A tempest in a teapot, it turns out. That’s how Browns coach Todd Monken appeared to characterize a story from this weekend’s game between Cleveland and the Saints in New Orleans, during which CBS reporter AJ Ross relayed a story Monken had told. In it, Monken asked quarterback Shedeur Sanders what plays he might like to run to start the game, and Sanders apparently rattled off some plays that were not in the Browns playbook. That did not arouse much controversy, not until Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports saw it and railed against Sanders because of it, suggesting that it was part of a pattern with Sanders, in this case, not knowing the playbook.
Cowherd tied it back into what he called Sanders’, “lack of self-awareness and just juvenile, immature behavior.”
And this morning, 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland and host Ken Carman repeated the story, suggesting the Browns should be “done” with Sanders if the playbook story were true.
Browns’ Todd Monken: Shedeur Sanders Story ‘No Big Deal’
On Wednesday afternoon in Berea, Monken addressed the media for the first time since the story emerged. The Browns coach was not surprised that the topic was broached, but was, more generally, suprised it ever became a story at all.
Said Monken: “It is hilarious that it has gone this far. Shedeur, what do you like? Well, I like this, this and this. Yeah, I know but how about we talk about, you know, what we run, you know what I am saying? It was fun, it was him and I together. It wasn’t a sit-down, it might have been in the hallway. It was a normal day-to-day, you know—it’s the same with coaches, coaches have ideas. So do players. … That’s just the nature of it. I get a really big kick out of it because it was just really, just a normal day-to-day of what a quarterback likes. It should be important what a quarterback likes and what a quarterback doesn’t like.”
In the end, Monken’s final verdict on playbook-gate: “I didn’t see it as a big deal, it really isn’t a big deal.”
Browns’ Todd Monken Blows off ‘Hilarious’ Shedeur Sanders Controversy