Being a fan of Cleveland sports is one of the better aspects of life, aside from the no championship thing, of course.

The allure of the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers is not just confined to Northeast Ohio, however, as the power of Cleveland sports extends not only across the country but internationally as well.

Which brings us to Murray Alexander

Murray is a 24-year-old from Glasgow, Scotland, and the author of The Factory of Sadness, a blog about the Cleveland Browns that has been “churning out canned heartbreak since 1796.” You can also find him on Twitter @SadFactory.

Murray was kind enough to sit down for a virtual Q&A on how he became a Browns fan, why things are going to be better under the new regime and the team’s prospects for 2013.

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The Cleveland Browns were up to business again on Thursday, trading second-year linebacker Emmanuel Acho to Philadelphia for third-year running back Dion Lewis.

Funny, we thought that Browns CEO Joe Banner was the “arch-nemesis” of the Eagles. Interesting that they would be willing trading partners if that were true.

It’s not hard to figure out why Philadelphia would be a landing spot for Acho, a sixth-round pick in 2012 from the University of Texas. Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis was Acho’s position coach last year in Cleveland, while offensive coordinator Pat Shumur was Acho’s head coach for the Browns.

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Apparently no one associated with the newest, latest version of the Cleveland Browns believes that less can be more. When it comes to the Browns and their recently announced radio broadcast rights deals, more is more under the theory, I suppose, that there is no limit to how much Browns related programming can be absorbed. Actually we're about to find out as the Browns flood the airwaves over the next year with 1,000 hours of stupefying shows.

It's easy to conclude that the unique deal the Browns signed with WKNR and its rival station, WKRK, The Fan, was all about the money. And of course, that conclusion is always going to be well justified when it comes to sports. It was about the money. But I think there's more to it as well, which we'll talk about in a minute.

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The Cleveland Browns severed another link to the Randy Lerner & Mike Holmgren era on Monday, trading third-string quarterback Colt McCoy to the San Francisco 49ers.

Along with McCoy the Browns threw in their sixth-round selection (173rd) in this month’s NFL Draft. In return they get San Francisco’s fifth- and seventh-round draft picks (numbers 164 and 227, for those of you keeping score at home).

Even by Cleveland standards, McCoy’s story was a strange one.

Drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft after a highly successful career at Texas and because Holmgren saw something in him, McCoy was slated to sit on the bench his rookie year and learn the NFL game. That all fell apart when Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace were sidelined with high ankle sprains – the injury of the year in 2010 for the Browns.

After not embarrassing himself in his first NFL start in Pittsburgh, McCoy improbably led the Browns to wins over New Orleans and New England. In the process McCoy led people who should know better to believe that not only did the Browns have an actual NFL quarterback, but also an NFL head coach in Eric Mangini. (A 2-6 finish to the season cleared up those misconceptions about Mangini; it would take another year for the same to happen to McCoy).

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