This is the time of year where people tend to get sick.  I know.  I get sick at this very time, every year, without fail.  I’m sick of this, what we put up with as fans and observers of Cleveland, but specifically for what’s behind us and ahead for the Browns, the un-deserving recipients of our adoration.  It’s not that I want to spite any individual here; we can’t pin all of this on any one thing, but everything that is Cleveland Browns falls well short of “cutting it”.

Whether it’s worse to be numb to it, used to it, and unbothered by it, or to be as frustrated as you always get when a season goes “thud”, it’s sickening.  Most of us aren’t actually part of it, but we wear it like we’re all on the 53-man, even if we’re wearing it on the couch.  We personalize it, and wonder what we’ve done to deserve this mental anguish for three hours on Sunday as it happens live, then again every hour of our lives that we spend thinking about it.

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Our long civic nightmare is over.

Well, the teams still stink and there’s a question as to whether the next coach of the Browns will know his arse from a facemask, but at least a guy we KNOW doesn’t know his arse from a facemask is soon to be the ex-coach of the Cleveland Browns.

And what’s nice is that we all are familiar with what comes next. There will be ridiculous, media-driven, far-fetched speculation about Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden and Chip Kelly and any number of potential coaches. Someone will advise that their butcher’s best friend’s barber heard that all of them bought houses in Strongsville and then we’ll end up with 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman as head coach.

No one knows regime changes like Browns fans!! It’s the Weekend Wrap!

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The Cleveland Browns closed out the 2012 NFL season – and what is likely to be the Pat Shurmur era – with a 24-10 loss on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If this truly was the final game with Shurmur as head coach, the Browns final drive was the quintessential offensive drive under Shurmur. The final four plays were:

• A four-yard run by Chris Ogbonnaya
• A five-yard pass to Ben Watson
• A sack of quarterback Thad Lewis that knocked Lewis out of the game
• A sack of quarterback Josh Johnson that was recovered by the Steelers

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As the season winds down, the cream of the crop rises to the top, and you can't stop that slop.

Naturally, I am talking about my picks, not the stupid playoff teams.

HERO (Hutchison's Exciting Ranking Orgy) finally paid off for me big-time, netting me a 11.5-4.5 record for the week - a season best.  Even my single HERO Overrule (Panthers over Raiders) worked out.  Ah, to have laid down the mortgage last week...

DJC and BT both came in with respectable 8.5-7.5 records, but both have now (inevitably) fallen behind me in overall record as it now stands:  Me 120.5-111.5, BT 117.5-114.5, DJC 115.5-116.5.  9 games over .500 certainly represents the high-water mark on the season, especially seeing as I was 11 games under .500 when I instituted HERO after Week 10 - meaning (for those of you too lazy to do simple math) the System is 20 games over .500 in 6 weeks.

Not going to win you a skyscraper, but also not going to make you too destitute to live anywhere but Western PA.

All odds are from VegasInsider.com:

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