Writing Stuff

            I have been pleasantly surprised recently by the amount of people who have asked me if I am doing any writing. And it has been a while since I sent out any sort of email about my writing and publishing projects, so I thought it was about time that I did again.

            Since 2006 I have written a column for scout.com’s Browns magazine the Orange and Brown Report. Recently scout.com got bought and sold twice and I was unsure of its future. However, we have recently been bought by a magazine group that has the best owner we have ever had, and they are in it for the long run.  They have upgraded both the magazines they own and their internet websites. They have especially done a great job with the magazine I write for. To check out all scout.com has to offer to all football fans, not just Browns fans, go to scout.com or cle.scout.com.

            Once again this fall I’ll be writing a game day blog for scout.com call “View from the Dawg Pond.” If you want to read last year’s entries go to my blog at my website www.gregcielec.com.

Our latest publishing effort is a 2014/2015 calendar for Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood. The Feast of the Assumption on Mayfield Road in Little Italy is one of Cleveland’s oldest and most popular annual events. This year’s “Feast” is almost here.  It will be followed soon afterward with the “Taste of Little Italy” on September 21. The calendar is titled “Seasons of Little Italy” and features over 60 colorful photographs taken in and around the Murray Hill/Mayfield Road neighborhood. My good friend Dave Hostetler did the design and took many of the photographs and did a great job. The calendars can be purchased at many Little Italy businesses including Presti's; the Murray Hill Market; Washington Place; The Smoke Shop; the Cleveland Montessori School; Topsi Turvi; Guarino's; La Bella Vita; Pennello Gallery; Vitanonio-Previte Funeral Home; the Little Italy Wine Shop; Angelo's Nido Italia; and La Dolce Vita. The calendars can also be purchased online at www.LittleItalyClevelandCalendar.com.

Our other current publishing project The Brown Jug Cookbook is almost sold out. We have less than 125 copies left and we expect them to be gone by Christmas. We have had so much fun with this project, including several events down in Delaware, Ohio, where the Jug was located. Special thanks to Roop Brothers Bar! We do plan on having a Cleveland event around the cookbook in December. Keep checking my website for details. For more info on the cookbook or to order a copy go to www.brownjugcookbook.com.

We are always looking for projects for our publishing company Pink Flamingo Press and Creative Endeavors. Let me know if you got a great idea, we will give almost anything a try if we think it’s a worthwhile project.

I have also been surprised about how many people have asked me recently if I have been writing any fiction and I have. I finished another novel titled A Poem on a Bar Room Wall, and I think it is very good. However, none of the big publishers gave me the $100,000 advance I so richly deserve so we are going to put it out ourselves. Look for it at either Christmas or early next year. There are some sample chapters posted on my website.

Enjoy what is left of the summer.

Greg

cielec@hotmail.com

www.gregcielec.com

College World Series, Game 2, Vanderbilt 6 UCIrvine 4

2014 College Baseball World Series, Game 1, Vanderbilt 5 Louisville 3

Vandy 5 Louisville 3
Believe it or not, they won't let you bring cameras with extended lenses into the ball park. The only real negative, great place.

Spring 2014 OBR Column

Come check out the new and improved OBR magazine and website. Go to www.obr.com for more information. I had the lead article in the spring issue which was the draft preview, check it out below.

From a Coach’s Point of View: Did Seattle Change the Blueprint for the Browns?

When the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl, they won with a team blueprint different then the one the Browns have been presenting to their fans during the Haslem era. Seattle won with a solid ground game; a great defense; and a functional quarterback. I am not putting down Russell Wilson, in fact I think he is quite good, but he had to do nothing super for his team to win. He just had to do his job and let the team take care of everything else. In contrast, the Broncos were counting on Peyton Manning to be Superman, which the Seattle defense had something to say about, and the rest is history.

The Browns have been telling fans they need a franchise quarterback. Maybe that will change with the end of the Banner/Lombardi regime. Instead of looking for the next Tom Brady or Peyton Manning it might be better to find another Russell Wilson, instead of dreaming about Superman showing up and saving the day. The Browns need to be more like Seattle by building up the rest of the team, starting with the defense; give whomever is quarterback some more weapons; and draft a solid running back or two so the team has a ground game.

