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While most of you were being tortured by the Browns Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland State Vikings were on the road giving Cleveland something to feel good about. Gary Waters and the crew defeated seventh ranked Vanderbilt 71-58 in a regional game of the Legends Classic.

The Vikings were lead by senior swingman D’Aundray Brown. Brown led the team with 18 points. In his first game after missing all of last year with a wrist injury, he also pulled down 8 rebounds and picked Vandy’s pocket for 7 steals.

The difference in this game was the play of the bench. Freshman Anton Grady and Sebastian Douglas both scored 7 points. Sophomore Devin Long chipped in with 5 points as the Vikings opened up their season with what may become a signature win for this team.

CSU returns to Cleveland Tuesday night, taking on Rio Grande at 7pm.

Follow Emmett on Twitter @EGoldie80

Coach Pat Shurmur and the Browns PR staff have maintained that despite TJ Ward being in a cast all week, there was a slight chance he would be able to play through the injury to his right foot on Sunday against the Rams.

Multiple sources have informed me that the injury is worse than the Browns have revealed and Ward is expected to miss 4-6 weeks while his foot heals.

Ward injured his foot in the 30-12 loss to the Houston Texans last Sunday. He has not practiced at all this week and Pat Shurmur had said he would “most likely” miss Sunday’s game against the Rams.

Safety Usama Young returned to practice today and coach Shurmur said he will start in Ward’s place if he is healthy enough to play. Despite his struggles in replacing Ward last week this is a huge boost to the Browns’ secondary.

They will most likely be without Dimitri Patterson who did not practice again Friday. Rookie Buster Skrine will fill in for Patterson and rookie Eric Haag is expected to see his first significant playing time of the season.

At this point, the Browns will benefit from any veteran who can take the field.

Multiple players told me in the locker room that Ward is in good spirits and working hard to get back on the practice field as soon as possible.

Follow @WillBurge on twitter for braking Browns news, analysis, and slightly witty banter

Bob DiGeronimo, the disassociated Ohio State booster at the center of the “failure to monitor” charge the NCAA levied against the school on Thursday, says OSU athletic director Gene Smith is lying in an attempt to save his job.

“I understand when people are trying to save their jobs that they’re going to say and do certain things,” DiGeronimo said in an interview with Mark “Munch” Bishop on Cleveland’s ESPN 1540 WKNR2. “But to out and out lie, those things are a little hurtful to me, you know?”

DiGeronimo said Smith never contacted him by telephone  in 2006 to reduce the booster’s involvement with OSU’s coaches or players.

“Gene Smith told reporters last night that he called me in 2006 and told me certain things,” DiGeronimo said. “…that never happened…it’s a bald-faced lie.”

DiGeronimo said the first time he spoke to Smith was upon meeting him during a lunch with former Ohio State coach John Cooper in 2008.

DiGeronimo said OSU’s assertion in its response to the NCAA that he hid in a locker in an attempt to overhear a pregame speech by then-coach Jim Tressel in 2001 or 2002 is not true.

DiGeronimo also said OSU did not attempt to remove him from the team’s sideline in 2003, as it contends to the NCAA.

“I was on the sideline until 2006,” DiGeronimo said. “So, I mean, for them to say that something happened and I was escorted out of there, like, wow.”

DiGeronimo admitted to being involved in OSU players receiving cash in violation of NCAA rules at charity event he helped organize in Februrary, but maintained that Smith is using him as a scapegoat in an attempt to save his job.

“I’m not going to let somebody slander me, whether it be Gene Smith or anybody else,” DiGeronimo said. “I just can’t let them get away with that.”

Hear the entire DiGeronimo interview on Cleveland’s ESPN 1540 WKNR2 at www.espncleveland.com

Here we are Buckeye fans. After starting 0-2 in the Big Ten OSU is three wins away from a Leaders division title. With all of the distraction that took place during the off-season as well as during the season this very young team has shown it has some grit.

The opening stretch against the heavy weights of their division is over. The remaining three games are against the wounded ducks of the Big Ten. Purdue has struggled for most of the year and when we looked at the schedule at the start of the year just about everyone thought this would be a win.

Next week Penn State comes to Columbus. You want to talk about distractions. I do not know how anyone on the team can focus on football. They can say that they are but who are they kidding? In the midst of the biggest controversy in sports history, I find it hard to imagine that they will win anymore games this year.

The Buckeyes finish the season at “that school up north”. That will be their biggest challenge of the final three weeks. I know the Buckeye fans wouldn’t have that any other way.

