Downtown Report

Buckeyes slaughter michigan for the 7th straight time. Browns win a game they shouldn't with me in the stands. CaVs pull out a W, again with Francis in attendance. Hell, even the Monsters and Penguins each posted two wins this weekend. With the exception of another disastrous week of airballing on NFL games, this was pretty much a perfect weekend for me.

Buckeyes
Figgs really said all that needed to be said about this one, a game that gives Ohio State nine out of ten against its one-time rival since Mr. Jim Tressel took the helm in Columbus. Go Bucks!

The photo at right is from the Pigskin Classic, a cleverly-designed race that takes place in Downtown Cleveland the day of the OSU-michigan "game" each year. It starts on W 6th and snakes around Browns Stadium, in part because Ohio Stadium is in Columbus and that'd be one hell of a far race. Over 900 sports fans braved some chilly wind and the first snow flurries of the year to run the 5K and enjoy the outdoor tailgate up until kickoff. This blogger notched his second-best 5K at 21:04 (last year's Pigskin time of 20:03 is my best), good for 42nd out of 937 racers, while Kim scored a PR despite the less-than ideal conditions.

Post-race, I had a decision: should I get cleaned up and re-dressed in different, cleaner Buckeye gear? Nope, headed right for Pacer's. Don't regret that one for a second. Now it's on to yet another BCS Bowl for the Buckeyes, who can hopefully exorcise some SEC demons and put an exclamation point on a 12-1 campaign in early 2011. Go Bucks!

Cavs
After the Buckeye hubbub, Kim, Nick, and I had another decision: should we push our luck and go to the CaVs' nightcap against the Grizzlies, basketball's third dumbest-named team? We had four upper-level tickets that Nick snagged for the grand sum of $30, so we weren't in too much cash, and though the game would have been fun, we thought maybe we could flip them for a few extra bucks (Go Bucks!) and check out the game downtown somewhere. Wisely, we spurned a scalper's offer of $5 per seat (come on) and went to the CaVs' thrilling 92-86 victory over the Griz, spearheaded by some clutch shooting from Mo Williams. Yes, the same Mo Williams who buried the Bucks (Don't Go Bucks!) three nights hence at the buzzer. Go CaVs!

Cleveland's basketballers now sit at 7-9, and while that's nothing to suggest a championship run, it's not bad basketball, and it gives me ample chance to continue to rip on Kelly Dwyer's bizarre 12-70 forecast for the '10-'11 Caballeros. Somehow, I think we have a 6-60 stretch in us to notch that elusive 13th win.

Browns
Two pictures of myself in one article? What is this, amateur hour?

This photo is an homage of sort to the great Carl Weathers, who has fashioned one of the quietly great careers in the history of entertainment ever. Consider his resume: Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, Chubbs in Happy Gilmore, whatever he was called in Predator, his awesome role as an epically cheap version of himself in Arrested Development, and now the spokesman in Bud Light's "Here We Go" campaign. I LOL every single time he pops out of the playbook and yells "Here We Go." It's fantastic. Thus, you get me all Buckeye'd out in front of a "Here We Go" flag.

But onto the third big sporting event of the weekend: Browns-Panthers, an event to which I held tickets. The Browns were 10-point favorites headed into the contest against the woeful Panthers, and let me say: I hated taking that line. I take the Browns every week just because I support them fully, but who in their right mind would really give 10 points to take a 3-7 team with a storied history of losing games against eminently beatable teams and who the Sporting Gods regularly smite with great vengeance. If I'm not a Browns fan, no way to I take us there. Oh well.

So I had some trepidation headed into the game, mitigated somewhat by Cleveland storming to a 21-7 lead early in the game and looking like the club that knocked off the Saints and Patriots and very nearly toppled the Jets. Then Jake Delhomme took over, and it was quickly 21-20 Browns. Insert "someone tell Jake he's not on the Panthers anymore" joke here. The Browns eventually prevailed 24-23 on a missed Carolina FG as time expired, but I've never left a victory that felt more like a loss. It was so joyless because of the way it went down - I still have to keep reminding myself that we did, in fact, win, completing the clean sweep of the weekend. Go Browns!