Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Randy's Tattoo

I feel a little bit like Page Six, but what the hell. Over the past few days, we've had a number of recurring hits on this site from people using search engines to find "Randy Lerner" and "tattoo". That odd little search made me curious enough to do a little searching on my own, and I've discovered that the owner of the Cleveland Browns is rumored to be sporting a tattoo of his favorite team's logo on his ankle.

Of course, I refer to the new logo of Aston Villa, the English Premier League soccer team that Lerner bought last year and that's recently been on a brief North American tour playing MLS clubs.

I've found a couple of sources for this rumor, including an Aston Villa message board (scroll down to the post from "forever claret and blue" at 5:47 p.m. on 7/29) and a somewhat ambiguous reference in an article in the online version of an English newspaper.

Is it true? Is Randy sporting Aston Villa ink? If so, was he sober when he got it? Is he going to put Brownie the Elf on his other ankle? Inquiring minds want to know.

I've got no idea whatsoever whether this is true, but I'd much rather write about this than ponder the depressing news from training camp that Orpheus Roye apparently needs knee surgery and will miss the entire preseason (at least).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think there is something to the school of thought that says nothing will ever truly change for the Browns until Lerner sells the team.

As much as I think Phil Savage has been able to ramp up the overall talent level on the roster, I have to question a team set-up where our English Footie-loving owner spends most of the year following his Premiership team around and very obviously feels the NFL (and by extension his NFL team?) is his second love.

On top of that, you have Savage, a GM who spends most of the season with his nose in a laptop and his foot on the gas pedal of a rental car, chasing the latest top D-line prospect around the SEC schedule.

Which leaves Huggy Bear Crennel in charge on the homefront, and as much as I think Crennel is a nice guy and good football man, I still question his ability to be "the man" in Berea.

The only thing that can make a setup like this work is if you have a George S. Patton-figure, like Bill Cowher, ruling with an iron fist over the day-to-day operations of the team. Other than that, it's a structure without a true leader.

Hornless Rhino said...

All valid points, Erik. By the way, it looks like you and I scooped at least this side of the Atlantic on tattoo-gate, which is now being reported in the British tabloids.