Written by Thomas Moore

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The collected works of Friday Night Lights is some of the best work ever done on the culture surrounding high school football.

From Buzz Bissinger’s book, to the movie version that turned us into a Peter Berg fan, to the television show that produced some of the best work on TV for five seasons*, there truly is a lot to like if you are a football fan.

Even though it deals with high school football deep in the heart of Texas, Friday Night Lights offers several lessons and themes that are transferrable to the professional game, especially as it concerns the Cleveland Browns.

So, as the Browns prepare to open the 2012 NFL season on Sunday against Philadelphia, here are some quotes that mirror a few of the key story lines that will run through the Browns upcoming season.

“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts ... ehh we’ll deal with that later.” – Coach Eric Taylor

Coach Taylor’s abbreviated signature line closed out the TV series, as he took over an inexperienced team with a lot to work on before it could worry about “can’t lose.”

The Browns head into this season with 15 rookies on the roster – including key players at quarterback (Brandon Weeden), running back (Trent Richardson) wide receiver (Josh Gordon and Travis Benjamin) and right tackle (Mitchell Schwartz). Add in 11 more players who are entering their second year (most importantly wide receiver Greg Little and left guard Jason Pinkston) and the Browns have a lot of work to do before they can focus on not losing.

By comparison, the Browns were one of the oldest teams in the NFL under Eric Mangini who, despite having such a veteran-heavy roster, could only post consecutive five-win seasons.

“Absolutely, we can win with 15 rookies,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “I’m not a guy that predicts what’s going to happen. All I know is I’ve seen these guys play good football. They have fresh legs. That’s what I’ll say. I expect that when we put them out there, everybody out there, even the 15 rookies, are going to do what it takes.

“These guys have played games at other levels. I think it’s important that our veterans that are here help them get through the mental part of it. That is a lot of rookies, I would agree with that. It’s going to be fun to see the energy that they play with. I think that’s important.”

Team president Mike Holmgren is confident the team has improved.

“This football team, even though it’s young, I think is physically much better,” Holmgren said. “We are young, but we have better players and we have better depth. I believe our special team’s has a chance to be much better. If you’re going to build it the way we’re going to build it, there’s a chance you have these types of numbers. Now, I would say this, it’s a credit to Tom Heckert and what he has done in the draft because you have a lot of draft guys who made your team for three years and there’s no bias that way. It’s exaggerated a little bit because the guys that are key guys for us, the quarterback, the running back, the right tackle, those types of guys, they’re rookies.”

When you look across the roster it’s not hard to where the Browns could be improved – quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive line – but the player have to go out and do it before the Browns can actually start winning consistently.

“Coach are we there yet?” Coach Taylor: “Nope, but we’re getting there. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.”

The defense was much improved in a lot of areas in 2011 under defensive coordinator Dick Jauron. With the addition of Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard to the defensive line, the Browns finished fifth in the league in points allowed, second in passing yardage allowed, and, according to Sports Illustrated, allowed just 11 touchdowns in 64 goal-to-goal plays, the best stop percentage (.828) in the NFL.

The flipside, of course, is that the Browns still can’t stop the run, finishing 30th in the league after giving up an average of 147.4 yards per game. The Browns added beefy interior defensive linemen John Hughes (320 pounds) and Billy Winn (295 pounds) to try and help out, but if they can’t figure out a way to improve against the run, it’s going to be another long year.

“I think its apparent I do like our defense and I know it’s been hit a little bit with injuries and that’s unfortunate because we, not that we don’t feel this way now, but like I said I like our defense,” general manager Tom Heckert said. “I really liked our defense when we had the full group and we’re going to get them back for the most part besides Gocong, but I do like it. I think it’s an aggressive defense that can run and we’ve got a bunch of defensive backs and we kept a bunch of defensive backs. I think you’re going to need those guys down the road. I like our defense and on offense obviously we’ve got playmakers. I know they have to prove it and all that stuff, but I think that’s something we needed on offense and we got some guys. Hopefully they can continue to improve.”

