I was listening to our local sports radio station this monrning WIP610, and was surprised to hear the sports DJs all making fun of Couch for his apparent 'crying' episode after the game. The DJs Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti said there is no place for tears in football just because you feel sorry for yourself. Here is a reference to the incident.

Couch upset with fans

Tim Couch was already groggy after being flattened by the Ravens when Cleveland's quarterback got blindsided - by Browns fans. Couch, who spent most of the fourth quarter sitting on the bench in a daze with a concussion, lashed out at fans for booing him following the Oct. 6 loss to the Ravens. Couch choked back tears during an expletive-laced rant at his locker and said he was disgusted with fans who cheered while he was laying on the field hurt. "I've been here going on four years now and laid it on the line for this team and city," Couch said. "For them to turn on me and boo me in my home stadium is a joke. I've worked my butt off here and it's hard to take, man."

I felt bad for the guy, very bad situation when any fans boo when someone is hurt but when its somone on your own team thats BAD. but it is a business and its all about what you have done for me lately in pro sports. Its good to see a pro player show his feelings like that but not sure hows it goign to go over in cleveland

Why are the fans so upset with him? He's still young and learning his job.

The fans ought to be grateful because they didn't even have a TEAM for a while there. And it's not like the Browns are perennial Super Bowl contenders or something.

Exactly right. It seems like Couch is taking way too much of the pressure for a team that isn't that great. The QB always gets blamed, but I think in this case, they'd be a lot worse without him. And booing an injured guy -- let alone a guy on your own squad -- just shows how little class the fans have.

Of course, this opinion might just be colored by the fact that when I watched Couch's outburst end in tears, I really wanted to offer him my shoulder. I'm not one of those guys who gets the "QB Crush" (I prefer strength to pretty), but in that moment, I really felt for him and wanted to make him feel better in all kinds of ways.

I'm embarassed by our Cleveland fans - AGAIN .. also the media here has been making fun of Couch so he will propably be hooted and jeered for the rest of his propably shortened career here. UNLESS he wins the next few games... Damn Drunken ass**** football fans !

If you go here, you can hear Timmy's tear-stained drawl. It's under the red bar in Audio Archives at this link:

Tim Couch on dealing with a hostile crowd uncut)
WARNING: Audio clip contains strong and/or offensive language


I listened to it last night. On the one hand, I know My Tim was emotional and all, but he basically doomed himself in Cleveland as far as fan support goes. He was in the position before the season started of having to have a break out season this year, rookie nerves or whatever couldn't be the excuse for his poor overall performance. Fine, he has no running game and he was injured to start the season but the fact is that Kelly Holcomb moved the damn pigskin more consistently than him.

I still think he's the 2nd handsomest man in the NFL (Mike Hollis is #1) but I don't think he did himself any favors with his (perhaps justified) outburst.

[ October 09, 2002: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

I don't think it's that Tim Couch has been so bad this year; just that Kelly Holcomb has been so good when subbing for Couch. As was mentioned above, you're only as good as your last performance. Nonetheless, booing him when he makes bad plays is one thing but booing when he's been knocked flat from a concussion is unfathomable. I don't know which city's fans are worse: Cleveland or Philadelphia.

Radio WTAM 1100 AM broadcasters were at the game, they announced that what most people don't know is that toward the end of the game many fans near that endzone were booing Couch (and deservedly so, how many times did he throw directly to a Baltimore Raven?) but Couch was EGGING ON THE CROWD WITH BOTH HANDS while they were booing. Many of the crowd were then cheering when the ball was placed on the one yard line rather than a safety called, and many were cheering that Holcomb started warming up; there was only a few cheering that he was injured; so to say everyone was cheering cuz crybaby was injured is totally false. Regardless, to pick a fight with diehard Cleveland Fans and start crying: Bad Idea

I know it's sick but there something about a man crying that gives me such a woody. Not sobbing, it's crying and trying to hold it back is what gets me.

Yes, I was turned on watching this interview.

PCC dude. . . .you crackin me up here man. . . . so if I were to meet you and started shedding a tear soon after, you be sportin' some wood and ready to get funky???? you cra-zie

talking about tears. . . looks like you may be sheading some as I believe I have over taken you as the KING of overall football picks me!!!

Maybe Art Modell had it right after all. Given the history of unacceptable behavior by some of the fan base in Cleveland it might be time for the NFL to simply decide it's not a city worthy of a franchise and move on. Of course it won't happen, but.....

Did Van Brocklin, Snead, Jaworski, or Cunningham ever cry because of the meany fans? Come on Timmy. You're very cute and adorable, but this is football, you are a professional athlete, you play in Cleveland, you get paid to "work your butt off", so cry all you want. You make way too much money and are far too pampered to inspire wide-spread sympathy. Should fans cheer when a player is hurt? NO, that does sux. P

He's a pro athlete, sure. But he's also a human being.

[quote]Originally posted by PCC:
I know it's sick but there something about a man crying that gives me such a woody. Not sobbing, it's crying and trying to hold it back is what gets me.

