Picking Up Where He Left Off

Well, it's nice to see that a new day has dawned for Braylon Edwards and the Cleveland Browns. Just last week, you'll recall, Braylon pledged $1 million to fund scholarships for Cleveland students and promised us the biggest personality makeover since Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Yesterday, we found out that while there's a lot to like about the off the field version of Braylon 2.0, there are still a few bugs that need to be worked out when it comes to realizing his vast potential as a football player. That's because, as everyone with a television, radio, computer or newspaper subscription knows by now, Braylon missed yesterday's voluntary practice session.

This isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, because as The Great Enabler himself, Romeo Crennel, noted in his remarks to the media, this week's camp is "voluntary." On the other hand, nothing The Great Enabler can say is going to alter the impression that Edwards' failure to show up after publicly proclaiming himself to be a changed man means that he hasn't addressed his fundamental problem--a significant lack of maturity.

Unless it turns out that there was some major personal event in his life that made missing yesterday's practice unavoidable, Edwards exercised some pretty piss poor judgment in failing to show up yesterday. The Browns are counting on this guy to be a key component in their offense, but he can't make time for a workout when the team has a new offensive coordinator, a new offensive scheme, and a brand new rookie QB who they'd like to see get some reps with the first team? That's just inexcusable.

Braylon Edwards deserves a lot of credit for the financial support he's provided to needy students in the Cleveland schools, but he's still got some ground to cover when it comes to understanding what being a professional football player is all about. For the Browns' sake, let's hope he figures out that part of the equation fast.