Cleveland Browns All-Pro Joe Thomas Shows Up In Afghanistan: Lineman Goes From NFL Trenches To The Real Thing

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Bengals fans might want to stuff their chant that goes "If it's Brown, flush it down." Offensive tackle Joe Thomas of the Browns has popped up in Afghanistan signing autographs and posing for pictures with troops in the combat zone. No Bengals were in sight or on the trip. The photo was taken five days ago by Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Williams at Bagram Airfield. Thomas visited service members along the flightline, then went to a USO center at the base named for Pat Tilman, the NFL player who quit football to join the military. Tilman was killed by friendly fire in the early days of the war; the Army tried to cover up the mistake.

Thomas, at 6-foot-6 and 312 pounds, has been with the Browns since 2007, when he was a first round draft pick out of the University of Wisconsin. His wife, Annie, is a former Wisconsin basketball playwer. Thomas is from Brookfield, Wisc., and went to Brookfield Central H.S. where he captained the football and basketball teams and made the academic Honor Roll. He's traveling with three other NFL players through the war zone -- San Francisco tight end Vernon Davis, House Texans defensive end Mario Williams, and Cowboys tight end Jason Whitten. Thomas is blogging, though he hasn't disclosed exactly where he's been. The Air Force released the photo from the Bagram flightline. Here's Thomas about a night in the field: "Our group has really been in awe of just about everything. We watched troops fire off mortar rounds so loud they literally shook the ground. We spent one night at a "black out base" -- meaning that the base isn't lit up at night for security reasons. The players bunked up, two to a room, in small wood cabin rooms that had nothing more than one bunk bed with two mattresses. We brought sleeping bags to put on top of the mattresses."

Another Fumbler From Kentucky: Tim Couch Wants To Ban 'Anonymous' Blog Comments

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The former Cleveland Browns quarterback didn't fling this errant pass. But it does come from a guy from the same state with the same name. Kentucky State Rep. Tim Couch filed a bill last week that would outlaw anonymous comments on Web sites. The Republican from the east end of the bluegrass commonwealth wants people to register in advance with their real names, addresses and e-mails. And whenever they posted a comment, their actual identity would appear on the Web site. Legal scholars said Couch's proposal seems to run afoul of the First Amendment and its guarantee of freedom of speech.

Couch told John Cheves of the Lexington Herald Leader that he had doubts about the measure himself, but still had House Bill 775 drafted and tossed into the legislative hopper. The lawmaker said he's been blasted by anon and didn't take kindly to the experience. But, no, that's not why he introduced the bill. Honest. He told reporter Cheves:

"Some nasty things have been said about high school kids in my district, usually by other kids. The adults get in on it, too. When you're anonymous, you can say anything you want to about someone and nobody knows who you are. I think right now (online posting) is pretty much on its own. It's a machine that's going to go its own way. The state can try to pass some rules, but I don't really think it would do anything."

So it wasn't to protect his political hide. It was for the kids. To which a blog commenter replied: "I wish Rep.Couch would amend this bill to include the Cleveland Browns' message board."

Cleveland Browns Great Jim Brown: Tackled In New York Tab Flap

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Jim Brown is in the middle of a scrum in New York, where a city councilman says the retired Cleveland Browns great's new snack food company OG Nation stands for "original gangster." The company markets beer and says in ad copy "Lagers have been around for 2,000 years dating back to the days of the original gangster Egyptians." The gist: Brown is trying to make cash off the thug culture.

Gothamist has the latest from New York. It notes the Arizona-based company headed by the Cleveland Browns legendary No. 32 is reportedly getting ready to market a "Thug Chips" line of pretzels, pork rinds, dips and potato chips.

Brown's company called the attacks worse than a cheap shot.

"This is the most insidious kind of racism, because it masquerades as piety, when it's really just political grandstanding. Jim Brown has worked tirelessly for decades to give a voice to the disenfranchised, dispossessed and marginalized members of our society. This is Amer-I-Can Foundation, Jim Brown has crusaded tirelessly against gang involvement, preaching self-empowerment through education. These people who are accusing him of 'marketing the gang lifestyle' demonstrate their complete ignorance of the cause he has been championing for so long. What have they been doing to foster greater equality of opportunity in our society?"

NFL Wants Journos To Wear Ads On Sidelines: Journos Protest

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A national organization of journalists wants the NFL to scrap a proposed game day rule that would force newspaper, magazine and TV photographers to wear bright-red vests with Canon and Reebok ad logos displayed on the vests. The two companies sponsor pro football, and working journos on the sidelines are concerned they would resemble NASCAR drivers, or Olympic skiers, while covering the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and other franchises across the U.S.

Of course, the photojournalists don't work for the NFL. They work for independent publications like The Plain Dealer and Cincinnati Enquirer, or Sports Illustrated, or local TV. The NFL probably doesn't need them anymore -- it is so rich and successful that it can hire its own photogs and put them on the sidelines, then put their pictures online or find ways to distribute them through print channels that will pop up instantly. The old MSM will be squeezed out, and the dispute demonstrates how far their clout has eroded.

The Society of Professional Journalists is raising cane about the NFL plan and says the NFL should abandon the proposal before the preseason begins next month. Today, it sent a protest letter to the commissioner's office and all 32 teams. The journalist group's president, Christine Tatum of the Denver Post, explains:

"For the sake of the almighty dollar, the NFL is clearly willing to compromise press freedom and independence. The League should be ashamed. Journalists should refused to cover games before allowing themselves to become walking billboards. Defending a free press is a public service infinitely more valuable than play-by-play reporting from the sidelines."

Beg to differ. The news biz is built on advertising. The trucks that TV journos drive to the games are painted with signs touting the networks and stations that own them, logos that say, "Where the news comes first" and such. Is it such a stretch to wear a Canon vest?

Meanwhile, the newspapers are looking for new revenue streams as they decline. They should have sold logos for ads years ago. A real estate company, a motel chain, a car dealer would have paid dearly to have a highly visible logo in a stadium before 60,000 or more Browns, Bengals or Buckeye fans. Think of the logo decorating an Ohio newspaper photogs jacket or shirt, somehow clearly marked as an advertisement.

Or the paper should have put its photog in a jacket or shirt that proclaimed: Read The Dispatch!!!

But they never thought like that. And now that somebody is, they are p'oed. C'mon Society of Professional Journalists, do you think that the Americans who watch and attend football games are such dummies they won't recognize the ads for what they are -- paid product placement pitches that are not endorsements.

Hell, if I was running a newspaper I'd be talking to Budweiser right now about hats, pants and shoes.