Cleveland Sports Blog

Week three of the NFL, was not the most exciting slate of games, but in the Soup-er Bowl season things were really heating up. This week we turned it up a notch and made chicken tortilla soup. And as usual, when I say "we made" I really just mean McKayla made it, while I brought a few laughs and some moral support. The kind of support a team like the Commanders could use after getting blown out 37-3 by the Buffalo Bills.  Unlike week one and two, there was very little pre-snap drama. No fingers cut off, no cats on the prowl. Just a solid 20-6 performance, like the Lions over the Falcons. And the great thing about chicken tortilla soup is, it seems pretty easy to prepare. I'm just basing that off of McKayla's stress level, or lack thereof. It wasn't, Dolphins 70 point domination en-route to a win over the Broncos, easy...but it was fairly easy. Plus chicken tortilla soup pairs nicely with some chips and queso which we enjoyed. It's always nice when you have som...

We're back for another week of 2-3 sentence storylines for each NFL game of the week followed by my personal 1-10 ranking of how excited I am for each game.  Enjoy! Giants (1-1) @ 49ers (2-0) 49ers might be the deepest, and most talented team in the NFL; whereas the Giants will be missing their best player for the Thursday night match-up. The fact the game is out west, and the Giants have had to spend the last week in hotels (they stayed out west after the Cardinals game) gives me very little confidence they'll put up a fight.  4.6 Titans (1-1) @ Browns (1-1) The Titans are a well coached team that over performs year in and year out, and on the other hand the Browns are almost the complete opposite of that. Without the Nick Chubb injury this would have been an all-time running back match up, but instead it leaves us with two mediocre teams occupying the Sunday early afternoon slate.  3.1 Falcons (2-0) @ Lions (1-1) Might have been the most predictable Lions loss last week...

Throw out everything you learned last Sunday, it’s a new week and we’re back to the drawing board. You can’t win a Super Bowl in the first two weeks of the season, but your chances can feel all but lost if you’re off to a slow start. The Soup-er Bowl is no different. Week to week games are won, and lost in the trenches. Chicken noodle soup is a nose-to-the-grindstone, run it between the tackles, all-time classic. It’s gritty. When you have a cold, it’s the first soup you’ll turn to. If you’re coming off a heartbreaking loss like the Lions overtime loss to the Seahawks that’s a soup, you’ll want in your corner. And why steer away from a system that works? This week we doubled down on the ground and pound and kept our sights on the nourishment of the earth. You guessed it, beef vegetable soup. I’m going to come out and say it, like Zach Wilson, I was a little more involved this week than I was originally planning. McKayla and I made our grocery run first thing Sunday morning, and I w...

Little Debbie snacks were a lunchbox staple in my household growing up, and fall has arguably the strongest lineup of treats. I've never talked to anyone about their Little Debbie power rankings before, so I have no idea if this list is full of hot takes; but regardless this is my list and I stand by it.  6. Pumpkin Spice Mini Donuts  Dry. I am not above Little Debbie snacks, I think most of these treats are fantastic, but I am not going to sit here and act like these donuts hold any weight against the rest of the heavy hitters. They're a bone dry, crumbly mess. They're the only snack on this list that I would completely pass on.  5. Chocolate Fall Party Cakes This is a hot take, but across the board I prefer vanilla as a flavor to chocolate. Roast me. I know that's boring...it's quite literally vanilla. Having said that, I can't control my taste preferences. These cake treats are good...but there are other seasonal treats better than these...like...what is this...

Starting this week, I will be providing my personal overview, otherwise known as the "Beauver-view" of the upcoming NFL games. Each week I will deliver a 2-3 sentence overview of a storyline for each game followed by a ranking, scale 1-10, based on how excited I am for that specific game.  Vikings (0-1)  @ Eagles (1-0) Eagles looked a little rusty last week, and Super Bowl runner ups typically have had a tough time the following season. On the other hand I thought the Vikings were going to boat-race the Bucs in week one, and they ultimately fell short. I'm expecting this game to be very exciting.  8.7 Packers (1-0) @ Falcons (1-0) Packers embarrassed the Bears in week one, while the Falcons got the job done against their division rival as well. Are the Packers going to get it rolling again with only their third quarterback in the last thirty years? NFC South is a wide-open division, and Falcons starting off 2-0 could be the momentum they need to make some noise in the sou...

I watched the movie Beau is Afraid about a month ago, and I think it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's tough because it's not a movie you can recommend to everyone, and I'm not saying that to sound pretentious. I mean sure, I am an artistic marvel and I understand creative intricacies others miss, but this has nothing to do with that. The movie is three hours long, and it personifies anxiety in a way that can be hard to digest. It's a complicated movie, but my God it resonated with me.  Let's address the elephant in the room, the main character's name is Beau, as is mine. Beau is not the most common name, and even when you do come across it it's typically "Bo"...so the fact the main character and I share the same name and the same unique spelling automatically makes me feel like a narcissist for liking this film. Sure, it's nice to see some Beau representation in cinema, but I would love this movie even if the main characte...