The defense has also been hit by injuries, as Taylor will miss at least the first six games with a torn pectoral muscle and linebacker Chris Gocong will miss the entire season after tearing an Achilles’ tendon.

“The best thing I can say is, I think the younger people who we’ve inserted in there, certainly our draft choices of defensive lineman ... I’m very pleased with how they’ve conducted themselves in training camp and in the games,” Holmgren said. “That turns out to be a really good thing that we did. The linebacker situation, you have young people that are going to have to stand up and play. That’s just the way it is. Those are the two main areas of concern. Now, what balances that off for me is Dick Jauron. I have all the confidence in the world and the defensive staff. We have a good defensive staff. They know how to coach and the guys listen to them.”

Then there’s the matter of cornerback Joe Haden and linebacker Scott Fujita, both still facing suspensions (Haden possibly four games, Fujita possibly three).

“Run the post, run the slant, and they will respect you ... run this pattern, and they will fear you” – quarterback Jason Street to his replacement, Matt Saracen

The biggest move the Browns made in the off-season was gambling on Brandon Weeden, who will be a 28-year-old rookie quarterback when he steps under center for the first offensive series of the season on Sunday. (He will also be the 11th different quarterback to start for the Browns in Week 1 since the team returned in 1999).

There is little doubt that Weeden is a physical upgrade over McCoy. While opposing defenses may have respected McCoy while he lead the Browns offense (and even that is open to debate as the Browns only averaged 13.6 points per game last season with McCoy at the helm for the majority of the season), if Weeden turns out to be the real deal there is little question that the opposition will fear him.

Weeden was beyond prolific at Oklahoma State, throwing for 37 touchdowns and 4,727 yards as a senior in what Sports Illustrated calls “one of the most complex pro-style attacks in college football.

“In that offense you have to make every kind of throw – every throw I’ve made here, I made in college,” Weeden told SI in its NFL preview issue. “Most college systems, with the dink and dunk stuff, are not really going to get you ready to play at this level. I’m ready.”

“(Brandon’s) got his stuff together,” Heckert said. “I think he’s going to be really good. He knows he doesn’t have to do everything himself. He doesn’t have to go out for 500 yards and 10 touchdowns. He doesn’t have to do that. We think we’re starting to get better. Like I said, if he doesn’t turn the ball over, and we’re not saying play scared or anything, but if you can take care of the football, and we’re going to be fine.”

As for McCoy, after some initial pouting, he apparently settled in and can be a capable backup – someone who may not win you the game as a full-time starter, but a player that won’t kill you if you have to go to him in an emergency. He also has a year under his belt in Shurmur’s version of the West Coast offense, which is another plus.

“I’ve said all along, I think he’s made great improvement based on a year ago,” Shurmur said of McCoy. “I really do feel like even though we’ve had some guys that didn’t get to compete a lot because of injury, I really do believe that everybody that we kept earned their spot.”

“I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about Boobie Miles, who is your brother. And he would die to be out there in that field with you tonight.” – Coach Gary Gaines

The Browns went into training camp with the idea that Trent Richardson – the consensus No. 1 back in the draft and the third overall pick in the first round – would help ease Weeden’s transition into the NFL and carry the burden of the offense.

That all changed when Richardson had a second operation on his knee on Aug. 9. The rookie from Alabama did not play in a single preseason friendly and only returned to the practice field on Labor Day.

“I think when you have a dynamic running back, there’s synergy,” Shurmur said of Richardson. “When you hand the ball off, you’re going to get yards. Then of course, they’ve got to decide how they want to defend him. Then of course, the passing game is obviously involved there as well. You’d like to be able to run it and pass it on any down. If you got a guy that’s a runner that can make guys miss or break tackles, I think that’s important.”

While not as important as Richardson in the long run, the return of Brandon Jackson from an injury should also help the offense. After missing all of last year with a foot injury, Jackson was active in the preseason, carrying the ball 34 times for 135 yards (4.0 yards per rush), added four passes and did not fumble (he hasn’t lost a fumble in his NFL career, by the way. Now that we’ve said that, he’s sure to fumble in a big spot this season).