With the road to the first ever Big Ten Championship game laid out right in front of them, which OSU team will show up during this stretch? Will the mentally tough team that battled for the entire Wisconsin game show up or will the team that took the field last week against Indiana sneak on the field?

I will be honest with you. I never thought Ohio State would be where they are right now and I don’t think they did either. This team has shown that when they are disrespected and forgotten, they rise to the occasion.  They also showed that they peak in the local and national news papers and take their foot off the gas thinking that they can just show up and get a win.

If Luke Fickell and the gang want to make a statement about the quality of Ohio State football there should be a sense of urgency on Saturday. The last thing they can afford to do is play from behind. If Fickell can keep this team focused, he just might be laying the foundation of his legacy.

Right-handed pitcher Derek Lowe had some issues he needed to work through in the offseason. Following a September collapse by the Braves, he had a pretty good idea it would be somewhere else.

Atlanta dealt the veteran righty to the Indians on the last day of October and from that moment, Lowe knew he would have to work even harder to improve on his disappointing season in 2011.

After all, the 38-year old hurler lost 17 games last season. He attributed his performance to one big factor when he chatted with members of the Cleveland media on conference call.

Indians Pitcher Derek Lowe

“I got in such a mechanical funk… and I couldn’t stop it,” Lowe said. “We tried to change it in a short period of time and it didn’t happen.

“You learn from what you were doing and you make sure you don’t do it again.”

He has already started working on those mechanics over the last month, making positive muscle memory a top goal in the coming months.

Lowe is ready for the challenge and is excited to pitch again for a good ballclub. He joined the Really Big Show on ESPN 850 WKNR and noted not every team can compete. That is why he is excited to join the Tribe.

One thing you do not doubt is his durability. An innings eater, Lowe regularly comes close to 200 innings and 30 starts every season.

Even though he admitted some luck is involved, the rest is no accident.

“Hard work is something that I’ve always kind of believed in,” Lowe said. “I love the game. I enjoy putting in the time. For me, its more mental. It’s putting in the time and effort to be able to make every start.

“That is the number one important thing; to be able to pitch every five days.”

One of the biggest reasons general manager Chris Antonetti invested five million dollars to add such a playoff veteran pitcher was the influence he could have on a young rotation. Headed by righties Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, the starting staff could use a back-end anchor with leadership qualities.

Lowe takes pride in that role.

“Spring training is going to be so important for everybody,” Lowe said about getting to know his new teammates, on WKNR. “I love working with young pitchers to try and advance their career, and that is what I’m going to try to do.”

Lastly, Lowe spoke highly of his new place of work.

“I feel that city is a great baseball city, Lowe said of Cleveland. “We have got to work harder to get those people back in the stadium.”

If he rebounds to win double digits, posts 200 innings and leads the team to the playoffs, he will have done his part. That should not be so hard, right?

Follow TJ on Twitter @TJZuppe

The last time Penn State played football on Oct. 30, fans remained in Beaver Stadium long after the finish to honor Joe Paterno for passing Eddie Robinson with a 409^th career victory.

The prospect of another ceremony Saturday, when Paterno would have passed Amos Alonzo Stagg for the most Division I games coached in a career, couldn’t be permitted.

Thankfully, Penn State’s Board of Trustees realized that and fired Paterno shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

Given the looming pall over the Penn State community, tracing to lurid details of 40 alleged child molestation charges against Paterno’s former assistant, Jerry Sandusky – the decision proved as wise as it was overdue.

Paterno, too stubborn or too disconnected to understand the damage his continued presence on the sideline would inflict on both the school and Sandusky’s alleged victims, all but dared the Board to fire him by lecturing it in a Wednesday morning statement “not (to) spend a single minute discussing my status.”

That showed how arrogantly Paterno viewed his own self-importance and how cavalierly he disregarded those purportedly in authority over him. That’s nothing new, because in 2004, when athletic director Tim Curley and school president Graham Spanier went to Paterno’s home to insist he retire, he all but sneered at his superiors.

Paterno refused, calling their bluff, daring them to challenge his power base, assuming correctly that neither would summon the conviction to do what had to be done. Neither wanted Paterno’s dismissal as their epitaph.

Now, both men have earned different epitaphs.

Curley faces an indictment for perjury related to concealing his knowledge of Sandusky’s alleged crimes.

Spanier got fired last night, his insignificance and impotence as a leader underscored by how modest a ripple his dismissal made in comparison to that of the legendary coach.