Let's be honest, everyone loves a good Power Ranking. Whether it's fast food restaurants, NFL teams, Christopher Nolan movies...seeing a list accompanied with standings is something we love. What makes a list like this even better is when it is mobile. When someone or something can move up and down a Power Rankings list...that's what really gets the people going.  Deion Sanders recently posted this on Instagram: And it got me thinking what an awesome idea this is. I have always wanted to have a kid, maybe two, but the thought of more than two kids has always seemed like a nightmare...until now. Power Ranking two kids just doesn't have the same weight as a group of four or five. Imagine, one of your kids does well on class project, while another forgets to close the refrigerator? The impact that is going to have on the weekly standings could be huge.  I haven't fully thought out this plan, but I feel like if one of your kids spends a full month at the bottom of the P...

Write a letter to your favorite team's front office, make a call to your local senator, protest outside of your team's training facility...do whatever you have to do to make sure your team knows they should be going after Caleb Williams.  I'm not much of a stats guy...and by that I mean...I like stats but I'm not smart enough to dig up any of my own stats. For the most part I'm just watching games and based on what I see, I'm forming opinions. Caleb Williams looks like Patrick Mahomes. Like legitimately, his play style is comparable to Patrick Mahomes.  The quarterback position is the most valuable position in any sport. It cannot be overstated how important of a position it is to "get right." I know it sounds like an overreaction, but if your team lost in week one, and you don't have Patrick Mahomes on your roster, I legit think you should go all in and tank for Caleb Williams.  "But...we just drafted a quarterback last year!" It doesn...

The road to a Super Bowl is never easy. Teams get banged up, adversity seeps in, and outcomes can be unpredictable. It took me approximately one week to learn, the same can be said for the road to the Soup-er Bowl.   Sunday started out like most Week One Sundays. Tensions were high. There was a nervous energy that hung in the air, both exciting and inescapable. It felt like the weather knew it was football season, and while it was 90+ degrees for a majority of the week, the weekend cooled down by about 20 degrees. Leaving us with a mid-70's, cloudy, Sunday afternoon...perfect for soup season kickoff.  Admittedly....I had very little to do with the making of the soup. My wife is the one who found the recipe, and bought all the groceries. She will likely be cooking most of these soups throughout the season. Having said that, I'm not sitting around twirling my thumbs. Someone needed to deep clean the kitchen, and make sure the crockpot got their warm-up reps in. I am also as...

Football season is just a few hours away, and this year my partner and I decided to enhance our NFL Sunday experience by adding a culinary component to the excitement. We are making a different homemade soup every Sunday throughout the season.  I know that doesn't sound like a particularly revolutionary idea, but this is a layered activity. We will not only be enjoying the soup as our weekly Sunday dinner, we will also be anonymously ranking those soups throughout the year, and developing a running list. Whichever soup is our favorite, will be receiving a score of seventeen, second best will score a sixteen, third best fifteen, and so on. At the end of the regular season we will combine the individual scores, and the four highest ranked soups will be awarded the opportunity to compete in the playoffs. Fourth place soup will be remade and ranked over Wild Card Weekend, third place soup over Divisional Round, second place over Championship Sunday, and then the highest score will be e...

I'm not the first guy to this take. I have to imagine every person following college football drew their attention to this 12:00pm matchup to take a peak at the spread. I want to get out in front of this, I LOVE Dion and I LOVE Colorado, and I know saying I love them and then encouraging people to bet their house against them seems like a contradictory move, but I'm a complicated guy.  Nebraska hasn't won a one score game since the Obama administration. That's an exaggeration, but it has been a long time. Over the last several years Nebraska has been bad, they're a way less likable team than Colorado, and if I was betting with my heart I would never touch Nebraska +3. But my brain tells me this is a big let down spot for the Buffs. No disrespect to their team, Dion, or anyone, it just is a let down spot. Pair that with the fact Nebraska is bound to win a close one and for that reason, I like the money line, but if they're going to give you 3 you might as well ta...

Football is so close to being back, and this might be the most excited I have been for a football season in my life. I grew up as a Browns fan…and for some reason I am still of fan of the Browns. Mostly, it’s because I have a bunch of their jerseys, shirts, and apparel…and therefore, I’m unfortunately locked into them as my team. Having said that, they can no longer hurt me. I spent a majority of my time in my 20’s getting deeply hurt by the Cleveland Browns. Like Sunday at 1:00pm (primetime is typically for winners) determined whether or not my weekend, and beginning of the week, would be ruined. Losing hurt so much and it happened so often, that I was a shell of a man cased in disappointment and pain. I sound like a broken record, and I know folks are tired of hearing about it, but the Browns trading for Deshaun Watson changed me. It was officially the moment where I fell out of love with a team I loved more than anything. I still root for the Browns, and as far as NFL teams go...

It's been a while... You know what people love about the content game? A hiatus.  I don't have a following, and in all liklihood no one will read this or care about it...but goddamnit, I like writing. Not only do I enjoy writing, but I'm pretty good at it.  Am I the next Jane Austen? No. In fact I might be the only guy with an English degree who can't confidently define a subject or predicate. I'm pretty good at writing creatively but I'm not smart. I never claimed to be smart. But I find myself reading a lot of material written by others, and then I go back and read my old blogs, and biasedly...I prefer my shit.  Writing, and content in general, is all about making a product you would like to consume. I don't really care what other people think, because chances are I'm funnier than them anyway.  At least, I think I am, and as I mentioned all of this content is really only for me. In the past I've focused heavily on writing about sports...and I think...