“I feel very confident that I showed the decision makers what I can do and how I can do it, just adding a spark, moving the chains, playing special teams,” Jackson told The Beacon Journal. “We’re just gonna see how it works out. I’m not antsy. I’m not nervous. I’m gonna continue every day like I used to. I feel very strong about the opportunities that I had, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

“Let me tell you something, it’s every coach’s dream to experience the highest level of idiocy that his team can muster and gentlemen, collectively us coaches, we are living a dream.” – Coach Eric Taylor

The Browns had trouble with penalties and special teams breakdowns during the preseason. The most noticeable were the two blocked punts suffered by Reggie Hodges. (Of course, the second one deserves an asterisk because Hodges was punting behind third and fourth stringers who are not part of the regular punting unit).

Much was made last season when the Browns had three field goals blocked (the first kicks Phil Dawson had blocked since 2005), suffered 20 special teams penalties and allowed a kick-off return for a touchdown as well as a punt return for a score (as Terry Pluto pointed out in his Plain Dealer column on Sunday). That left the Browns ranked 26th in the NFL in special teams.

Much was also made of the fact that under former special teams coach Brad Seely the Browns were ranked first (2009) and third (2010). Of course, those rankings didn’t translate into wins (see Mangini, Eric, consecutive 5-win seasons), and last year’s kicking problems were due in a very large part to former long-snapper Ryan Pontbriand.

If fans are going to point a finger at special teams coach Chris Tabor for last year’s mistakes, they also have to give him credit for Dawson having a career-best seven field goals from 50 yards or more, for Josh Cribbs ranking sixth in punt return average at 11.4 yards per return, and for the fact that the Browns had the second-best field position in the NFL on kickoff returns.

So while special teams certainly help and the Browns need to keep working on this, let’s not get carried away weeping for the “good old days.”

“I seen my granddaddy make better blocks playing checkers” – Smash Williams

Coming into the preseason it was assumed that the Browns would not have to worry about the offensive line. But that all changed as the starting line of Joe Thomas, Jason Pinkston, Alex Mack, Shawn Lauvao and Mitchell Schwartz struggled, especially against Detroit and Philadelphia.

We really are not worried about Thomas (the best left tackle in the NFL) and Mack (the toughest center in the AFC North). As for the rest ... you have to hope that Pinkston (in his second season) and Lauvao (in his third) are better this year. The big question mark is Schwartz, who was drafted to stop the revolving door at right tackle that has spun out over the past few years Tony Pashos, John St. Clair and Kevin Schaeffer, among others.

“The first week, (Mitchell struggled,),” Heckert said. “He didn’t play great. I do think he’s gotten much better. He played, really against Philadelphia, he played pretty well and those guys can get after you rushing the passer. He’ll be fine. He’s going to help us. He’s good.”

If the line struggles, it is going to be a long season for Weeden (and McCoy, because Weeden may not make it through 16 games in one piece). In addition to facing the Steelers and Ravens (48 sacks last year) twice, the schedule also includes the New York Giants (48 sacks) and Philadelphia (50 sacks)

“I think our offensive line has an attitude,” Shurmur said. “There are reasons why things happen ... I’m not concerned. I do know our guys are tough physical guys. I think their attitude is there, always has been.”

Having a healthy and productive Richardson can help the passing game in a big way. If Richardson can rip off a few big runs on draw plays, that can go a long way toward slowing down the opposing pass rush.

“What’s wrong with y’all? Y’all are playin’ like some little girls! Y’all act like you never played football before! These guys are nothin’! They bleed just like we do, and sweat just like we do. They went through two-a-days. We went through two-a-days in 110 degree heat. I want you to hit everything that move! If the ref gets in your way, you hit him! They’re cheatin’ us too! They’re against us too. This is our team. This is us! Let’s go right now! Let’s get it off now and let’s go! – Ivory Christian

The AFC North is the NFL’s Group of Death. Having to play the Steelers, Ravens and Bengals (in the rare years when the Bengals are actually good) is the hardest thing any NFL team has to do.

