The following submission comes to us from long-time TCF reader Roger Cohen .....................................................

My first thought was, "Spam". A mid-July email with the subject line, “Invitation to Participate in Conference”? I’m glad I clicked it open since it was actually one of our sponsor companies inviting me to speak, “all-expenses paid" at China’s Civil Aviation gathering in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.

My first thought? Not work conflicts, not family responsibilities, but “as long as it’s before Browns’ regular season”.  Bingo – August 26-28. I figured the Indians’ season would have tanked by then and I’d only miss the last two pre-season games.   And yes, thanks to my original since 1946 Browns’ season tickets, NFL Sunday Ticket, MLB Extra Innings and even the pre-season football package, I never miss anything. Live. Ever.

But as the Indians continued to hover on the edge of wild card contention through July and most of August, I started to freak, especially when I stayed up late watching those late night Angels and A’s games. My body screamed jet-lag and it hadn’t even left the Eastern Time Zone yet.

Now as I fly back late Saturday, August 31, I feel there might be only a handful of fans in Cleveland or anywhere who suffered 24/7 as closely as I did over the past 10 days.

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Just remember, we live in a cynical world.

The NFL is about to do a massively right thing by pulling out of its huge bank account as much as $800 million to help thousands of former players who are or may begin suffering from the effects of concussions suffered during their playing days.

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It’s Labor Day weekend and that usually means three things: the Indians are gagging and falling further out of the playoff race, the Browns are on the tee box and Ohio State, as usual, wears the burden of giving us hope for some semblance of a successful season for the teams we root for.

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I'm going to try and do this without using any choice 4-letter words or say anything that I might regret later, but I'm angry.  I'm angry at Detroit, angry at the NFL, and angry at all of the bad apples that have driven us to this point.  I tend to travel light, so the NFL's new bag policy--excuse me, no bag policy is mostly of no concern to me.  However, I do sympathize with the demographic it affects most, women.

I don't know if the spirit of this new policy is to keep women out of the stadium, which seems to lack tact and decency, but that's certainly how it's been perceived in my circles.  Long story short, I've been informed that my better half will not be attending any NFL games in the future.  There's a disclaimer to all of this, which is to say that we aren't exactly season ticket holders, having been to about seven games in the last seven years, but that one game per year is a thing of the past.  While I don't think that you should be able to smuggle in an entire bar or weapons, the venues that don't implement ridiculous policy have taken less extreme measures to prevent the women from bringing in what's considered contra-band.  They check, and the 3-second inspection has proven affective, as far I know.

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