Browns may have gotten a STEAL in Isaiah Bond; UDFA WR will NOT face charges in sexual assault case

Browns may have gotten a STEAL in Isaiah Bond; UDFA WR will NOT face charges in sexual assault case

Yeah guys, I want to remind everybody that this episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy. Fantasy Football is back. Fire up the group chat and get your draft board ready and buckle up for a season filled with breakouts, busts, and all the overreactions that we live for. It’s all going down on Yahoo Fantasy. This year, UCSS is back on Yahoo Fantasy, and you should be too, whether you’re a first timer or a veteran, making it your millionth league. Yahoo Fantasy user interface is my favorite. I love it more than all the other fantasy apps, and to celebrate 28 years of fantasy greatness, Yahoo is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days, giving you more ways to play, more ways to draft, and more ways to win. And it all begins on August 4th. So stay tuned and get started by creating or joining a Yahoo Fantasy Football league at yahoofantasy.com/lockdownFL. That’s yahoofantasy.com/lockdownFL. And let’s make this fantasy season the best one yet. So a few minutes after the Quinhaw Judkins news came out yesterday, Adam Schefter popped up on all of our Twitter feeds and said, undrafted free agent wide receiver Isaiah Bond had been no billed in his sexual assault case going back to Texas. Bond, if you guys remember, was a highly touted prospect coming out of Texas. Most draft analysts had him with a top 100 grade. These. Sexual assault charges came up about 2 2.5 weeks before the draft. He ends up going undrafted and then just moments later Bond put out a statement by himself on social media thanking the Cleveland Browns, thanking Jimmy Haslam, thanking Andrew Berry, and essentially. Announced he was signing with the Cleveland Browns. Now Mary Kay and other reporters have said he has not officially signed, but if you were to read that letter that you see on the screen, I know it’s in Tiny font, and it’s really small. He literally calls out the Browns, thanks Mr. Haslam, thanks Andrew Berry for their patience and their understanding of the situation. So all indications are that he will sign with the Browns. GeBush, I know Bond was a guy you had, uh, quite some interest in pre-draft. We had a topic on would you draft him? With these concerns, and you were the only one at the time that said give me the best players on the field, and he would have been one of the best guys in the round if the Browns went, you said 3rd round, but in hindsight now he’s officially been no build that means no charges are coming. Are you a fan of this move? Look, um, I, I always, I always tell people like this. There’s a, there’s a process in the National Football League where they’re gonna look at your, your merits on whatever you do off the field. There’s a process in the in the United States of America where they’re gonna look at the merits of a case and see whether or not they can indict you or bring any charges. Um, where it was at, they decided not to bring any charges just like Quinshaw Jenkins. Um, the NFL has a different burden of proof and so they’ll probably investigate him, look at what happened in the case, and, and they’ll extrapolate and decide whether they’re gonna give him a suspension or not, uh, in terms of the optics of it, I mean, yes, it’s not, it’s it’s kind of I was just laughing and joking about it because, you know. At the end of the day we wanna talk about football, so you know I try to keep it as light hard as possible in a situation where it’s kind of serious, but it was almost like the Browns was like, listen, well they let Jutkins off, so I mean we gonna they might, we might get killed for this for a couple of days. We might as well go ahead and sneak this other joint right under the under the under the rug and just had to kill two birds with one stone like let’s just go ahead and make a move and for me. This is just how and I wanna just tell people, the NFL has signified something. Let me just tell y’all something right now. The NFL has signified something that says if you are looking for us to be your moral compass, this is not the place to be because we’re gonna show you that we are in this as to win and we want the best players. If you’re not, if you didn’t, if they didn’t convict you, if they didn’t, if they’re not, if you ain’t going to jail. I’ll tell you like this. Somebody is going to sign Henry Ruggs. I’m gonna just let y’all know right now and, and unfortunately in the Henry Ruggs situation somebody lost their life. You see what I’m saying? You can’t come back from that. So when, when we watch these things take place and there’s gambling going over here and then there’s, there’s domestic violence, I always tell people and I, I always try to let them know, listen guys. That ain’t this ain’t the, the, the, the pantheon in which you wanna just get your role models from. This isn’t where you wanna, you know, take your moral stances because at the end of the day this is a stone cold business. I, I look at what happened to Nick Chubb. Nick Chubb ain’t never did nothing to nobody. He couldn’t play no more in, in their eyes, he’s on to another team. This is just what the thing is, and at the end of the day, Brown’s made a