But it shouldn’t be this hard.

Since the AFC North’s current lineup was created during realignment in 2002, the Browns own a 14-48 record against the division. Worse yet, the Browns started off with a 7-11 record from 2002-2004. Therefore, the Browns are 7-37 since 2005 against the AFC North, with three wins of those wins coming in 2007. To put it another way, the Browns have averaged one win per season within the division since 2005.

So, to recap, since getting those three wins in 2007, the Browns were 1-5 in Romeo Crennel’s last season, 2-10 under Eric Mangini (including beatings at the hands of Baltimore and Pittsburgh) and 0-6 so far under Shurmur.

The Browns are never going to get anywhere until they start to reverse that trend. Clearly Pittsburgh and Baltimore are better than the Browns, but that doesn’t mean the team can’t be competitive. And it definitely doesn’t mean that the Browns can’t start winning a couple of division games each year (at least).

Pittsburgh is getting old and their offensive line is still horrible; the Ravens are getting older on defense and have been hit by injuries and losses in free agency; the Bengals haven’t had consecutive winning seasons since the 1970s.

In other words, the rest of the division bleeds and sweats just like the Browns do. It’s time for the Browns to start winning like the rest of the division as well.

“A few will never give up on you. When you go back out on the field, those are the people I want in your minds. Those are the people I want in your hearts.” – Coach Taylor

This one is for the fans, who have put up with so much nonsense since 1999 and deserve so much better, but still go to the games and talk about the Browns 365 days a year.

It’s hard to be patient in Cleveland, where one losing season rolls into the next, likes waves endlessly crashing onto the beach. Even though part of the fan base comes off as seemingly wanting to be right, rather than wanting the team to win, the truth is the Browns are slowly, but surely, acting like an NFL team.

Some don’t want to hear it, but the Browns are building the team the right way – through the draft – and are trying to avoid being one-year wonders like San Francisco was last year. Many fans pointed to the 49ers last year as an example of how a team can win with a new coach and, if they can do it, why can’t the Browns?

First off, the 49ers play in what may be the worst division in the history of the NFL. Second, they had a statistical season last year that is completely unsustainable.

The 49ers had a +28 turnover ratio, the sixth-best in NFL history; the offense only committed 10 turnovers; the defense recovered 15 fumbles (a function of luck, not skill); and pretty much had every break go their way until the NFC Championship game.

When all that turns against the 49ers this year, we’ll see just how good they are.

How soon the wins come for the Browns is anyone’s guess, but after five years of wasted drafts under Phil Savage and Mangini, fans can at least now see the faint outline of how this team can turn the corner.

“Everything is alright as long as we get out there and get what we need to get done. We’re a pretty tough team, too, so ... beat ’em. That would be a real bad deal for you (if you don’t), so ... let’s get out there and get it done.” – Buddy Garrity

Played by the awesome Brad Leland, Buddy Garrity is a successful Southern businessman and the team’s biggest booster. With the power he wields over the team, he’s just like the owner.

Sound like anyone you know, Browns fans?

Even before the ink was dry on the check, speculation has flown that soon-to-be owner James Haslam is going to clean house and start everything over from scratch. Some even went as far as to claim that “sources” had told them the Holmgren was cleaning out his office right this very second! (And if “sources” say that, then it must be true.)

In all the haste to write the obits on Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur, many have missed a couple of obvious points. First, while it appears to be a formality that Haslam will be approved by the NFL at its October owners’ meeting, he does not own the team until they do and we’re fairly certain he’s not allowed to hire or fire people until he officially takes title to the franchise.

More importantly, everything that has been written about Haslam portrays him as someone who comes in, observes, ask questions and learns what is going on before he makes a decision.

