Joe Haden’s Cleveland Browns are 0-12 this season and as if the record itself weren’t bad enough, he has to listen to people suggest a college team could beat them.
Many bring up the top college program beating the worst NFL team each year. Haden and Cleveland’s inability to get a win so far has them as the subject of these jokes—and Haden isn’t happy about it.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com captured his thoughts:
“It’s a smack in the face. It makes you very upset,” he said. “That’s a slap in the face, it doesn’t make any sense. Alabama’s a great program, they’ve got amazing players, they’ve got players that are going to play in the NFL. We’ve got a team full of NFL guys. Comparing college team vs. NFL team is disrespectful.
Haden said the worst was hearing someone suggest the Browns would get shut out:
“Oh, man, this is terrible. This is terrible. You’re talking about an 0-16 parade,” he said. “It’s very, very tough and it hits you right between the eyes because I’m on the team, there’s something I can do about it and that’s why I’m playing. But when you get all that talk … the worst thing I’ve ever seen is us getting beat 34-0 to ‘bama. Once I’ve seen that, there was just nothing else to talk about.”
A college team, of course, wouldn’t be able to beat a pro team. But the suggestions speak to just how bad the Browns are this year. Haden’s quotes speak to how trying a season can be, even for a professional.
And Haden’s right—the jokes stop when the Browns start winning. The team has a chance to do so in Week 14 against an iffy Cincinnati Bengals team. If not there, the Browns close the season against Buffalo, San Diego and Pittsburgh.
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