Free Republic

The 23-year-old, who quarterbacked under his father at University of Colorado, had been expected to be drafted during the first round. Sanders was also surprisingly passed over by teams for the second and third rounds. Finally, on Saturday, he was selected by the Cleveland Browns during the fifth round as the No. 144 pick.

Jimmy Haslam confidently stepped through the halls of the Ritz-Carlton Las Colinas near Dallas on a Wednesday in December, unhurried but with purpose. The 70-year-old Cleveland Browns owner wore orangish-brown slacks with an off-white blazer, a folder curled in his right hand, the contents of which are reserved for NFL billionaires. The league's owners meetings had just adjourned. Between greetings to the reporters and league officials scattered in the hotel hallways, Haslam, still on the move, was asked about the state of his team. He acknowledged the three-win Browns had a lot of work to do. When asked what that...

It’s going down in Cleveland! During Sunday’s 21-14 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson suffered an Achilles injury that will most likely see his season come to an end. (RELATED: Commanders’ Jayden Daniels Suffers Rib Injury That Would Scare The Hell Out Of Me If I Was A Washington Fan) If you ask a Cleveland fan how they feel about it, they’re most likely going to tell you that they’re happy. That was evident by how fans reacted in the aftermath, and beforehand at that. Prior to the contest when the team was making pregame introductions,...

Peyton Hillis, the former star running back for the Cleveland Browns, is reportedly unconscious and in an ICU after saving his children from drowning in the ocean in Florida. Hillis saved his children from a swimming accident in Pensacola, Florida and was helicoptered to a local hospital, according to KNWA. They added that his breathing 'is improving.' A post on Facebook believed to be from Hillis's uncle says Peyton is 'doing better'....

Watson will be suspended 11 games. He’ll pay a fine of $5 million.The draft press release also mentions mandatory evaluation and another $2 million from the NFL and the Browns that will be given to relevant non-profit organizations that work to minimize and prevent sexual misconduct and assault. He’ll be eligible to return on November 28.

The decision of the Browns to trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson elicited mixed reactions from the team’s fans. Some loved it, off-field issues notwithstanding. Some hated it, given the off-field issues. There was no sign of negativity on Saturday, for the first public practice of training camp. As explained by Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Watson received an “enthusiastic reception” from fans who attended the session.

Another woman has filed a civil lawsuit against Deshaun Watson, raising the number of women who have accused the Cleveland Browns quarterback of inappropriate sexual conduct during massage sessions to 24. The lawsuit says the plaintiff massaged Watson twice. The first session, the lawsuit says, was cut short because "Watson had to leave abruptly after taking a phone call." The lawsuit says Watson scheduled a second massage a few days later, when the woman says that Watson exposed himself and masturbated and "offered no apology or explanation for his conduct." The lawsuit says the plaintiff "shortly thereafter quit massage therapy."...

Saying it was against building policy, a Mercedes-Benz Superdome police officer was telling LSU football players to extinguish their victory cigars Monday night in the jubilant locker room minutes after winning the national championship when he felt LSU alum and NFL pro Odell Beckham Jr. slap him on the backside. The 48-year-old lieutenant suppressed the urge to punch Beckham in retaliation, called the New Orleans Police Department a little more than a day later and told investigators he wanted to press charges, according to court records. Police by Thursday morning had obtained a warrant to arrest Beckham, 27, on a...

The Pittsburgh Steelers will start Devlin Hodges, who made waves earlier this season with his outspoken support of President Trump, at quarterback Sunday as they take on the Cleveland Browns, more than two weeks after a helmet-swinging melee that shook the NFL, coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday. While Hodges may have been ecstatic about getting the start, he quickly became the target of social media trolls who resurfaced his past tweets – mostly about President Trump. The Samford product was caught deleting the tweets about Trump, but Twitter users saved the receipts.

The NFL "found no such evidence" that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph directed a racial slur at Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett just prior to last week's brawl, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Thursday. Garrett made the allegation during an appeal hearing with the NFL on Wednesday, sources told ESPN's Josina Anderson and Adam Schefter. Rudolph has strongly denied it. "Mason vehemently denies the report of being accused of using a racial slur during the incident Thursday night in Cleveland," Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten said in a statement. "He will not discuss this accusation any further and his focus...