decision. They, because they have no receivers and he’s fast, he was gonna be a mid-round pick. And guess what, they saw the value, they took him. Jason. Yeah, the, the Browns. Jimmy Haslam has tried to spend his way to a championship 4 years. Can we agree on that? Yes. Nobody spends more. Nobody wants to win more than Jimmy Haslam. But the Browns have a culture problem. Can we agree on that? This is why. This is why they have a culture problem because they keep doing stuff like this. There’s a mark against him against Isaiah, regardless of what he did or didn’t do. There’s a mark against him and if he is innocent, then I feel sorry for him, but the Browns cashed all their chips in on DeShawn, and they got no return on it. The Browns keep selling their credibility and they keep selling their soul on junk bonds. And this is what you get. So what has been for all these chances they’ve taken on, guys, what’s been the payoff for it? Where’s the big benefit then? Josh Gordon? What’d you get out of it? One year? One year? Kareem Hunt, he for the most part, he kept himself in line after he got here, but did he have a major impact on winning when he was here? Really, — did
— he? He helped, but he’s not the main reason. — He had a
— couple of these like Freddy Kitchens actually did the — best job figuring out how to use Nick Chubb and
— the game, the game was pretty dynamic when he was here. He was, but, but I tell you, I guess your point is they didn’t win a Super Bowl. Did he winning at a high level. They didn’t win no Super Bowl. So what have they gotten for all of these chances? There are franchises who have earned the right to take chances on guys with a checkered past. The Browns are not one of them. Baltimore is one of them. I mean, yeah, Balti there are the Patriots back when Tom was there. There are franchises who when they elevate themselves to a certain level, when they win at a certain level, when they act like adults, when they are professionals about how they go about doing their business, you earn the opportunity to take advantage on maybe one or two guys with a checkered past. The Browns just take them all and what has been the payoff? And I guess like I’m a little annoyed because I turned my head on the DeShawn thing. Against all the allegations against him because I understood why they did it. I’ve said it 100 times. They needed a franchise quarterback. They didn’t think the one they had was good enough. They saw an opportunity to go out and get a get a guy who never becomes available, and they said we’re gonna go for it, and they gave up the house, the farm, the cars, they gave up all of it and it blew up in their face. And when you sell your soul so many times, you get nothing to show for it. It’s like, why are we doing this? Why and you put your fans in a terrible position. Of having to choose and they don’t care. They don’t care if they cared, I’m pro dome. I think the dome’s a great idea. De Haslam came out and said we want to do it’s in the best interests of the fans. If you wanna do it’s in the best interest of the fans, why didn’t you put it on the ballot? Why didn’t you give the fans a voice in this? Because you knew it was gonna fail and you did it anyway. And that’s the, that’s the problem I have that’s the frustration that I have with it. Is they keep doing this over and over and over. This is why they have a culture problem because they keep taking chances on guys like this and they never get the payoff for it because they are not an organization that is built or able to withstand it and so they just keep doing this over and over and over again had they hit on some of these receivers that they’ve drafted and that they’ve. Traded for over the years they wouldn’t have to do this but because they keep missing in the draft, they have to take chances like this and I don’t put this on Barry this is Jimmy Haslam. This is your organization what are you going to stand for? What are you gonna stand for? You’ve already shown what you stood for and by the way, all the women who worked for you, you’ve now put them in another uncomfortable position and there’s a lot of them and now they have to go through this all over again. I have a couple of thoughts on this and I’m not sure I go as far as you or as opposite end as G. I look at it as if the Browns were worried about losing fans due to them signing players with questionable past. Anyone who hadn’t left after Deshaun Watson, they’re, they’re here forever. Like they’re, they’re not leaving. Nothing’s going to change that. So I, I, I use the analogy before the show. If you’re gonna cheat on your diet, don’t have a munchkin. Go to Mitchell’s and get a, a damn ice cream. Don’t have a little nibble of a piece of pizza, eat the whole damn pie. If you’re OK as an organization with the allegations from DeShawn and what happened with Mike Hall and even before with Malik McDowell and some of the other guys erry on when for all these characters that have had. Issues and run-ins, domestic violence, domestic assault, all that stuff then. Isaiah Bond’s not changing anyone’s opinion. An undrafted free agent who I don’t even know all the details of the case. I’m not gonna pretend to, to know. Got no build in a situation like that. They they’re just at this point, they’re just saying screw it, we need players. What cures