Welcome to a very special episode of Under the Fedora, where we will deal with the issues of depression, loss, and uncertainty. Together, we will get through this.
Since You’ve Been Gone
As much as enjoyed the Buckeyes’ domination of the domers (and the game really wasn’t as close as the lopsided final score), the emptiness of the offseason rapidly closed in on me, and a week too soon. I can’t characterize the past season as anything but a rousing success, yet a tinge of regret still lingers with me. I suppose that is the case in most seasons, but the possibility of what might have been haunts me in ways that it hasn’t in years past. The undefeated season of 2012 that ended with the team at home for the bowl season (Thanks, Gene) and the 2013 campaign that ended with consecutive losses to Sparty (Give the ball to Carlos!!) and Clemson (Get Braxton out of there!!) both offered the opportunity for something much more, though in our hearts we knew that those weren’t great teams, just like we knew that the 2015 team was not a great team. But then again, didn’t we think that about the team that entered the 2014 postseason, as well? Alas, we enter this offseason without the afterglow of an Undisputed Title to keep us warm during the cold, dark months without Buckeye Football. At least we have countless of unliberated “Who Will Replace …?” Forum threads to look forward to.
Parting of the Scarlet Sea
I have to admit that I’m shocked at the number of underclassmen who are leaving early. Bosa, Elliot, and Thomas I figured were no-brainers. They had nothing left to prove at the college level. I thought Bell, Apple, Lee, Marshall, Jones, and Powell (man, that’s a long list) still had plenty of room for improvement, and hoped that the opportunity for another title run might be some incentive to stay. But I guess when the Promised Land beckons, the prospect of continuing to make bricks for free in Egypt Columbus just kind of pales in comparison. I wish them all great success in life, as I do the departing seniors. I just wonder if a few of them might be making a long-term mistake for a short-term gain. I hope that does not turn out to be the case.
Johnny Billy Elsewhere Vegas
The Browns miserable season ended predictably miserably in unpredictable ways. The Brownies, with a chance to ruin their arch-rivals’ playoff hopes, dropped their final game (again) in a half-filled stadium (again) largely occupied by Steeler fans with their third string quarterback (again). Meanwhile, their first round pick and former starting quarterback decided that an incognito weekend in Vegas was the right way to wrap up the season. Billy may be one of the dumbest individuals the Browns have had the misfortune of acquiring, which has to make the Browns the dumberest franchise in the history of sport. Shortly after the game, the Browns’ parted ways with their coach (again) and GM (again). I’ll give the Browns credit, however, for doing the same old thing in a very different way. They acted swiftly to make a Harvard lawyer with no football experience the head of football operations in charge of the 53-man roster, and hired another Harvard grad who just happened to be a baseball executive to be their chief strategist. And say what you want about Jimmy Haslam, maybe he was smart enough to skate past a federal indictment when virtually everyone else in his truck-stop empire got taken down. So he has to be either one the cleverest criminals or most incompetent CEO’s in the long and storied history of fraud. At any rate, the Browns are going to end up looking really smart or really stupid (again) when the current management shakeup shakes out. Heaven help me, I know I’ll be watching.
TL; DR: Black offseason; Scarlet Tide; Brown matter
