00:00I have not got many texts. Lima is getting blown up about this from Clevelanders,
00:06not like insiders or anything like that. There are fans, Lima knows, who have been
00:14just so upset. Not only did Luke Florian not make the 53-man roster, but they didn't call
00:22him back to be on the practice squad, which I got to tell you, the practice squad part,
00:27I thought for sure he'd be back on the practice squad. Hell, they had him on the practice squad
00:31last year, didn't they? Well, he came back from injury, and then I think he was on the practice
00:35squad. And now you had a situation where he wasn't kept on the 53-man roster. Okay, I knew
00:42it was going to be difficult. These are tough decisions. It's a deeper wide receiver room
00:46than it was last year. Okay, fine. But to not be on the practice squad, that rubbed a lot
00:51of people the wrong way, and I'll tell you, it surprised me. And the outpouring of
00:57frustration over that, I think I understand why, but I want you to tell everybody about
01:02the text messages you're getting right now. Oh, not only text messages. Obviously, as
01:07everybody knows, Luke Florian starred at Menor. He was a Kent Stater. So people have been
01:14tracking him for what seems to be almost a decade. They've known about him, plus a good
01:20basketball player in high school, the AAU. And so you know how we are. We talked to a
01:26ton of coaches and people in and around high school and college sports here in Northeast
01:30Ohio. And so obviously, he was a fan favorite. And then this is two straight years. I mean,
01:36if you think about last year, he was having a really solid camp and then got injured. And
01:42that was considered one of the big disappointments at camp. I remember that was a big story because
01:47people were gravitating towards what he was doing and what he was putting together. And
01:51then he comes back this year. He comes off the injury. And look, I don't want to get carried
01:56away because it's not like anybody was saying Luke Florian is going to be the starting wide
02:04out for the Browns this year, week one. Nobody was saying that. It was just about making the
02:09team or even making that scout team, making the practice squad. And Kenny, he was performing
02:16again. And then of course, as part of that Dylan Gabriel experience in the preseason game,
02:21he shined in a huge way. And we all, I feel like we don't need to point out every single
02:27time.
02:27Yeah. But who is it against? Who is it with? I think we all know by now, we know that's
02:32not
02:32the starters or anything like that. So you have to do, you have to put it in perspective to some
02:38extent. Okay. People were really annoyed and mostly because not because they think the Browns
02:42is going to be really good this year. And Luke Florian is going to be a missing piece on a
02:45playoff team. It's actually the opposite. It's because every Browns fan I talked to yesterday,
02:51they're like, they're going to be bad. They're saddling us with Deshaun Watson and that PR hit.
02:57Why not put somebody good and local and Northeast Ohio hard hat lunch pail? You know how it is.
03:04Every single axiom you can think of every single cliche. Why can't we have something to get excited
03:09about it? Even if he's not really going to play in the games, you are a hundred percent
03:12correct. That's why people are so upset about it. Like there have been this when Nick Chubb
03:18retired, the outpouring of, of memories. And now even the other day when he wasn't a pro
03:24am, he was golfing in or something like that, which by the way, hell of a golfer at it, it
03:28just kills me. You try to be good at something for 25 years. And then you got this athlete.
03:31I'd never heard of him golfing before. Maybe he's been golfing his whole life. I've never
03:35known. I've never seen, I've seen all the imagery of the, in the world of him lifting
03:40significant amounts of weight in the weight room. Oh, he can also do the touch stuff with
03:44golf. Apparently. Yes. He can also do that. And he also went back after somebody who made
03:47a, you know, the, the, a typical Cleveland Browns joke about getting in the end zone.
03:52And we all love Nick Chubb. And I think they just want somebody that they can like.
03:56They really, they really do. They don't like the quarterback. It goes without saying they
04:01don't like the quarterback. And so if you're going to have to deal with the quarterback,
04:04which I think some people are just going, okay, fine. And I wonder if next week, I wonder
04:07by next Monday, as you get ready for the season, maybe the worm will turn. Maybe some people
04:12will talk themselves into it. Cause I remember vividly that week leading up to the first game
04:16of the season last year, where there's some folks going, you know, you need to be a little
04:20bit more positive. There's a lot of people who are very down and very down on Deshaun Watson,
04:26very down on the decision to start Deshaun Watson. They thought they'd be done with Deshaun
04:30Watson and hell last December. I thought they were done with Deshaun
04:33Watson, but you know, they hired Todd Munkin. We remember the first thing we heard and we,
04:37we all know the history from there. So they want somebody they like. And Luke Floria is
04:43a guy they like, and it's fish in a barrel. It's a local guy, but it's also part of the
04:47reason I'll tell you this. So I understand where a fan's coming from. And I, I empathize
04:51with him, but there's very little we can do if he can't play special teams and people
04:56don't care if he can't play special teams because they think they're going to be bad
05:00anyway. And they got another person that they don't like. And Jerry Judy that drops
05:04passes and they're just going, well, why don't they just put him on the field? If Jerry Judy
05:07is going to drop passes. And we all know that that's not how that necessarily works because
05:11the money's involved, but they don't want to hear about money. They just want someone
05:13they like. So they didn't get somebody that like, so they're upset, which is completely
05:17understandable. But it's another reason tone why, and I, everybody accuses me of being
05:23the other way. I'm not that way. This is why I shy away from local guys. This exact
05:29reason. I mean, Denzel Ward, Denzel number four overall, when they took Denzel Ward, I
05:35mean, right down the street from Nordonia is 20 minutes away. And I'm going, Oh boy.
