Browns center Bentley hurts knee first day of camp

[Zen]

I swear, the "New" Browns are cursed.

BEREA, Ohio -- Pro Bowl center LeCharles Bentley sustained an injury to his left knee during the Browns' first 11-on-11 drill of training camp on Thursday.

Bentley got tangled in a pile of players as he was blocking on a running play for Reuben Droughns.

Bentley screamed, "No," before remaining on his knees as the Browns moved their scrimmage up the field so trainers could attend to the 6-foot-2, 309-pound player.

He stayed on the ground in a seated position for several minutes before Cleveland's medical staff immobilized his left knee and carted him to the locker room.

Bentley covered his face with a towel on the short drive to the field house as Browns players and fans looked on in shock.

The extent of Bentley's injury is not yet known.

Bentley, a five-year veteran, signed as a free agent with the Browns in March.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2531239

[kraziness]

I swear, the "New" Browns are cursed.



http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2531239


Please just be an awkward twist :pray:

As to the curse, first off, I would say that it surely does seem so. You look at the injury record for first rounders on this team, and the fact that our last coach literally went crazy, and the way that the team loses (dramatically)... but is it really just the "new" Browns? The Drive? The Fumble? The Move? Trading HOFer Bobby Mitchell for Heisman winner Ernie Davis, who subsequently died of leukemia a year later, Jim Brown retiring in his prime because of Modell's altamatum. Model bought the team, infected the town, the city and the name, and left the curse here to haunt us forever...

[Zen]

Please just be an awkward twist :pray:

As to the curse, first off, I would say that it surely does seem so. You look at the injury record for first rounders on this team, and the fact that our last coach literally went crazy, and the way that the team loses (dramatically)... but is it really just the "new" Browns? The Drive? The Fumble? The Move? Trading HOFer Bobby Mitchell for Heisman winner Ernie Davis, who subsequently died of leukemia a year later, Jim Brown retiring in his prime because of Modell's altamatum. Model bought the team, infected the town, the city and the name, and left the curse here to haunt us forever...

Well said. The Browns have sucked for a long, long time. :D

[kraziness]

You gotta be tough to be a Cleveland Browns fan. Real tough.

What happened Thursday morning at the Browns’ training camp was not for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned. It was a test, yet another in a long line of tests, to gauge just how impenetrable the fans’ love is for their team.

When LeCharles Bentley was carted off the field with an injured knee on the first play of contact, it was as though the entire Browns Nation had been punched in the midsection.

Feel familiar? It should.

Remember the Sports Illustrated cover when Art Modell pulled the plug on Cleveland back in 1995? It was a feeling SI captured perfectly. Happened – to a lesser degree, of course – again yesterday.
The news that the Browns’ best offensive lineman went down triggered a psychological bender on this Web site. Teeth gnashed, psyches were broken, tears were shed, regurgitation scattered the landscape, spirits were shattered, profanities proliferated.

And who could blame the fans?

Emotions flowed. From anger to frustration to paranoia to bewilderment to disbelief to shock. Laugh to keep from crying. Punch a wall instead of another human being. Kick the waste basket instead of the pet.

What better way to vent.

Only in Cleveland . . . the Browns are jinxed, cursed . . . who’s next ? . . . goodbye 2006 . . . what time do the bars open?

Others, perhaps rationalizing, took it a lot better. “What else should we expect?” “This kind of crap happens all the time. We all should be used to it by now.”

The hurt was palpable from coast to coast.

The good feeling that always accompanies the opening of a training camp disappeared in a heap. And it certainly caused one to wonder – again – exactly what did Cleveland do to deserve all this?

Just when it looked as though the Browns had turned a corner by signing the likes of homeboys Joe Jurevicius, Dave Zastudil, Bob Hallen and Bentley, something like this happens. And on the second day of camp, no less.

Bentley is no ordinary player. He’s not just the St. Ignatius kid living a dream of playing for his hometown team.

He is a Pro Bowler, an honor that is somewhat foreign to Browns players. He was going to help solve a lot of problems along the offensive line.

He was clearly the best player – since Jamir Miller – the Browns have had since their reincarnation in 1999. He was going to be the anchor of the line, the linchpin, the man around whom the team would rally.

Bentley brought an infectious glow to the locker room. Always has a smile on his face. The fact he was now a Brown surely would keep that smile permanent.

So why did this happen? Why, why, why?

There are no good answers to why this happens to the Browns, whose history with significant injuries to key players is almost legendary.

As much as we want to believe there is a jinx, a curse that dangles over the team, rational thought suggests otherwise. It’s just a little difficult at this time to fight through those initial thoughts and see the bigger picture.

Some posters suggest that God hates the Browns. No He doesn’t. If He didn’t think you could handle it, He wouldn’t keep doing this to you.

Somehow, some way, Browns fans always come out of the doom and gloom and see the brightness. Why? Because they’re Browns fans.

:wigglypea: wigglypea indeed my friend. :sadbanana:

[Zen]

Out for the SEASON!

Bentley, a two-time Pro Bowl center and one of the team's prized free-agent signings this winter, sustained a season-ending injury to his left knee on the first 11-on-11 drill of training camp Thursday -- a crushing blow for a club cursed by major injuries the past few seasons.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/specials/preview/2006/07/27/bc.fbn.browns.bentleyin.ap/index.html

Gawd damn, I thought it was hard being a Bills fan. :sadbanana: