The Cleveland Browns sure generate a lot of drama for a team that enters today's game against the Arizona Cardinals at 4-9.
Most teams this far into a 4-12, 5-11 or 6-10 season aren't just all that interesting. You have to credit the Browns for that, even if they're generating the wrong kind of interest.
Nobody asked, but here's what I think:
TALKING PLAYOFFS: When Browns president Mike Holmgren told the assembled media they shouldn't to come to him for "extra tickets to a playoff game" when the team turns things around, I thought immediately of Jim Mora's famous decade-old rant: "What's that? Ah - playoffs? Don't talk about - playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!"
Playoffs?
Holmgren was angry about the perception that these are the same old Browns that have been awful for most of the last two decades, from before Art Modell moved the original team to Baltimore after the 1995 season and beginning again when the expansion Browns started up in 1999.
"You're either with us or you're not," Holmgren said.
They're not with you, Mike. They're not supposed to be with the Browns.
That's why cheering is not permitted in any college or pro press box. The reporters who show up at the Browns' training facility in Berea every day and at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday are not on the team's payroll and - contrary to the apparent opinions of some in the organization - are supposed to question the team's day-to-day performance and long-term direction.
That is their job and Holmgren ought to know that by now. This is professional football. The face of the front office should not be whining about tough questions and persistent scrutiny of the team's decisions on and off the field. Want fewer pointed questions? Make better decisions and win games.
People want to know why the Browns have been losing for so long. Frankly, with the Browns' track record since 1990, Holmgren should be glad there are people who still care.
KEEP COLT: There, I said it. I know Colt McCoy isn't Aaron Rodgers. But he isn't Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn, either.
Interestingly, all three of those former Browns quarterbacks had better supporting casts than McCoy has had in his two seasons in Cleveland.
In the end, that probably won't matter, because if I'm reading this correctly, I think the Browns have already made up their minds that McCoy isn't the answer. That could mean another first-round draft pick will be used on a quarterback.
I'm not against having an elite QB in Cleveland. Rodgers would look great zipping the ball all over Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sundays. He indeed makes his Green Bay teammates better.
But one question for those who are convinced McCoy is simply another in a long line of bad Browns QBs. Even if Rodgers was the Browns' quarterback right now, how much better would he make this team? Putting Rodgers on this team would be like putting a $5,000 stereo in a car that is sitting on blocks in your front yard.
So why is McCoy - with an questionable (at best) right side of the offensive line, no receivers and a spotty (at best) running game - expected to make the Browns play like the Packers every week?
I'd like to see the Browns use a significant portion of their 2012 draft picks and some available free-agent money to add a couple of playmakers and some NFL-caliber linemen to a group that leans too heavily on left tackle Joe Thomas and center Alex Mack, then see what McCoy does next season.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: McCoy has completed 265 of 463 passes (57.2 percent) for 2,733 yards and 14 touchdowns. He has 11 interceptions, and unfortunately, some of them have come at the worst possible times ... with the Browns in the red zone.
The pick he threw in the end zone late in the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers is a prime example, but I think McCoy gets a pass on that one, under the circumstances.
Here's something else to consider: The Browns have dropped about 40 passes in 13 games. Let's say half of those balls are caught. Twenty more receptions would take McCoy's completion percentage to 61.5 percent. It's a statistical impossibility, but with 40 more completions, that percentage improves to 65.8.
And then there are the things that can't be quantified, such as how much the Browns' dismal rushing attack - 3.5 yards per carry - has changed the way opposing defenses attack their offense.
I know. I'm sounding like an apologist for McCoy, who is increasingly being labeled as a noodle-armed QB with questionable accuracy. But he isn't to blame for all that ails the Browns' offense. Not by a longshot.
NEW HOME FOR HILLIS: It appears likely running back Peyton Hillis won't be in Cleveland next season. When was the last time a player's position with a team and in a city changed so dramatically in a matter of weeks?
The Browns seem more than willing to let Hillis walk. This probably means they'll look hard at running backs in the draft. Montario Hardesty has ability, but is still working his way back from last season's ACL tear and hasn't been productive. Chris Ogbonnaya isn't a 25-carries-a-game guy in the AFC North.
NEW YEAR, NEW START: The Browns finish the season on Jan. 1 against the Steelers in Cleveland.
McCoy won't play unless he has already shaken the effects of the concussion he received from being on the wrong end of a vicious, illegal hit from Steelers linebacker James Harrison.
Steelers fans who think Harrison did nothing wrong last week - and a year ago, when he clobbered Mohamed Massaquoi and Joshua Cribbs in the same game - like to say he is simply hard-nosed and plays the game the right way.
Maybe the Browns should adopt a similar old-school attitude and show Harrison - within the rules of the game - and the Steelers that style of play can go both ways.
I'm not saying they should "retaliate." But I remember Jack Lambert delivered a late hit on Brian Sipe on a play near the Browns' sideline one year and there was no lack of Cleveland teammates coming to Sipe's defense.
It would have been nice to see some Browns take issue with yet another illegal hit from Harrison that night in Pittsburgh. Let's say a Browns defender had taken down Ben Roethlisberger exactly the same way Harrison dropped McCoy. Do you think the Steelers would have stood for it?
Harrison goes out of his way to intimidate and inflict damage. Maybe the Browns should start 2012 the right away by letting Harrison know they can't be intimidated and won't stand by while their players are knocked into next week illegally.