Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: Hmmm ... that's interesting

Ron Borges of the Boston Globe is known for a fairly loose interpretation of journalistic standards. He’s been known, for example, to go on the radio and publicly proclaim things told to him off the record, while naming the sources in the process.

Even a first-week intern at the TinyTown Gazette knows that revealing off-the-record sources, while certainly not illegal, is definitely a breach of journalistic ethics.

So would it surprise folks out there if he culled his stories from other outlets?

You decide for yourself. We certainly can’t provide a definitive answer.

But we do know this:

Back on Dec. 2, 2004, in the fledgling early days of this fact-filled monstrosity of a Web site, we published a very fact-filled look at the Cleveland Browns dynasty of the 1940s and 1950s. We proclaimed it “pro football’s greatest dynasty.” We proclaimed its quarterback, Otto Graham, “the greatest winner in pro football history.”

Then last week, on Jan. 21, 2007, Borges wrote an article for the Boston Globe in which he declared the Browns of the same era “the dynasty of dynasties” and Otto Graham “the greatest winning quarterback in the game’s history.”

Sound familiar?

It does to us, too.

As one e-mailer wrote to the Cold, Hard Football Facts this week: "The Cleveland Browns story, WOW. When I copied a story in 6th grade, they sent me to the principal's office."

Of course, Borges and his intellectual and journalistic superiors, the Cold, Hard Football Facts, are not the only people to describe the Browns in such glowing terms. So, it could be just coincidence. But, some would argue, there is no such thing as coincidence.

We do know this: Borges does, in fact, read the Cold, Hard Football Facts, most likely in an effort to learn a bit more about the game. We also know that no outlet has devoted more space and resources to highlighting the greatness of those Cleveland Browns teams than the Cold, Hard Football Facts. The short list of Browns-oriented items (must be our Cleveland bias) we've run includes:

That two-plus-year-old look at the Browns dynasty
The inclusion of two Cleveland Browns on our epic All-Time 11
Our recent list of all-time great rivalries
The numerous mentions of the Browns this year in our weekly “This date in pro football” feature
Our recent ode to Paul Brown and his impact on the Super Bowl

We’re not accusin’ – we’re just pointing it out.

By the way, one thing you will notice: Our story, which was probably more entertaining and readable, was also filled with many more details about the Browns dynasty, including many aspects of the team that Borges overlooked or was simply ignorant of.

But, hey, what do you expect?