"Let’s go do some damage to Pittsburgh for a change"

That's what Phil Savage said yesterday, and it sums up everything I like about the guy. The jury's still out on some of his personnel decisions, but isn't it nice to finally have somebody in this town who gets it?

For Browns fans, the game isn't about guys "playing their guts out"-- it's about winning, and it starts with tearing off the Steelers' heads and crapping down their necks. That's something that this franchise hasn't been capable of doing in recent years. Fans have been frustrated by the Browns' futility, but have been outraged by the relentless spin from the front office and the apparent indifference to the Pittsburgh rivalry that was evidenced by the previous regime.

Savage has proven himself to be relentlessly honest (he sticks his neck out quite a bit in the Canton Rep piece I linked to in the first paragraph). In fact, he's taking some heat from the media for sharing his view that one of the things that is conducive to player success is "having a relationship with Christ." Not surprisingly, the intelligensia (or at least what passes for it at the editorial desk of The Dayton Daily News) is taking him to task for this.

Thank you, Dayton Daily News, for taking a courageous stand on behalf of diversity, inclusiveness, and most of all, political correctness. Now go piss up a rope.

Like most fans, I don't give a damn if the Browns have a team full of fundamentalist Zoroastrians or reformed Druids, so long as they win, but don't give grief to Phil Savage for saying what he thinks. The guy's not up for a seat on the Supreme Court, and he's most definitely not a spin doctor. He's a GM trying to figure out a way to consistently win football games, and is offering an opinion on things he thinks are conducive to that.

After seven years of relentless propaganda from the likes of Carmen Policy, Dwight Clark and Butch Davis, Savage's candor is downright refreshing--and if the Jewish guy he works for doesn't mind him invoking the name of the Jewish guy many of us pray to, then neither should the media.