AFCE

AFC North Afternoon Roundup

AFC North Afternoon Roundup
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These beautiful ladies are about to get paid
 
 

Its a Friday, and one AFC North team is taking the week off, while two others are struggling to keep from being mathematically eliminated before the season’s halfway point. Steve Smith, Jr. was doing a little trolling last night, so why not join him.

 

 

Baltimore Ravens

 
Steve Smith, Jr. takes a shot at his father’s former team by suggesting the Panthers make a trade to bring back his dad.

 

My Take: Note to Junior- The Ravens have already proven how Smith + no-name receivers gel on an NFL team (see drops and poor route running), although Carolina’s defensive backfield isn’t made up of junior varsity walk-ons, so perhaps those issues can be masked by their defense. Two years ago, Steve Smith, Sr. left a skid mark in Carolina before heading to Baltimore for a chance to make a splash in the playoffs if not the Super Bowl. Who’s laughing in 2015? I can hear Senior now: “son, I dropped the ball on that one.” Yes, Steve, and you continue to drop the ball.

 

Cleveland Browns

 

The Browns aren’t always newsworthy on the field, but they certainly create plenty of buzz (double entendre) off the field.

 

My Take: Textgate, rebategate, Bernie Kosar, Jim Brown, Johnny Manziel… DRY TAILGATING… the Cleveland sports media have the easiest job in the nation (outside of Boston). No video, and a very nice police officer may have helped Johnny keep his NFL job after this incident. Drinking, getting behind a wheel, speeding, punching a woman (allegedly;) while swerving into the shoulder is much more acceptable than hitting someone in an elevator… because there is no video.

 

Cincinnati Bengals

 

The one downside of having cheerleaders according to the Bengals and other teams is actually having to pay them.

 

My Take: Why should cheerleaders get paid? All they do is spend days practicing and 6+ hours at the stadium 10+ times a season, while attending events for team marketing purposes including swimsuit calendar shoots. They also get to attend games on the field (and by attend I mean face drunk belly-painted fat guys giving them certain hand-signals and cattle-calls). Who wouldn’t want to volunteer for that? By the way, $255,000 for 30 women for 3 years and 10 games at 6 hours, and say 100 hours of practice/marketing/appearances = $0.47/hour. It reminds me of the labor negotiations in Ocean’s 13. Note: see Bills cheerleader lawsuit title in the article for additional fun.
 

Pittsburgh Steelers
 
ALthough the Steelers currently claim the 6th seed in the AFC, an obscure study has their fans ranked 4th.

 

My Take: Its difficult to argue the top 2 in this study. Perhaps Steelers fans get the nod for their obsessing need to be accepted by their peers by display their fandom every automobile and clothing accessories. Most of the top 9 is pretty spot on, but I have to disagree with Packers fans being in the top 10 as well as New Orleans fans. I’ve been to games in the Big Easy and you don’t even notice the fans as far as interaction is concerned, although you can hear them in a dome. Maybe folks are still visualizing Tom Benson and his parasol dancing on the sidelines.
 
 

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