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Once out of the snow, the Cleveland Browns slid closer to a spot in the AFC playoffs. Jamal Lewis plowed for 163 yards and Phil Dawson somehow kicked two field goals through harsh, wintry winds as the surprising Browns improved their postseason chances with an 8-0 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. In blizzard-like conditions better suited for the Iditarod sled-dog race, the Browns (9-5), who never figured to be playing meaningful games in December when the season started, picked up one of their biggest wins since returning as an expansion franchise in 1999. Cleveland needed a win and...

BEREA Page 33 of the 2007 NFL Fact and Record book doesn’t quite say, “Attention, Browns: Beat Buffalo, or your season could be toast.’’ It might as well. Listed on that page are NFL postseason tie-breaking procedures. If the Bills win at Cleveland Sunday, both they and the Browns will be 8-6. If both Cleveland and Buffalo then win out to finish at 10-6 — and the second wild-card spot comes down to one of them — tiebreaker No. 1 for two clubs not in the same division would kick in: “Head to head, if applicable.’’ Being applicable, the term...

Quarterback Derek Anderson keeps pushing the Browns toward the playoffs. With the 27-17 victory Sunday over the Texans, Anderson improved to 7-3 on the season and went over .500 for his career at 7-6. "He's a money player, that's what I call him," said receiver Braylon Edwards. "He made some tremendous throws, especially to Kellen [Winslow]. He calls them seeds and threw a couple of seeds to Kellen. He threaded it through some coverage and the ball was just right there. Kellen just had to stick his hands out." Anderson fired some laser shots into double and triple coverage, including...

The Browns' 33-30 overtime win Sunday was proof the ball is now bouncing their way. A crushing, heartbreaking defeat to the rival Baltimore Ravens on Sunday was averted when a controversial, game-tying field goal by Phil Dawson at the end of regulation took a crazy bounce. The 51-yard kick into the wind glanced off the left upright and bounced off a metal support behind the crossbar. The ball then was ejected forward through the goalposts. It looked like a blocked shot in basketball. One field official immediately signaled the kick no good, and the Ravens danced off the field with...

Concord – U.S. marshals posing as supporters carried out the arrests of convicted tax-evaders Ed and Elaine Brown at their fortress-like home in Plainfield, the head marshal said Friday. “They invited us in, and we escorted them out,” U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said in the first public disclosure of details of the Thursday night arrest. A small team of marshals pulled off the ruse, arresting the Browns without incident on the couple’s front porch, Monier said. The arrests ended a months-long standoff that began when the Brown, 65, and his dentist wife, 67, walked out of their federal trial in...

Anderson's two touchdown passes lead Browns 27-13 over ragged Ravens 1 hour ago CLEVELAND - Picked on for years, the Cleveland Browns finally gave a black eye to one of the NFL's biggest bullies. Derek Anderson threw two touchdown passes, Jamal Lewis ran for one against his former team and the Browns, considered the 98-pound weaklings of the rugged AFC North, surprised the Baltimore Ravens 27-13 Sunday. With their second win over a division opponent this month, the Browns (2-2) looked nothing like the inept team that was embarrassed 34-7 in their home opener three weeks ago by Pittsburgh. Instead,...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Picked on for years, the Cleveland Browns finally gave a black eye to one of the NFL's biggest bullies. Derek Anderson threw two touchdown passes, Jamal Lewis ran for one against his former team and the Browns, considered the 98-pound weaklings of the rugged AFC North, surprised the Baltimore Ravens 27-13 Sunday. With their second win over a division opponent this month, the Browns (2-2) looked nothing like the inept team that was embarrassed 34-7 in their home opener three weeks ago by Pittsburgh. Instead, Anderson, who has had a tendency to make poor decisions, made mostly...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Browns plan to have their locker room rebuilt and their stadium ready for Cleveland's first preseason game after a waterfall containing thousands of gallons of water and some sewage flooded the eight-year-old structure recently. Old pipes in Cleveland's water system are largely to blame, city and stadium officials said Wednesday. Iron deposits flaked off the inside of the pipes and clogged toilet valves, causing a 160,000-gallon holding tank -- necessary for when thousands of fans go to the restrooms at halftime -- to overflow. "Picture a waterfall," said Carl Meyer, Browns vice president of security and...

CONCORD, N.H. -- Convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown have gained a new supporter: presidential hopeful Ron Paul. In an interview with RogueGovernment.com, the U.S. Representative from Texas compared the Browns to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He said the Browns are suffering like those leaders. The Browns are holed up in their Plainfield, N.H., home and have threatened violence against federal officials if marshals come to arrest them. They were convicted of an elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income. Their protest has become a rallying cry for anti-tax activists and militia members.

Jurors deliberated just one day before finding Juan Luna guilty Thursday of killing seven people in a Palatine Brown's Chicken restaurant in 1993, bringing a swift and tearful end to a 14-year wait for victims' families. As the guilty verdicts were read, family members of the victims clutched one another and prayed. Luna sighed heavily. He removed his wire-frame glasses to wipe tears from his face with a white napkin. Luna, 33, was convicted after a 14-day trial in Cook County Criminal Court that repeatedly told—and showed—how the victims were found shot and stuffed in a cooler and freezer."This is...

