Jarvis Landry Promises That Browns Will Beat Patriots, But Quickly Clarifies To Avoid 'Guarantee' Talk
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- On Wednesday, Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens told reporters that he has informed his players that they are not playing against a "normal" team this weekend.
Jarvis Landry isn't scared.
The former Dolphin-turned-Brown is quite familiar with facing the Patriots, having played against them twice a year during his four years with the Dolphins. Landry was a part of three Miami wins over the Patriots, and that may be a factor in the receiver's confidence for the forthcoming weekend.
"We're gonna win," Landry said Thursday. "It's just that simple. We're gonna win."
Considering the Browns are 2-4, considering the Patriots are 7-0, considering the Patriots boast one of the most dominant defenses in history, considering quarterbacks in their first two NFL seasons have an abysmal record at Gillette Stadium against Bill Belichick, considering Baker Mayfield has been an interception factory this season, and considering the Browns' head coach is almost certainly not qualified to be an NFL head coach ... that's a bold statement from Jarvis.
That's why his comment immediately spread like wildfire on the internet machine. The hamsters were running extra hard down at the internet plant to make sure everybody could fire off their GIF responses on Twitter.
Mary Kay Cabot then got a clarification from Landry, who perhaps had heard some of that instant reaction:
If we're doing the GIF response thing, allow me to weight in:
Do you know who else was not buying it? The New England Patriots were not buying it.
And that includes the big dog.
An unnamed Patriots player told Tom E. Curran that Bill Belichick has already informed the team of the non-guaranteed guarantee.
That's not good for the Browns. Not at all.
To be fair, further analysis of Landry's comments do make it seem like he might have been talking about the post-bye week Browns in general, rather than just this week. But because it's Patriots week in Cleveland, Landry had to have known that anything and everything he said would be heavily scrutinized.
And if he were to have been expressing confidence against the Patriots, it could be understood. With Miami teams that were always considered underdogs against the Patriots, Landry has slain the beast in the past.
The last time Landry faced New England (Monday Night Football in 2017), he caught eight passes for 46 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-20 Miami victory. He caught eight passes for 70 yards in the prior meeting with the Patriots that year. He also caught six passes for 72 yards in a Week 17 victory over the Patriots in 2015, a game remembered locally as The Steven Jackson Game.
So, understandably, the pro football player thinks his pro football team can beat the other pro football team in the pro football game this weekend. If he didn't think that way, he probably wouldn't bother showing up to work on Sunday.
But that doesn't mean we all can't react a little bit on a Thursday. The juice (get it??!) cannot be put back into the bottle.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