Abraham Lincoln once said: “Nearly all men can stand adversity. If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Integrity and honor are indeed fickle character traits, subject to daily, if not hourly, crucibles that reveal or obliterate them. Paterno’s legacy, unimpeachable until Sandusky’s indictment, will require an unforeseen twist in those court proceedings to remove the indelible stain it now sports.

Sure, Paterno passed the test legally when he informed Curley about an eyewitness report of Sandusky raping a boy in the football locker room in 2002. But the iconic coach sadly passed the buck morally when he did not use his bully pulpit to demand knowing where that information went thereafter.

It is always wrong to ask, “How will this make us look?” instead of focusing solely on, “What is the right course of action?” Penn State made that egregious mistake, and because it did, young boys’ lives traversed a needless, never-ending personal torment that assaults decency to its very core.

It is a pathetically-minimal price for Paterno to exit three games shy of one final bow in spotlight if that affords one victim or one victim’s parent even the slightest momentary comfort.

Paterno is not at all a victim in this turn of events, and for anyone to portray it otherwise smacks of appalling insensitivity.

Penn State did him a huge favor by sparing Paterno what would have been a dangerous platform to speak for the school on Sandusky, or worse, to confine his next remarks as an employee of the university to something as trivial as Penn State’s struggling offense or the pursuit of a conference championship.

No 84-year-old man should be thrust into the role of point person for an issue as explosive and hurtful as the alleged crimes which went on within the walls of the football facility, where Sandusky maintained an office and lured his victims with the trappings of Penn State football.

Had Paterno done the right thing nine years ago, not just what insulated him from criminal charges, who knows where we might be now?

Young victims might likely have been spared.

Paterno’s legacy might likely have been preserved.

And perhaps he could have orchestrated an exit strategy he seemed in no hurry to execute until trying to box in the Board of Trustees Wednesday morning by announcing his retirement, effective at season’s end.

In that five-paragraph statement, Paterno expressed sorrow for the victims, pledged his undying loyalty to Penn State and admitted serious mistakes in judgment.

“With the benefit of hindsight,” his statement said, “I wish I had done more.”

We all do, Joe.

We all do.

Email Bruce hoolz@espncleveland.com

Follow Bruce on Twitter @bhoolz

Bruce Hooley hosts The Hooligans from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on ESPN 850 WKNR

Cincinnati Bengals  – grade (A) – As crazy as owner Mike Brown looked in not trading Carson Palmer at the beginning of the season, getting rid of his 2 best receivers in OchoCinco and Terrell Owens, letting cornerback Jonathan Joseph walk in free agency, and keeping Marvin Lewis around as head coach, the Bengals are one of the biggest surprises in the NFL this season.  The drafting of QB Andy Dalton and his play, plus the defense playing at a high level, are big reasons why the Bengals, at the half way point, are tied for 1^st place in the AFC North.

Baltimore Ravens – grade (A) -  The biggest reason they get an “A” is because they finally have defeated the Steelers twice in the same season to gain the tie breaker in the division and potentially home field advantage in the playoffs.  The defense is doing what it always does and Joe Flacco may have turned the corner towards becoming a top-flight quarterback with his impressive game winning 92 yard drive at Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Steelers – grade (B-) – Despite an older defense with a weak secondary, an average to below average offensive line and injuries on offense and defense, the Steelers have won 6 of their first 9 games which puts them right in the divisional race and the playoff race.  However with the defense and head coach blowing that Ravens game at home, allowing Baltimore to hold the tie breaking edge, the Steelers can get no higher than a “B-” grade in this mid-term report.

Cleveland Browns – grade (D-) – 1st year head coach Pat Shurmur looks overwhelmed and befuddled at times on the sidelines during a game. His “West Coast” offense, in which he is calling the plays for, is struggling mightily, being outscored 58-6 in the 1^st quarter of games and is averaging under 15 points per game.  Colt McCoy seems to be regressing at QB.  The offensive line, while a little banged up has been terrible. The defense, while it has some players to build around in Joe Haden, Phil Taylor and T.J. Ward, still cannot stop the run. When your MVP at the midway point is your kicker who has made 6 field goals of 50 yards or more, your season can’t be going well.  As crazy as this may sound, this team is not as good as it’s record at (3-5).  The 3 teams they have beaten have a combined record of (3-22) this season.

Follow Kenny on Twitter @RoadmanWKNR

I’m questioning my role in my profession today.

It’s not the first time, because the bloodlust for victory, the all-consuming quest for another championship, the raging sense of entitlement that cannibalizes anyone who questions the status quo in college athletics has bothered me for a long time.

Now it’s more than some nagging concern over whether I’m helping to perpetuate a system, despite portions I loathe. The heinous nature of the allegations at the forefront of the Penn State football scandal compel me to examine my role in glorifying a system of big-time college sports that’s twisted so horribly off center.