“He’s new at this so he’s just kind of asking questions,” Heckert said of Haslam. “He wants to know how things go. He just wants to know all about it and he’s been a really impressive guy because he remembers a lot of stuff. From one time I talk to him to the next time I talk to him, he’ll bring up the same stuff we talk about so it’s been fun.”

So why would he rush into a decision as important as turning over the front office and coaching staff (yet again)? The answer is, he won’t.

If the Browns turn in a disaster of a season this fall, then everyone will be accountable. But that is true of any NFL team – not just one with an incoming owner – and the power trio in Berea knows this.

“He knows we’re young, he asks a lot of questions, a lot of football questions and he is well aware of our situation,” Holmgren said of Haslam. “Now, I’ll stick with what I’ve said all along even prior to this happening, that my expectations were that we’re better this year. I’ve said that before and I’ll say it again. That’s how we’re all judged ultimately.”

Haslam will soon be the boss and, as such, he will get to call the tune. If he decides to stay the course, blow things up and start over, or land somewhere in the middle, that’s his call.

Hopefully the Browns can give him enough reasons this year to make his decision an easy one.

(On a side note, Leland is one of two actors who made the move from the film version to the TV show; the other being the equally awesome Connie Britton who, along with Aimee Teegarden, created the hottest mother-daughter combo in television history. And if you disagree, well then you are probably a Steeler fan).

“Feed the dogs, spit the fire, lock up your daughters. Turn on the radio, sit down, and shut up ’cause it is game time, people!” – Radio announcer

So what to make of the 2012 Cleveland Browns?

Well, we know the schedule is rough- the third strongest in the league heading into the season – thanks to the divisional games and the NFC East being on the schedule.

In some ways, though, having a hard schedule will help everyone evaluate just how much better the Browns are this year (if they are improved at all). The record may not be significantly better than last year’s 4-12 season, but if the defense can hold up and the offense can be competitive against some very good teams, that will be a true sign that the team is moving in the right direction.

The offense must find a way to get the ball into the end zone. Last year, the Browns scored 20 offensive touchdowns – or the same number as Philadelphia’s LeSean McCoy, a player the Browns passed on not once, not twice but three times in the 2009 NFL Draft.

That responsibility will fall heavily on Weeden’s shoulders. As a rookie quarterback, he is going to have his good days and bad days this year as all rookie quarterbacks do (over the past 10 years, rookie quarterbacks have had just two winning seasons and have a combined record of 153-219). Don’t tell the national media that, however, as they have decided every rookie quarterback who will play this year will be fine, they will all try to be good; only Weeden will not be any good.

“I think there’s a veteran presence there even though he’s a rookie, which you need, because sooner or later you’re standing out there in the middle of the field, and it’s the crowd, and the opponent and you have to make a play,” Shurmur said. “There’s just got to be something in you down deep that’s just going to help you do that. I think I see that.”

The Browns may actually have a real NFL offense for the first time in a few years, with a quarterback, running back and wide receivers who actually look like the type of players you see on other NFL teams. We’re certainly not hoping for Haslam to blow things up and start again, but if that turns out to be the case, it’s not hard to see Weeden, Richardson, Gordon and Greg Little fitting into another offensive system (not just the West Coast offense).

Things are going to be rough for the offense all around with so many young players, but if Weeden, Richardson and Gordon are as good as the Browns think they are, we should see them improve as the season goes on and be much better in the second half of the season.

While there are better players on the roster, the Browns still lack depth at certain areas, notably at linebacker and in the secondary. While you can’t fix everything at once, hopefully the team used up its share of injuries in the off-season.

We’re going to have a good idea of where the Browns stand pretty quickly as they play one-quarter of their games in the first 18 games of the season.

The schedule also features games against fellow rookie quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III (why can’t the Browns make them look like rookies?) as well as a date with old friend Romeo Crennel.

So ... will that translate into more wins than a year ago?

We’ll start getting the answer come Sunday, when it all starts again.

Cleveland forever.

*That excludes the second season murder plot plus anytime Landry Clark was on screen for more than 45 seconds.

(Photos courtesy ClevelandBrowns.com)