With the blessing of DollyCali, I will be your host for this, the NFL Draft weekend! A certain percentage of you probably don't know me, and some of you do. So let me give you the crash course, impromptu introduction... GOP_Raider, a distinguished and wise poster at Free Republic, is a senior fellow at the National Institute of Hitting It. He is the author of such wisecracks as "Does Ted Kennedy cure hangovers by never sobering up?" and "Annoying liberals before annoying liberals was cool." GOP_Raider is single and lives in a well-armed compound somewhere in the western United States....

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Browns finally tackled Jamal Lewis. Unable to reach a deal to remain in Baltimore, the free agent running back signed a one-year deal on Wednesday with Cleveland, the team he blistered for an NFL single-game record 295 yards in 2003. Lewis was released last week in a salary-cap move by the Ravens, who elected not to pay their career rushing leader a $5 million roster bonus. He'll now join the Browns, Baltimore's AFC North rival, who were last in the league in rushing in 2006.

The Cleveland Browns stumbled to a 6-10 record last year, their third straight losing season. Browns Stadium was sold out for every game. The Kansas City Chiefs entered the season with high hopes, but missed the playoffs for the second year in a row. Arrowhead Stadium was sold out for every game. The Philadelphia Eagles plummeted to a 6-10 mark, their worst since 1999. Lincoln Financial Field was sold out for every game. Such steadfast support is the reason why Cleveland, Kansas City and Philadelphia are 1-2-3 in Bizjournals's new rankings of National Football League fan loyalty. (Click here for...

Less than a month before their first preseason game, the Browns are looking for a new television partner after terminating their relationship with WOIO Channel 19. The Browns notified the station of their intention on Thursday, three days after Channel 19 aired the 911 tape of Nancy Fisher, sister of Browns owner Randy Lerner, finding her 6-year-old daughter drowned in a creek on family property in Mantua. Channel 19 was the only station to air the gruesome portion of Fisher's emergency call. Bill Bonsiewicz, Browns spokesman, confirmed the team is looking for a new station to air its four preseason...

The Browns looked in their own back yard to bolster the team on a frenzied first day of free agency. They signed two-time Pro Bowl guard/center LeCharles Bentley of St. Ignatius and Ohio State, and receiver Joe Jurevicius of Mentor's Lake Catholic High - and were finalizing a deal for punter Dave Zastudil of Bay Village, who visited Saturday and had dinner with team officials. They also signed former Falcons left tackle Kevin Shaffer to replace L.J. Shelton. "We definitely wanted to jump out early, and we feel like we helped ourselves, especially on the offensive line," said Browns General...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Feb. 2, 2006) -- A few dozen combat-wounded leathernecks recovering in National Capital Region hospitals are bound for Detroit to attend the biggest sports event of the year. The Cleveland Browns organization, in unity with the National Football League, has donated 50 Super Bowl tickets to Marine veterans who received combat injuries while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The block of tickets, which has a street value of nearly $250,000, was given to Manpower and Reserve Affairs to be disseminated to the Marines in the region who meet the medical criteria for attending to the...

CLEVELAND (AP) - The fan who ran onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium during a Steelers-Browns game was sentenced Tuesday to spend Super Bowl weekend in jail. Nathan Mallett, 24, will begin his three-day sentence on Feb. 3 and won't be allowed to watch the Feb. 5 game on television or listen to it on radio. Municipal Court Judge Joan Synenberg ordered Mallett not to attend Browns games in Cleveland or any other city for five years as a condition of his probation. He also most perform 150 hours of community service with Browns charities. He could have been...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Sudden turmoil and rumors twisting around the Cleveland Browns led to something factual: their first division win. Dennis Northcutt's 62-yard punt return for a touchdown helped the Browns close a tumultuous final weekend Sunday with a 20-16 win over the Baltimore Ravens, who finished 0-8 on the road. Earlier this season, Northcutt twice brought back punts for TDs only to have them nullified by penalties. But after his third-quarter jaunt, when he reversed field and picked up some blocks, Northcutt checked to be certain there were no penalty flags and waved his arms like an official....

Steeler's LB James Harrison body slams Cleveland Browns fan Slideshow:http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/slideshow/sports/5662526/detail.html Excellent video here:http://kdka.com/video/?id=11977@kdka.dayport.com (flash player and video plays in browser window) CLEVELAND -- A Cleveland fan found out the hard way what his favorite team already knows: It's not a good idea to mess with a Pittsburgh linebacker. About six minutes into the fourth quarter of Saturday's Steelers-Browns game, the fan jumped a railing and sprinted onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium. With his pants falling down, the man jumped around, waved his hands in the air and moved toward Pittsburgh's bench -- until James Harrison snatched him from...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Peter Lavelle) - For some reason a subterranean belief persists among Russia-watchers and members of the media that the Russian electorate remains enamored with the political extremes of the old Communist left and the seemingly resurgent ultra-nationalist right. A closer look proves the opposite. The majority of voters have supported the Kremlin’s middle-of-the-road “party of power” and is set to do so for some time to come. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and the so-called ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky have declined relative to other parties...