Author: John Blake (Page 3 of 68)

Coleman’s fight ends

November 27, 2006 / John Blake

Longtime Browns sportscaster Casey Coleman’s battle with pancreatic cancer has unfortunately come to halt. Coleman, 55, died early Monday morning.

His sideline reporting and broadcasting skills were tremendous and the passion and knowledge he brought the game of football each and every Sunday was unmatched. Casey loved Cleveland and Cleveland loved Casey. He will be missed.

“He will definitely be missed, that’s for sure,” said Browns color analyst Doug Dieken, who worked nine years with Coleman on the team’s radio network and also lived next door to him in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village for five years. “I never saw Casey. He was always out and about doing something with sports. He was what I guess you would call a �sportsaholic.’ For him, it was sports 24/7.”

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Browns lay an egg

November 26, 2006 / John Blake

The Browns got completely embarassed and humiliated in front of their home crowd, losing 30-0 Sunday to the Bengals. Charlie Frye threw four picks and nothing went right for the Browns all day long in one of the worst games I’ve ever seen. Things got off on the wrong foot right from the opening kickoff when Joshua Cribba took it to the hosue, only to be called back on a holding call.

To make matters worse, Braylon Edwards continues to show his prima donna, T.O immaturity by shoving Frye on the sidelines at one point during the second half. The team showed absolutley no passion or excitement and looked like they still hadn’t recovered from last week’s close call to Pittsburgh. I’m sure plenty of storylines will develop over the next few days regarding Edwards, Frye, Crennel, and the extreme disappointment with the entire organization.

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North of the border unkind to Cleveland

November 22, 2006 / John Blake

LeBron James fell two assists shy of a triple-double but still couldn’t lead the Cavs past the Toronto Raptors as they lost 95-87. The Raptors improve to just 3-8 on the season and the Cavs fall to 0-3 on the second night of back to backs. They looked sluggish early and the Raptors shot the lights out in the first quarter. The Cavs battled back and led going into the fourth quarter before falling apart in the final period. Chris Bosh was a menace for the Raptors scoring 25 points and adding 14 rebounds.

For the second night in a row the team has not looked very sharp. Lately they have had trouble putting together a full 48 minutes and have often looked out of sync at times.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Cavs squeak by Grizzlies

November 21, 2006 / John Blake

The Cavaliers almost let a 21-point first half lead slip away but hung on to win a narrow 97-94 contest against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Cavs were outscored by 15 in the second half. However, they were able to come through in the clutch as they hit several key free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.

Damon Jones and Drew Gooden had big nights, bailing out an off night LeBron James who only shot 7-of-21 from the field and finished with a meager 15 points. Jones finished with 21 points and drained a couple threes late in the game when the Cavs were struggling and needed a bucket. Gooden was a force, scoring 22 and grabbing 15 boards.

The Cavs are dangerous with LeBron James as it is, but when other players can step up when he has a bad night shows the maturity and the depth of this team. We begin a tough stretch of four games in five nights so we’re really going to need help from the supporting cast and our bench to have a successful week.

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Bryant arrested

November 21, 2006 / John Blake

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Antonio Bryant was arrested on reckless and drunken driving charges after his Lamborghini was seen speeding faster than 100 mph on a freeway.

Bryant showed “signs and symptoms” of being drunk, Raffaelli (the police captain) said, and he was uncooperative, combative and verbally abusive. He refused to step out of the car, he said.

The officers were forced to use leather restraints to put Bryant in a seated position with his legs straight and his hands cuffed behind his back, Raffaelli said.

Hilarious. Anyone still wish we had this bozo on our team?

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