Another Brown Goes Down
by Alex
With the Indians' season over (come on, it's so over), the Browns are the only current in-season team for Clevelanders. Since they play once a week, stupid otherwise not newsworthy stories become headlines. For instance, some pundits have criticized Butch Davis for allowing Sgt. Kellen Winslow II (alternatively dubbed "The Greatest Tight End Ever To Step Out Upon A Football Field™" by Football Outsiders) to play special teams on Phil Dawson's on-side kick. Nonsense, I don't feel like arguing it, but essentially an on-side kick, as far as I know, doesn't involve any special injury risk over any other play so you ought to play your most talented players. Especially when the game is about to end.
However, has anyone else noticed that the Browns seem to be hit by an unusually large amount of severe injuries every year? I understand that Courtney Brown will miss at least four weeks every season, including the rest of this year. What a shocker! Let's take a look at Browns placed on injured reserve during the Bucth Dynasty since 2002 in reverse chronological order:
Anyways, I don't have the answer to why the Browns are always so injured. I don't believe it is because Butch is more protective of his players, and they less frequently play injured--because plenty of Browns always seems to be playing injured. Also, plenty of these season ending injuries have just been further aggravation to an existing injury of a player that was playing hurt. I know there is a correlation between conditioning and injury-prevention. Perhaps the Browns have been doing especially poorly at conditioning these past few seasons. To me, mixed with some bad luck, this seems to be the correct explanation. I often hear in the news of certain players being out-of-shape, which isn't out of the ordinary, but it's so common with the Browns so as to be unable to be ignored in this issue.
By the way, we waived Dee Brown! I guess with Suggs potentially returning he is expendable, and his fumble against Dallas was pretty pathetic, but hey, his name is Dee Brown. Which is awesome. And thanks to Joe Gartrell, for his nice comments about us in the Tribe Report.
However, has anyone else noticed that the Browns seem to be hit by an unusually large amount of severe injuries every year? I understand that Courtney Brown will miss at least four weeks every season, including the rest of this year. What a shocker! Let's take a look at Browns placed on injured reserve during the Bucth Dynasty since 2002 in reverse chronological order:
- September 21, 2004: Placed defensive end Courtney Brown on injured reserve
- September 6, 2004: Placed tackle Jason Anderson on injured reserve
- August 31, 2004: Placed offensive lineman Chad Beasley, fullback Ben Miller, linebacker Brant Boyer and safety Michael Grant on injured reserve
- December 24, 2003: Placed defensive tackle Antonio Garay on injured reserve
- December 10, 2003: Placed guard Chad Beasley, defensive end Courtney Brown, running back James Jackson, kicker Phil Dawson and cornerback Lewis Sanders on injured reserve
- November 26, 2003: Placed center Jeff Faine and running back R.J. Bowers on injured reserve
- November 12, 2003: Placed tight end Steve Heiden and defensive tackle Alvin McKinley on injured reserve
- September 1, 2003: Placed offensive tackle Ross Verba on injured reserve
- August 26, 2003: Placed defensive lineman Israel Idonije on injured reserve
- August 5, 2003: Placed tight end Rod Monroe on injured reserve
- November 26, 2002: Placed linebacker Ben Taylor on injured reserve
- November 20, 2002: Placed tight end Aaron Shea on injured reserve
- September 2, 2002 Placed defensive end Felipe Claybrooks and quarterback Michael Thompson on injured reserve
- September 1, 2002: Placed tight end Chris Eitzmann, defensive lineman Cecil Caldwell, defensive back Earthwind Moreland and linebacker Michael Smith on injured reserve
- August 13, 2002: Placed linebacker Jamir Miller on injured reserve
- January 2, 2002: Placed defensive end Courtney Brown on injured reserve
Anyways, I don't have the answer to why the Browns are always so injured. I don't believe it is because Butch is more protective of his players, and they less frequently play injured--because plenty of Browns always seems to be playing injured. Also, plenty of these season ending injuries have just been further aggravation to an existing injury of a player that was playing hurt. I know there is a correlation between conditioning and injury-prevention. Perhaps the Browns have been doing especially poorly at conditioning these past few seasons. To me, mixed with some bad luck, this seems to be the correct explanation. I often hear in the news of certain players being out-of-shape, which isn't out of the ordinary, but it's so common with the Browns so as to be unable to be ignored in this issue.
By the way, we waived Dee Brown! I guess with Suggs potentially returning he is expendable, and his fumble against Dallas was pretty pathetic, but hey, his name is Dee Brown. Which is awesome. And thanks to Joe Gartrell, for his nice comments about us in the Tribe Report.
4 Comments:
However, this doesn;t *necessarily* mean that the Browns suffer more injuries; just that they are more likely to use the injured reserve. It could mean that the Browns are more protective; your argument against this doesn't make sense. The fact that the injuries are of a serious nature doesn't mean other teams don't ALSO suffer those same injuries, choosing instead to leave their players active just in case they can return in time for the playoffs or whatever.
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