How many young franchise quarterbacks are out there? Andrew Luck is going to be a very good quarterback, and Jameis Winston is going to be the number one pick in next year’s draft. However, the rest of the good young quarterbacks of this era, whether in the pro’s or still in college, are going to be Russell Wilsons, good quarterbacks who will depend greatly on the quality of their teams to get them to championships. Because too many of them spent too much time being running spread option quarterbacks in high school and college and missed out on the learning process of reading pass defenses, the chances of  any ofthem being superstar pro style quarterbacks is not what it once was.

The list of those who have crashed and burned is endless, including Vince Young, Pat White, and RGIII. Cam Newton is in his fourth season in Carolina and his team is finally showing signs of success, because he has made the transition from running college quarterback to pocket pro quarterback. His statistics have been solid for four years, but it wasn’t until this year with Newton playing more like a traditional pro quarterback and less like a running college quarterback that the Panthers made the playoffs. The team has gotten stronger around him, and he didn’t have to be Superman for them to make the playoffs.

Seattle’s championship run last season is not the first time this blueprint has been used to win an NFL championship. The New York Giants won with both Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler at quarterback in 1987 and 1991; the Baltimore Ravens did it with both Trent Dilfer and Joe Flacco as quarterbacks; the 2002 Tampa Bay Bucs did it with Doug Johnson as quarterback.

The Seahawks won the Super Bowl with a great defense lead by cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Earl Thomas, and an offensive ground game lead by Marshawn Lynch. Those are the types of players the Browns need to find.

The search for the next Tom Brady or Peyton Manning is almost a lost cause. Yes, it would be nice if the Browns did draft the next big thing, or at least the next Drew Brease or Ben Rothlingsberger, but it is a more solid game plan to build of the rest of the team and being happy with a good but not great quarterback. The final four teams this past season featured only one first round draft pick (Peyton Manning) at quarterback: Tom Brady was a sixth round pick; Russell Wilson a third round pick; and Colin Kaepernick was a second round pick.

The Browns are unsure at quarterback as ever. I’m a big fan of Brian Hoyer, but he does not have the arm strength to lead a team to a championship. He would be great to be a back up and mentor to whomever is the quarterback.  Jason Campbell and Brandon Weedon are gone. As I’m writing this I hear rumors of the Browns going after free agent Matt Schaub.

As the Browns head into this free agent period and upcoming draft, with their abundant cap room and extra picks, hopefully the front office will realize that most championships are made with strong defenses, solid running games, and good, but not great, quarterbacks. Go find a good quarterback.

Some closing thoughts…Is it just me, or does it seem like many colleges are drifting away from the spread option offense and back to a traditional pro look? This past bowl season I saw Alabama, Stanford, and Vanderbilt amongst others with a quarterback under center and two backs in the backfield. I have a hunch that the defensive coordinators on the college level have found too many ways to stop the spread option. This will be something I’m going to keep an eye on this fall.

And finally…One of the story lines for the 2014 NFL draft and the upcoming season will be Michael Sam as the first openly gay player in the league. I have been asked several times what would happen if he ended up in Cleveland. I have responded each time ‘nothing.’ In the tradition of Louis Sockalexis (first native American in major league baseball), Lenny Ford and Marion Motley (first African American pro football stars), Jesse Owens (1936 Olympic champion), Frank Robinson (first major league African American manager), Lennie Wilkens (African American NBA coach), Hank Greenburg (Jewish American General Manager of 1948 championship Indians), Martina Navratilova (1975 teenager member of Cleveland Nets), John McLendon (first black college coach at a predominately white university Cleveland State in 1966), Cleveland and its sports fans have a history of accepting any athlete or coach, as long as they gave it their best and represented the city well. I think Michael Sam would benefit greatly by becoming a Cleveland Brown.

Vanderbilt Graduation, Spring 2014

My niece Allyson graduated from Vanderbilt in Nashville. She had a great run there, and so did her family. We all fell in love with Vandy and Nashville. Special shout out to my parents Joe and Marlene. They were both children of the Great Depression, had four children all graduate from college (three have Masters degrees), and now they are three for three with the grandchildren. Too bad the old man isn't around anymore, he would have really enjoyed it.

21 May 2014 Mass for St. John Paul at St. Barbara's

2014 Annual Spring Golf Trip