FanHouse Shaun Smith

There are just a few rules to "Browns Fight Club."

1.) You do not talk about "Browns Fight Club."
2.) You do not talk about "Browns Fight Club."

After rumors leaved to the always great Pro Football Talk yesterday about a Brady Quinn and Shaun Smith altercation inside Cleveland camp, head coach Romeo Crennel came out today and played by the rules.

"If it happened, we're keeping it in house," Crennel said.

Talk about a clubhouse gone to hell in a hand basket. Cleveland is now a putrid 4-11 after getting shut out by the Bengals on Sunday and have rumors of Skip Bayless' boy toy getting roughed up by a 325 pound defensive end.

What were these two even talking about? An injured quarterback having words with an inactive defensive player that was called out as quitting on the team a month ago? Strange.

The Channel 3 report said that Smith and Quinn also had a verbal confrontation.

Crennel made it clear that "in a family you always have some disagreements.''

I'm not a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but calling the Browns a "family" at this point would be like calling Charles Manson a good babysitter. Not exactly the term you might be searching for.

The Browns face the Steelers next week in the last game of the regular season, so I sure hope this fight news doesn't affect their chemistry and keep them out of the playoffs.

With news surfacing today that Romeo Crennel could be out of a job at the end of the season (I'll wait for you to regain the feeling in your knees), some of his players have defended the "head coach" even though, you know, he isn't very good.

Crennel has coached the Browns for four straight seasons, and has just one winning record (10-7 in 2007) to go along with two seasons where he combined to win 10 games (6-10 in '05, 4-12 in '04). This season, Crennel had basically the same personal but has won just four games thus far, with only one of those coming against a potential playoff team.

I guess you can disregard any of those pesky "stats" when talking about him as a coach, as his players don't want him gone.

"It's not the coach's fault," Shaun Smith said. "It's the player's fault. You can't say he's losing the locker room. We have to hold ourselves accountable."

"We are going to do everything we can to fight for Romeo," Sean Jones said. "We have to play as a team, because it's a team game."

While you have to love the commitment here by the players for Crennel, they are basically just saying the right things when it is obvious a coaching change is needed. Romeo decided to bench Derek Anderson three weeks ago for Brady Quinn, yet pulled the second-year quarterback this past week, making Boy Wonder a little peeved with the coach.

After it looked like some of the Browns players quit during last Thursday's loss to the Broncos, running back Jamal Lewis suggested as much. So did Josh Cribbs. Neither play mentioned names, but according to PFT, various anonymous sources suggest defensive lineman Shaun Smith was the target.

Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage made the requisite "there's nothing to see here" public comments, although I'm pretty sure nobody took them seriously. That's what happens when a supposed playoff team stumbles to a 3-6 record.

Whatever, according to the Chronicle Telegram, Smith knows nothing of being a quitter (via CTSB):

"I'm no quitter," Smith said Friday. "My mom always told me there would be haters in your life, you have to keep moving. "I knew it wasn't true, so I wasn't worried about it, it was funny to me. Everybody who's seen the way I play, they know what it is."

As to where the report originated, Smith offered this: "A snitch? Who knows? ... I've got thick skin, I'm not worried about that. I've got a job to do, stop the run and create some pressure in the pass rush."

It's good to see the Browns focusing on the important stuff. After unrealistic expectations heading into the season, the team stumbled to a 3-5 record, which landed Derek Anderson on the bench, and after last Thursday's "We give up" performance against the Broncos, the locker room finger-pointing began in earnest.

First, Jamal Lewis accused some of his teammates of quitting, and Josh Cribbs joined the party a few days later.

Naturally, head coach Romeo Crennel had to spend part of his press conference assuaging such concerns, and wants everybody to know that HIS TEAM DOES NOT QUIT. The Ravens and Broncos disagree, but whatever.

And today, general manager Phil Savage, fresh off his awarding winning portrayal of unhinged front-office type*, went on the radio to echo Crennel's sentiments.

"I think [Lewis and Cribbs] were maybe trying to deliver a message to certain players," Savage told WTAM. "Who those players are, I don't know. But we evaluate and watch all of our games, and I wouldn't characterize it as quitting. I would characterize it as there was not the focus that was needed in the key moment and the key play."

Well, word on the street is that the player was Shaun Smith. Yeah, I forgot he was in the league, too.

On the upside, Brady Quinn will start the second game of his NFL career when the Browns travel to Buffalo on Monday night. And no matter how bad things get, he'll never quit. Well, not unless the Bills dress up as the 2006 LSU Tigers.

* slight embellishment

As we get ready for week one matchup of the Bengals and Browns, Ace Davis from his own Ace Davis Cleveland Browns Blog was nice enough to offer some insights on the Browns for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Sportz Assassin: The Battle Of Ohio. Can we still say "throw the records out the window when these two get together?"

Ace Davis: Definitely. Several of the most entertaining games in Browns history have been against the Bengals, whatever their records at the time. The Browns have deep-seated rivalries against each of the teams in their division, and whenever Paul Brown's two babies do battle, there's a special energy in the air.

Sportz: The Browns offense has looked horrible thus far. Is it the underachieving offense line, injuries to Braylon Edwards or is it mainly Derek Anderson's fault.

Ace: It's been a team-wide disappointment, but no doubt Big Three is rattled and way off his game. The Donte Stallworth leg injury that came up just before the Dallas opener and has now kept him out of three games has had a cascading effect on this unit. Without that viable deep threat to complement Edwards, Winslow and Lewis, defenses have keyed on the remaining playmakers and jammed the line. The Browns have been slow to adjust.

Sportz: How short of a leash do you think Anderson will be on.

Ace: As I write this, he hasn't even been confirmed as Sunday's starter. Even if he does start, I doubt that the Browns will let him lose this game. If he's not sharp, the Brady Quinn era will begin, midgame if necessary.

Sportz: Here in Cincinnati, fans are looking forward to playing the 0-3 Browns and (maybe) finally getting into the win column. Is the feeling mutual up in Cleveland?

Current Cleveland Brown (and ex-Cincinnati Bengal) Shaun Smith doesn't mind smacking on his former team from time to time. Smith let loose when speaking at a Central Maryland Browns Backers meeting.

At the 5:30 mark of the video, he talks about the much publicized fight between Chad Johnson and a coach during halftime of the Bengals 2006 playoff game against the Steelers.

"He swung at Marvin, and hit Marvin. Look at his left eye in the press conference after the game. I was there in the training room. He shattered the training room glass. Then he tried to swing on Hue Jackson as well"

He also got in a few more digs:

"Marvin doesn't have control of personnel...he didn't have control of keeping me" "

It's hard when you let certain people continue to get away with certain things......and then it becomes a repeated pattern and the next guy feels he can do that...and the next guy"

UPDATE: Magically, the video has been taken off YouTube. Hmmm.