As a fan of the Cleveland Browns I find myself often asking myself this question during the last couple weeks of the season. Do I want the players to pack it in to garner a higher selection in April’s draft or do I want the players I pay to watch to lay it out on the line. I listen to sports talk radio throughout the day and hear callers condemn teams for winning games and costing them opportunities to draft this player or that player.
I promise those callers one thing, your local NFL team is not concerned with your wants or needs. They are concerned with filling empty seats and producing a watchable product. For those rooting your team on to lose my guess is your team is more than one player away from being a Playoff team. I was reading in the Dallas forum on a reputable site a fan blasting the organization for costing them x amount of draft spots. I posted on the site because everyone was jumping aboard his ship, “Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett, and the Cowboys players are not concerned with your latest mock draft, my mock draft or who we think should be selected by the Cowboys.” I was then ripped by every poster on the Cowboys forum.
In case you were wondering I answer my question every December with an empathic response of just win baby. As a Browns fan I aspire my team to be the New England Patriots. If you look at Patriots fan boards they aren’t talking about mock drafts they are talking about the Jets. Oh, wouldn’t that be nice.