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Wow, PCC, that's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time! Seriously, I'm totally not being a smart-ass. With this "turn-on," does it matter how attractive the guy is? I would imagine it's a bit different seeing Tim Couch cry as opposed to, say, the Rev. Falwell during his now infamous mea culpa. Do tell!

[quote]Originally posted by jordan:


Wow, PCC, that's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time! Seriously, I'm totally not being a smart-ass. With this "turn-on," does it matter how attractive the guy is? I would imagine it's a bit different seeing Tim Couch cry as opposed to, say, the Rev. Falwell during his now infamous mea culpa. Do tell!

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Actually, it does matter if he's good looking.

[quote]I don't know which city's fans are worse: Cleveland or Philadelphia

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Wow. Joe in Philly's computer must be down or he's on vacation or something because I'd have expected for him to type in something like: [quote]YAAAAAWWWNNNNNN--rip the Philly fans all you want. It's SOOOOO boring etc. etc. etc.

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OSUFan wrote: [quote]Regardless, to pick a fight with diehard Cleveland Fans and start crying: Bad Idea

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So true. Those fans are like European soccer fans: they never forget.

Since Joe hasn't answered, I will say that Philly fans are vocal and maybe even obnoxious because they are passionate. For better or worse I prefer the passion over the ho-hum attitude some other city's fans may elicit.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Philly fans boo Dion Sanders when he made a big show of praying over a knocked-out-cold Michael Irvin? If so, then the Philly fans rock.

While part of me felt sympathy for Timmy holding back his tears in front of those reporters (after all, the old-school notion that "real" men don't show their emotions is a bunch of crap IMHO) I still think his antagonistic comments AND actions aimed at the Cleveland fans were a BIG mistake that he is going to come to regret for a LONG time....as osufan accurately pointed out earlier in this thread, Couch admittedly was egging on the fans from the sideline from the first time they started booing him....come on, Tim -- you're a PROFESSIONAL athlete being paid millions of dollars to play QB for a franchise with one of the richest traditions in football (well, the "second coming" of the franchise anyway) -- if you can't take a little booing from the fans (who I admit were COMPLETELY WRONG to cheer your injury) then you should retire and get an office job where you won't have to "suffer" through such "pain and humiliation."

Now that backup Kelly Holcomb has a broken leg (which he continued to play on, btw, throughout the 4th quarter even though he admittedly was in excrutiating pain) it looks like Crouch will have to continue to endure the wrath of the Cleveland faithful -- especially if he plays poorly....fortunately for Butch Davis and the Browns heirarchy 2 of their next 3 games are on the road with the lone home game sandwiched in between Tampa and the Jets being against the lowly Texans....so it looks like the schedule maker did Tim and the Browns a huge favor -- but if he continues to falter (and you know the boos will be MUCH louder at home from this point forward) then they probably won't have any choice but to trade Crouch.

He should be thankful that the fans care enough to fill the stadium every week (INCLUDING the past 3 years when the franchise, albeit an expansion club, was pitiful on offense) and that the fans are involved in the fortune of their hometown team enough to voice their displeasure (AND approval, in case he has forgotten) when the team fails or succeeds....perhaps Tim has forgotten that he could be playing in a city with a half-hearted attitude towards their NFL team like Atlanta where the stadium is half empty by mid-season every year and the fans couldn't care less about the team's play on the field -- doesn't he remember playing college ball at UK where the majority of the fans are simply passing time waiting for college basketball season to arrive?

After all, it is the fans who are ultimately paying his multi-million dollar salary and it's time for Crouch to grow up and conduct himself like a professional -- in whatever city and uniform he happens to find himself in within another season or two.

[ October 10, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

[quote]Originally posted by Jim Allen:
Wow. Joe in Philly's computer must be down or he's on vacation or something because I'd have expected for him to type in something like:
"YAAAAAWWWNNNNNN--rip the Philly fans all you want. It's SOOOOO boring etc. etc. etc.."

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I don't know if this means you know me too well, or I'm getting predictable. My first thought was the YAWWWWWN but then I decided to just ignore it. I've said enough on the issue.

Even though he wasn't referring to the crying incident, Dan Marino in last week's Inside the NFL on HBO stated when he heard the fans boo he just assumed it had to be for someone else, even if he knew he made the bonehead play. Joked it couldnt have been for him. I think a great QB has to be able to ride the highs with the lows, and the fans are going to boo. To unravel and have this interview is going to be his downfall in Cleveland unless Cleveland hits the playoffs this year and the fans bury the incident. The QB is the leader and should be unflappable. Most QB's had bad times--Elway, Marino, etc..., but they ride it out. Look at what Testaverde and other QB's have gone through in their careers. Though the emotion was real, it needed to be checked and its going to be the joke in Cleveland, the lockeroom and in the huddle for a while now. Couch has the goods and the work ethic, but a few more tirades he may become the east coast Ryan Leaf playing golf somewhere in oblivion.