I know we are currently living in the age of sensationalism, where everything that is not completely awful is absolutely flawless by default, and vice versa. However, as much as it pains me to play Debbie in talking down that diatribe, I can't help but think that those who have yet to view Jarvis Landry's speech on Hard Knocks could benefit from the fairness of a 4-Star review that managed to withstand the urge of the "football is back!" bump. As anyone that has felt underwhelmed by an otherwise great movie can attest, hype can be a fickle beast, and I think it might claim a few victims here. I most certainly don't mean for this to come off as a knock on the orator or his expletive-laden message. You need not look further than the Cleveland Browns record over the last two years to come to conclusion that they needed a veteran leader to light a fire under their previously coddled asses. Jarvis Landry setting a resounding no-nonsense tone in a wide receivers' room that has way too much talent to have made more noise in the headlines than they have on a football field was the perfect example of the type of leadership that made him both a welcomed and necessary addition over the offseason. It was undoubtedly a very compelling (and extremely telling) call to arms. What it was not, however, was some Braveheart-esque battle cry. If anything, it was a scolding. A well-deserved scolding, but a scolding nonetheless. If you had replaced his words with equating actions then that would have just been a video of Jarvis Landry going around the room smacking each one of his physically prudish peers on the nose with a newspaper. So spare me on being "ready to run through a wall" after listening to that speech, because the people whose homes were hit the hardest by that truth bomb looked as though they were more ready to sit facing the corner to think about they've done. It damn well better lead to more showing and proving during their next practice, but apparently that bar was as low as the Browns' annual expectations. Simply put, Al Pacino gives that verbal kick in the ass one thumb up and doesn't think the tomatoes were anywhere near as fresh as advertised...
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