05:41Cause if he's not great, you got to live with that. You can't go home twice. And so I get
05:48very nervous about those guys. And he's ended up becoming a blue chip. The best we've had
05:54at cornerback since 1999, tremendous story, big business in the neighborhoods, big business
05:59in, in, in the town. Like everything's fantastic. And that's great. That's wonderful. Mike Hall
06:04has certainly had a up and down time with the Cleveland Browns and far more downs and ups.
06:09I hate to say local guy, you know, that's tough. It's, it's why like, I didn't want to put
06:14Drew Aller in this fishbowl considering he just came out of another fishbowl and putting
06:19him right back in here where we're looking for it. We've been looking for a quarterback
06:22for 30 years. I didn't think that was the right thing. And Mitch Trubisky, I supported
06:27Mitch Trubisky greatly. And I think with some people, they look back in the past, like, no,
06:33no, no, I was still drafted Myles Garrett. Number one, I wasn't drafted Mitch Trubisky and
06:37had nothing to do with talent. It has a lot to do with, man, it's just very, very hard.
06:42And the best quarterback that we've had in any of our lifetimes is from here.
06:47Well, and think about back in, when they were launching the expansion team, think about
06:53Chris Spielman, Charles Bentley, like they wanted to have some, some local guys. Obviously
06:59those guys were well-established, you know, NFL players, but they wanted to have some local
07:03flavor so people could jump on. And now it feels like Chris Spielman. Yeah. Okay. And now it
07:10feels like all these, all these years later, you know, if they're not going to win, why
07:15can't we just have something exciting? How cool would it be to just have Luke Flory on
07:19the team, which is not the NFL. The NFL is never supposed to be about how cool would it
07:23be to have a guy on a team? That's not what this league is supposed to be.
07:26You're not going to be good. And they want to enjoy something because we keep pounding
07:29them over the heads. And, and, and I think that they've accepted it, that this season is
07:33really about 2027. And they're going, well, guys, it doesn't mean I'm not going to sit
07:36there and not watch the Browns on a Sunday. So if I'm going to sit there and watch the
07:39Browns on a Sunday, I'd like somebody I'm personally invested in. Josh Cribs was somebody
07:43they became personally invested in because of Kent state on a lot of teams that weren't
07:47very good for the Cleveland Browns. We already went over some of the other players that are
07:50there. You know, that that's what makes it tough. Cause I do think players from this
07:53area, I think they know football growing up because they got good coaching. It's a football
07:57crazy area. You can't just be a great athlete. I mean, there are great athletes here,
08:02but you really need to know the game. And I think they're really smart and it would lead to
08:05you for you to believe that they would be picked up by NFL franchises, including the
08:12Cleveland Browns. And every year there's a local tie-in to one or two or three or four
08:16local guys playing in a Superbowl for all these other teams. But what sucks is when you're
08:21not good. And then you got a guy like Luke Floria, I'm going, man, if he just returned
08:25punts, if he just returned kicks, if he just be a gunner, if he could just do this, that
08:29and the other, I wouldn't have to have this tough conversation. And that's, but if they
08:34were a 10 win team last year and they were going to the playoffs, I think it'd be a lot
08:38easier to go, Hey, you know, them's the breaks. At least you got to score a couple of touchdowns
08:43in the preseason. You'll never forget. God bless you in your future endeavors. But because
08:47a lot of people think that they're going to be under five wins, they think I'm crazy to
08:52say five wins. There's plenty of people out there saying two or three, if it's going to
08:56be a two or three win season, that means it's going to be a long season. They want somebody
09:00they like. So you're in a no win situation. I can't tell people they're wrong because
09:05I think a lot of folks are going to look at it and go, wow, we really couldn't have Luke
09:09Floria on this team. In this game, we lost 38 to six. Like, you know, that's going to
09:14happen. You get blown out at least once in a season. And it happened more than once last
09:17year with the Cleveland Browns. And that was a five win team. It's, it's tough to make
09:21that argument. Well, and fans, what are they, are they going to rally around, you know,
09:25Malachi Corley? No, they're not. Or, or who's the guy that Munkin brought in from Baltimore?
09:31They're not going to rally around Taylor Wallace, Tylan Wallace. They'll rally around
09:35hopefully Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston because those guys are hopefully big parts
09:38of the future. For sure. But they still wanted somebody they could rally behind and get behind
09:44because they don't like Deshaun Watson. And I think frankly, the vast majority of Browns
09:49fans, Browns fans don't think Shador Sanders is going to be here past this year. And the
09:54rest of the quarterback room, it's like, hey, Taylor Green's fine. Dylan Gabriel, they
09:57could trade him at any moment. It seems there's nobody to really sink into. That is, that is
10:04new. 216-474-0092. And Luke Floria happened to be local and happened to be a nice story.
10:11And he was somebody they could sink their teeth into and really dig their hooks in and like,
10:15and when you find out he's not even on the practice squad, they're going, who do you, who
10:18are you to be choosing? And I get it. Like, yeah, they got to be choosing. They still have
10:22to find their very best players that they can find. And in their opinion, he's not one
10:25of their best players. But when you know that you're going into a tough season, I can certainly
10:30understand where the fan base is coming from there.
