Written by Mansfield Lucas

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Mansfield Lucas says it's as predictable as Eric Wedge leaving a pitcher in too long, as a Cleveland team losing the big game, as Buff making him spit beverages all over his monitor laughing at The B List. A high Browns' draft choice holds out and peeps take it personally.  Mansfield urges Browns fans to calm down and assures all will be forgotten soon with the Brady Quinn holdout.  After all, it's just business. 

It’s as predictable as Eric Wedge leaving a pitcher in too long, as a Cleveland team losing the big game, as Steve Buffum making me spit beverages all over my monitor laughing at The B List. A high Browns’ draft choice holds out and peeps take it personally.  

It was just a few short weeks ago that I and a cast of hundreds were at The Mother of All Draught Parties at the East 9^th Street Panini and the Dolphins had stunned the world selecting homie Teddy Ginn Jr. The buzz started: let’s trade up and get Brady Quinn and finish the foundation today. The tension built as Brady slid past numerous teams who were set with young quarterbacks and his lil blonde girlfriend looked more miffed than as if he hesitated a nanosecond when she asked him “do these pants make my butt look big?” When the Browns went on the clock, grown men hugged. Drunken tears were shed. Cats ran around high fiving each other channeling Sponge Bob screaming, “This is the best day EVER!” We were pretty damn happy when we picked Brady Quinn. 

Fast-forward three months. Here we have a quarterback prospect who was a consensus top ten pick, some had him in the top five, and he tumbled largely due to the fact he was a tad bit overrated due to some mechanical throwing flaws and the circumstance of how the draft order broke down. Now Brady is holding out. 

Shocking. 

And so it starts. On the forums and the talk shows fans are piling on. “Oh, he wanted to be a Brown his whole life, eh? Why doesn’t the dill weed just play for paperboy money if he wants to be a Brown so bad?” Peeps are killin’ Brady, they same dude they lionized just weeks ago and hope is the long-term answer at quarterback. What the hell? 

Look, let’s start from the most important vantage point, that of us fans. The best thing in the whole world is that Quinn doesn’t come in as a raw rookie and play against the first six teams on the schedule. It is largely a murderers’ row of defenses. I doubt any raw rookie would survive let alone thrive. Brady Quinn is a significant investment in our future. A team most everyone expects to be .500 at best gave up a first round choice to get him. That’s one of the top16 or so players in the draft come next April. Additionally, the entire organization’s resources will be geared to grooming this kid and giving him at least three seasons to see if he is the real deal. This will make or break the Savage Era ultimately. We cannot afford to do this the Cleveland Browns: Next Generation way. We can’t start out with a plan, lose patience a few games into the season, hit the panic button, and ruin players with needless impatience. The best thing in the world is that there is a hold out that ensures Quinn will not see the field until bye week, and only then likely in a mop up roll. He needs a full off-season to work on his mechanics and learn NFL football. The holdout guarantees it. 

Now lets also look at it from Quinn and agent Tom Condon’s perspective. The way I see it, Condon isn’t one of the difficult agents. He’s not the Poston’s, nor is he the infamous Drew Rosenhaus. He’s more of the Leigh Steinberg “whole player” agent. He’s a professional. And like most professionals, he’s doing his job, which is to get himself and Quinn a deal they see in the vein of fair market value. They will take the 22^nd slot and then try to work to sweeten that to the tune of some quarterback money. People, it is the American-freaking-way. Since when did all y’all go Leon Blum and crap and turn into Social Democrats anyway? Hell, the majority of on line types think the middle of the road US Democrats are leftist revolutionaries. Why begrudge Quinn and Condon’s only leverage? This isn’t China. He doesn’t have to sign. 

So now comes the predictable part: the Quinn bashing. I’ve seen it time and time again with players drafted by the Browns who hold out. The organization is absolved, the player and agent vilified. Meanwhile, baseball’s Dolan’s get pillared when they don’t spend market value on free agents and the players are never questioned. Queue up Alanis. Don’t yah think? 

Relax already. Stop bashing Quinn. He’ll be in sometime during X season and ease into the reps and get used to the team. He’ll carry the clipboard, smile at the cameras, and learn the game. This off-season he’ll get the mechanical basics down that somehow eluded him under the tutelage of Sooper Genius Charlie and he should be able to beat out the non-loser of the epic Frye and Anderson battle we’re witnessing. Staubach and Morton it ain’t.

Through it all, the best possible scenario, remember this C-town Fan: This hold out isn’t personal against you. Its just business. Don’t hold it against Brady.