would have if they knew it was all going to be guaranteed.

Even if he does settle, does that really tell us that he committed a crime? Not really. Sure we can supposed that there was wrong doing going on. However, even then, we don't know, and sometimes it is much easier to pay someone off to go away then to engage in a case that will take additional years and much more money to prove a point. If he settles, and the settlement requires confidentiality and no admission of wrongdoing, which it almost certainly will, it does not really tell us any more than Watson settled with the accuser.

The key word is "IF" right now, all we have are allegations but nothing has been proven yet and whatever allegations there are, they are not sufficient to rise to the level of charging him with a crime. It is easy to start a whisper campaign to destroy someone's reputation, especially if it involves a sex matter. I am not saying that Watson is a good person. He may be a scumbag, but he is entitled to at least having the facts out there before people pass judgement.

Very odd and gross, yes. But does that make him a sexual predator?? There are a lot of layers to the story here and often times what is reported in the press tends to skew more to the sensational and leaves out important facts of the story. I think what is to be taken from this is that Watson is not a boy scout, he is a flawed individual just like every other player in the NFL. His flaws are exposed more because the position that he plays is in the spotlight and that his perversions are sex related. However, I think a lot back to Rothlisberger from a number of years ago. While he never repaired his image completely, he still had a productive career and led his team to the playoffs multiple times including playoff victories. More importantly, he seemed to learn from his past indiscretions and changed his life for the better and became a pretty decent citizen instead of a frat boy. Wouldn't it be reasonable for someone like Watson to follow the same path, and if he does, shouldn't he be celebrated for that? Look at Watson, you have a young guy who comes into a lot of money but not quite mature enough to handle it. Makes stupid decisions because of it and almost cost his career and opportunity to make the difference he originally set out to make. As he grows and matures, he recognizes that such behavior that his influencers helped encourage, because he had a lot of money, is not acceptable and that he needs to change his life and perspective to become a better person. To me, I think that is much more inspirational than a robotic personality like Tom Brady that is essentially always doing the right thing. I would not be surprised if Watson changes his life and becomes a model human after this, but I also suspect that a lot of people will never notice because they have already written him off. Only time will tell.

As Charlie Sheen famously pointed out. He was not "paying for sex" he was "Paying so they would go home afterward" But to your point, it does scream of an empty existence if he views his sex life as nothing but transactional.

Things have changed, and first round draft picks are not the same as they were 10 years ago. Trading three first round draft picks for Watson it’s not trading away the future. If you have Consistent all pro quarterback, they are certainly worth a few years of first round draft bustsBecause of what they bring to the table. Everyone wants the franchise quarterback. Over the last 10 years, the Browns have drafted the likes of Cory Coleman, Johnny Manziel, Justin Gilbert, Danny Shelton. some have been serviceable but none have been memorable for the right reasons. From that perspective, giving up three first rounders for a sure thing is worth it.

What are they speculating the value is for Baker in the market. If he commands a number 1 draft pick, it really blunts what the browns gave up in draft capital for Watson.

So assuming Keenum has to start the first 4 to 5 games next year, what do you think the Browns record will be after the first quarter of the season? Then, assuming Watson is clear to play, is he a difference make a right away especially after not seeing any game action in two years?

So the big question I have is how much trade value do the Browns get for Baker? Is he worth first round draft capital or more along the lines of a Garrapolo type trade of multiple 3rd and 4th

I see a couple big differences, right, wrong or indifferent. 1) Kraft was an owner vs Watson a player. No matter what the rhetoric may be, it is hard to suspend an owner but much easier to hold the player to different standards. 2) Rothlisberger is a good example as he was never convicted criminally of anything (although the evidence of his transgressions was clearly much more). Even Brady's deflategate scandal had a suspension even though he was cleared in court because it was conduct detrimental to league image. This falls somewhere between the Brady incident and Kareem Hunt in my opinion. I think Rothlisberger provides the best precedent but we do not know. I do feel that reading through the history, it seems like Watson got a raw deal in the matter but of course it is all about protecting the shield from the league perspective. Facts don't really matter in that case.

While it significantly improves the Browns short term, you figure he is going to be suspended for at least 4 games next year. I can't see anything less than what Rothlisberger had a few years back. So there better be a more than capable backup to fill in for that period, otherwise the team is going to be digging themselves a hole. 4 games can certainly be overcome with the right roster, good health and chemistry, but it is it much more than that, it would pose problems to compete in 2022. Could the league suspend him for 8 games or longer? If that is the case, then what do you do?

There are a ton of Delhi residents who work at Amazon or other warehouses in NKY and use Anderson Ferry everyday to get to the Airport. Definitely, a bridge would benefit the area, I do not see it happening though.

Delhi is an area that was very nice at one time and has lost some luster. It needs to be reinvigorated. The biggest problem with Delhi is that outside of downtown, it is not convenient to anywhere else in the city. It is even a pain to get from other areas of the West Side to Delhi. Of course many of the kids who grew up in Delhi and want to remain on the West Side in newer places are moving to Cleves out by Aston Oaks. If you really want to improve the area and make it a better place to come and go, i would first start by repaving River Road.

I think this is an example of where people are in search of a perfect solution to solve a problem where there really is no perfect solution.

Personally, I really do not care what they do in this matter. Keep it the time change, get rid of the time change, I am cool whatever way they choose. I do not know if you can easily shift the hours that school starts through the year very easily at this point though. There are too many variables at play that create problems. First being that many families have adjusted their work hours to the school year calendar and it is difficult to make adjustments every couple months (not impossible but would certainly cause issues). Secondly, and probably the bigger impediment is that you are going to have teachers unions that would fight this tooth and nail. Even though it may be common sense and perfectly reasonable, this does not mean the unions would necessarily sign off (unless they can achieve other concessions) and that poses challenges too. My only concern about this bill is that it seems to be pushed through hastily and there are a lot of unintended consequences that are being overlooked in the process. I have no problem getting rid of ST, but make sure it is done right and we think about many of the issues that will come up and have plans to address them accordingly.