Cleveland '64: Rose Colored Glasses Edition

Tom has a new post over at Cleveland '64 in which he previews his beloved Browns. It's cheery stuff. How's this for an introduction?:

Imagine you were scheduled to be executed, for whatever reason, by hanging. Now imagine that you went and spent your own money to buy a big pile of wood. Now imagine that out of that pile of wood you build the scaffold from which you will hang. Get the rope (again with your own money), tie the noose, and attach it to the scaffold. Now, ahead of the scheduled execution time, imagine voluntarily walking up the scaffold and voluntarily putting on the noose. That's kind of how I felt yesterday when I ordered the NFL Ticket from DirecTV so I could watch all sixteen games of my 2006 Cleveland Browns.

Tom mentions one of my favorite college players of the last couple of decades, Eric Metcalf, who I liked less for his football skills than because of the fact that he was NCAA long jump champion when he was at Texas. As a long jumper, I always was a fan.

I was planning on writing my own NFL preview, but just got so darned busy, (and did I mention that I have tickets for tomorrow's Texas-Ohio State game at Memorial Stadium in Austin?) but here it is in a nutshell: The Patriots are going to be very good, and will be better if they get Deion Branch back in the fold. The Dolphins are tremendously overrated. Pittsburgh will not repeat. Cleveland will be better but Tom will still have plenty of reason to scream epithets at the television set. Indy will be there as always. Indy will choke. As always. The NFC East is enormously overrated but is balanced, and year one of the Bledsoe to TO experiment will work out just fine. The Panthers are everyone's chic pick. They will be a good football team, will win ten games, and will lose in their second playoff game. Everyone's new darlings, Arizona, will be much improved but will win nine games and miss the playoffs with Matt Leinart getting five starts and making several of the teams who drafted from positions one to nine regret their decision (this will not count Houston, who already regrets their decision.) The Pats will win their fourth Super Bowl in six seasons. All the experts will be scratching their heads and wondering how they overlooked Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in favor of the Dolphins, who will have gone 9-7 again.