Ineligible Man Downfield, Vol. 3: Maybe The Real Friends Are The Joker Tattoos We Got Along The Way
Also inside: updates on several notable Browns, Indians injury updates and more.
"Can you believe it?”
Joe Schobert’s time with the Browns is over
Baker Mayfield’s been reading his Instagram comments
Mike Clevinger is already back throwing
The Browns have their eye on two veteran quarterbacks ahead of free agency
The team may also go to Wisconsin for training camp practices
Jordan Clarkson reuniting his old Cavs teammates is too pure for this world
The elf appears to be on the Browns’ draft hat!!!
Odell Beckham figures to be a big part of the Browns new uniform reveal
Kareem Hunt won’t be charged after his January incident
Franmil Reyes is raking in camp and is apparently 18 pounds lighter
A Trump aide will be visiting a prison later this week with the Cavs
A note for cord-cutters: YouTube TV no longer carries Fox Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio
Congrats to Cleveland State coach Dennis Gates
The Browns have hired a director of high performance
In preps: Babe Kwasniak, a three-time state title winner, is out at Villa Angela-St. Joseph as announced by VASJ athletic director (and former NFL quarterback) Elvis Grbac.
”Swung on, deep to left field, it is…. GONE!”
‘Joker’ tattoos: Extremely overrated
Last week, on the night he had maybe the best game of his career, Cavs rookie Kevin Porter Jr. debuted a new tattoo on his hand: The “Joker”’s smile.
Porter will not be the last athlete to get a “Joker” tattoo. At this point, it’s a cliche among athletes. Odell Beckham Jr. has a “Joker” tattoo. So do George Kittle and DeMar DeRozan. Kevin Love tattooed the Joker onto his Instagram. A ton of athletes also have gone as The Clown Prince of Crime for Halloween, including Iman Shumpert when he was with the Cavs. The appeal is obvious: the “Joker” is pure chaos in character form, regardless of what medium he’s appearing in. When he appears, the whole world reacts to him. He’s unquestionably iconic, from Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ take to Jack Nicholson — Mark Hamil’s depiction to Heath Ledger’s to Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s to Joaquin Phoenix’s and many, many more.
The fact that it’s cliche is why athletes should start looking at other places for pop culture-inspired tattoos. Too many people have “Joker” tattoos for them to be cool or original now. And, to be frank, The Joker is played out as a character. Takes on the character — who has been around since Batman #1 in 1940 — probably peaked when Ledger did the role. Phoenix’s take is fine, although that movie has been overhyped. Jared Leto’s version has already been forgotten. And in the comics, he’s just around too much to be scary anymore and is used to create really dumb characters like The Batman Who Laughs. His punchlines just don’t land the same anymore.
To Porter’s credit, he at least got a more unique Joker tattoo than some of the others by opting for that blood-red smile as opposed to a full-blown portrait. But it’s still another tattoo of the character that so many other athletes already have. It’s time for a new muse.
My suggestion: Kite Man. Hell yeah. — Chris Manning
The Dawg Pound
At The Athletic: Zac Jackson with a very good dispatch from Indianapolis ($)
At Lets Go Tribe, Matt Lyons makes the argument for the Indians to lockdown relievers before arbitration hits
Paul Hoynes profiled Bradley Zimmer
Channing Frye’s spot on Bull & Fox was great
The Salt Lake Tribune’s Eric Walden caught up with Dante Exum
Trivia corner
Question, via Matt LaWell: Kevin Porter Jr. is flashing his Joker tattoo enough for Chris to write about it (but not enough for it to show up in Google image searches yet). Decades ago, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School required a teenage LeBron James to cover up his tattoos. More recently, the NBA required the same thing — for at least one design — of what other former Cavalier?
Send in your answers to ineligiblecleveland@gmail.com — the first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in the newsletter next wee
Last week’s question: Lonnie Chisenhall, who retired this week, primarily wore No. 8 for the Indians. But what number did he wear when he debuted with the club in 2011?
Answer: No. 27. Congratulations to Matt LeWell for answering this one right first and in person, nonetheless.
This section is brought to you by Three Roads Games, a pretty great Cleveland trivia company with multiple weekly games.
Who we are
Chris Manning: Site Manager at Fear the Sword, co-host of the Locked on Cavs podcast, words at places like Cleveland Magazine and Forbes. On Twitter @cwmwrites
Jordan Zirm: Social editor at @TheCheckdown. Formerly of ESPN Cleveland. Words at B/R, SB Nation and UPROXX. On Twitter @clevezirm