How did we get here? How did we bastardize college athletics into something that clouds the judgment of supposed shapers of tomorrow’s generation when the right thing to do is so clear? What pressures must the chase for one more championship inflict on the men in charge of the nation’s elite programs that their moral compasses become so skewed?

A few years back, the murder of a college basketball player at Baylor University horrified us. It couldn’t get worse, we thought. But we were wrong. Victims of child abuse die a thousand deaths, with their innocence stolen, their self-esteem crushed and their faith in those charged with protecting them forever shattered.

It is against this horrifying backdrop of multiple young boys’ lives either ruined or irreparably scarred that they will nevertheless pack 105,000 fans into Beaver Stadium this weekend for the customary revelry of Penn State football. The 40 counts of sexual abuse against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and head coach Joe Paterno’s and university administrators’ roles in covering it up, are apparently not enough to stall the machine that churns inexorably on.

This scandal is far worse than anything that’s happened at Ohio State, Oregon, LSU, USC, Auburn, Miami, Alabama or any other elite program that’s been touched by controversy in recent years. The similarity though, is that no matter what happens, the beast must be fed. The games must be played. The cash register must continue to ring.

For far too long, far too many have foolishly gained their greatest source of self-esteem from what happens on the playing fields of college campuses across the country. Sadly, but predictably, fans of those programs previously subjected to unflattering headlines because of mistakes of their favorite school’s own creation have seized upon the Penn State fiasco as proof that, “See, we’re not that bad.”

To brandish such logic suggests a perverted embrace of what went on at Penn State. It provides a convenient prop for the weak-willed to lean on in convincing themselves that someone else is worse.

All that does is victimize the alleged victims of Jerry Sandusky one more time, as if they haven’t suffered enough.

Penn State cancelled Paterno’s press conference on Tuesday, when it should have cancelled the final home game of the season Saturday against Nebraska. It’s simply wrong to conduct business as usual when we have overwhelming evidence from the Pennsylvania Attorney General that Sandusky used Penn State football as an allure to entrap and violate the boys he preyed upon.

Knowing that, who can tailgate, sing the alma mater or stand and cheer for a touchdown like nothing happened? Penn State’s students clearly demonstrated Tuesday night, when hundreds gathered on Paterno’s lawn in a chanting, hand-clapping show of support, that they will further embarrass their school if given the platform.

They sang the raucous theme from Seven Nation Army, as if this entire ugly episode is some third-and-12 the Nittany Lions can escape with adequate pass protection and a well-placed downfield throw.

I’ve been to State College and experienced its game-day atmosphere many times. I’ve written and spoken glowingly about it, and about other similar environments in Columbus, Madison, Ann Arbor and South Bend.

I’m not sure if I can, or should, bring myself to do that with the same enthusiasm ever again. Not now that I know what the misplaced hero worship and twisted priorities that result can enable and excuse.

Email hoolz@espncleveland.com

Follow Bruce on Twitter @bhoolz

Bruce Hooley hosts The Hooligans on ESPN 850 WKNR www.espncleveland.com from 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday

There were more than NINJA’s running around my head yesterday as I watched the Browns regress in their loss to Houston!  I also need to say, and this one TRULY hurts me, that I have removed the BROWNS from the “ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY” list as of now, because they CANNOT POSSIBLY win a game!

Other thoughts from the little BROWNIE’s elf’s running around in my gourd…

* The BROWNS throw the ball on 3rd and 1. OK, in the WEST COAST OFFENSE the pass is an extension of the hand off, but why not sneak Colt? Where is our FULLBACK to lead one of the RB’s through a hole?

* The emasculation of the Browns took place on a vanilla sweep when the game was right about the 2 minute mark and the Texans had 4th and 6!  4th and 6 and they get the 1st down!  DEFENSE should be embarrassed for the whole game AND that fact!

* Colt did throw a deep ball effortlessly!  Problem?  Little NO SEPARATION!  Greg knew it too.

* What about the Browns falling prey to stuff arms?  CHOP IT AWAY LIKE YOU WERE BREAKING A TWO B Y FOUR and you will not see it again…and perhaps the person using it!

* COLTS HATAS…just a thought for you…He may not be around long when he gets hit with CLEAN, RUNNING START SHOTS frequently and sacked by not one, but 2, 3 even 4 opponents!

What can cure this regression?  WIN SUNDAY as the Rams come to town!  C’mon Shurmur…BEAT YOUR OLD TEAM!