Full title: Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett suspended indefinitely after brawl with Steelers, teams fined $250G eachCleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was suspended indefinitely for his role in a brawl that took place at the end of Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the league announced. Garrett will be suspended “at a minimum for the remainder of the regular season and postseason and must meet with the commissioner’s office prior to a decision on his reinstatement, the league said in a statement Friday. He was also fined an undisclosed amount. Garrett’s teammate Larry Ogunjobi and Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice...

No college football fan will forget Baker Mayfield leading Oklahoma to a win at Ohio State, then planting an OU flag on the Buckeyes’ field. Nick Bosa surely hasn’t forgotten. Bosa was a star at Ohio State. He was the second overall pick of the NFL draft this year by the San Francisco 49ers. And he was fantastic against the Browns and Mayfield on Monday night, when the Niners blew out the Browns, 31-3. Late in the second quarter, Bosa pressured Mayfield again, hit him and forced an incompletion. Bosa got up and did a celebration that Ohio State fans...

Former NFL star Kellen Winslow Jr., 35, was convicted on Monday of raping a 58-year-old homeless woman in Encinitas last May by a jury in Southern California. Winslow was also found guilty of indecent exposure toward the woman and of lewd conduct. But the jury remained deadlocked on six other felony charges, including two more counts of rape involving a 54-year-old hitchhiker last year and an unconscious 17-year-old girl in 2003.

The Giants on Tuesday agreed to send Beckham to the Browns for a 2019 first-round draft pick (No. 17 overall), a 2019 third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers. The Giants were not actively shopping Beckham but they were listening to offers, and when they found one they liked, they made the deal — no doubt changing the course and direction of their team now and for years to come...

Forget about Condoleezza Rice. If the Cleveland Browns really were interested in naming a woman coach, they’d hire Hillary Clinton. Who better than Clinton to turn things around for a football team that has seen better days? She knows about losing. Which means, given the losing record of the once renowned football franchise, she would fit right in. Knowing Hillary, she would contest every loss in the Browns’ current seven game losing season and, like the Browns ownership, vow to win again, as she is planning to do when she runs for president for the third time.

Browns general manager John Dorsey said last week that he was opening to hiring a woman as Cleveland's next head coach, and there is one prominent name on the team's wish list to interview. The Browns would like to interview former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for their head-coaching job, a league source tells ESPN. If the Browns follow through on it, Rice would become the first woman ever to interview for an NFL head-coaching job. Cleveland's interest in interviewing Rice comes at a time when women recently have moved into decision-making roles in men's professional sports. The Spurs hired...

Rookie Baker Mayfield entered for his NFL regular-season debut late in the second quarter and brought the Browns back from a 14-0 deficit to prevail 21-17, snapping a 19-game winless streak dating back to Dec. 24, 2016 -- a span of 635 days...

Former Cleveland Browns linebacker Mychal Kendricks pleaded guilty to insider trading charges on Thursday, and faces up to 25 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter asked Kendricks why he was pleading guilty. “I’m making the decision because it’s the right thing to do,” he said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I know that I made the decision to accept information, secret information, and it wasn’t the right thing to do.” Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 18.

There will be a celebration on tap when the Cleveland Browns win their first regular-season game: Fans will get free beer. Anheuser-Busch, whose Bud Light brand is the official beer of the NFL and 28 of its 32 teams, including the Browns, on Tuesday will begin placing eight-foot "Victory" fridges filled with Bud Light bottles into 10 Cleveland-area bars that purchased them.

If you’re planning to watch the Super Bowl but you can’t stand the NFL take-a-knee protests, you may want to root for the Philadelphia Eagles. Not a single Eagles player sat or knelt during the national anthem, one of just seven teams with perfect non-kneeling records, in a season that saw 684 such incidents, according to a study released Thursday by Sports Pundit. The other Super Bowl LII team, the New England Patriots, landed in the middle of the pack with 17 incidents of anthem sitting or kneeling, wedged between the Buffalo Bills with 16 and the Cleveland Browns with...