all that? Winning. If this guy can turn into a good player, everyone will forget the pass. My issue more with anything else is. I don’t think Ivan’s that good, guys. I know he had a top 100-ish draft grade, but this was the guy that after Alabama lost to Michigan in the college football playoff two years ago, asked Nick Saban for a raise the day after that game. And you know what Nick Saban did 3 days later retired. He never named Isaiahan as the player that led him to say this just isn’t for me anymore, but you could add the pieces together. I’m not sure if it’s exactly that plus that, 1 + 1 equal 2, but it certainly doesn’t help. He went to Texas, expected to be he was one of the top transfers in the entire country. He was the third receiver. He was fine. He put up decent numbers. He’s fast as hell, ran a 43 9 40, like dude could run, he’s got questionable hands, not a great catch radius. He’s a little undersized. I didn’t love him as a prospect. I don’t necessarily love taking the flyer on this, but. I also understand why the Browns are doing it because they’re just throwing their hands up and saying, we, we already dipped our toes in. That’s what I said after DeShawn. That’s exactly what I said. I understand why they did it because they didn’t have a quarterback that they believed in and they and where did it get them? I, I look at it like this. I, I, I’m, I guess I’m a little more cynical at this point. Like there is no, I, I tell this to the people all the time, um, nowadays where we are in society, we are. Entrenched in whatever tribe we are in, it don’t, it goes down the line when you put colors on and jerseys on, it is, and, and I understand what Jason is saying because this becomes your identity. That’s why people get upset because they’re saying I don’t morally agree with that, but you’re doing something. That is, is opposite of what I believe in, but when I put the browns colors on, I believe this is me, this is my identity, it’s part of my collective group of how we think our ideology, but at this point I think that the NFL and, and, and business owners in exactly what they are, um, they’ve come up with and understand that it doesn’t matter. If that is your ideology and that is your new religion and, and you will support your team through come hell or high water, they came up and finally realized that it doesn’t matter where the names go. The names, the names come, they come and go, but the colors in the city and where you at, it stays forever, so everything is a short term. Answer. So if they say, OK, we might take a couple of hits in the summertime, but guess what? When you see, when these games come on, how many packages is they gonna drop? How many jerseys are we not gonna sell, right? We got like they’re not, we, we are who we are like yeah we missed Nick Chubb and we miss other people, but guess what? They made the decision that mm this is a business and. More than anything, we appeal to people’s need, want, and willingness to win at all costs, and that is the calculus. If Isaiah Bond goes out and becomes a 1000 yard receiver and a legitimate weapon for the Browns, no one is going to care what happened in his pre-draft. Exactly right. It’s exactly what we just talked about with DeShawn 10 minutes ago, 15 minutes and if he doesn’t, and he pan and he doesn’t pan out. It never turns into a player. It’s gonna be another black mark on the Browns front and I’m not putting it just on Barry, it’s on the entire front office, ownership on down to the lowest person in the front office. Another black mark on a guy that they try and took a swing on and frankly missed, and then we could go back and say, was the juice really juice really worth the squeeze when we first made the move? And so far, to your point earlier, Jason. They haven’t hit on any of these guys. Terryon Winfrey, Malik McDowell, DeShawn, — Mike Hall is too
— early to call when John Judkins at this point, he could turn out to be really good, but even there’s no return from that yet either. Even with Judkins and Hall, they were here before. I put them in a separate category because they had drafted him and then they get in trouble and and whatever. When you actively pursue guys who have these marks against you, but Hall had them coming out of college. Judkins had the he had a sketchy past, but the one that I mean the incident that we all are referring to from last year, at least he was already in the building. Yeah, you took a chance on him, but nothing in his past had escalated to the level of what we saw wind up in court last year. And same thing with Judkins where you take the guy and then this happens, OK, well, now what do you do? he’s already in the building when you pursue the guys who have these marks against them and you invite them in. And you don’t get a return on that. What are we doing here? And they keep doing it over and over and over again. You know it’s crazy before we move on? If on March 15th. A month before the draft. I told any Browns fan. That by the end of the draft, the Browns were gonna end up with Mason Graham. Shadore Sanders, Quinan Judkins, Isaiah Bond, Carson Schwinger, Harold Fanning. And Dylan Samson, we would have said the absolute home run, slam dunk, hole in one, you make all the stupid sports analogies you want that aren’t football touchdown. That is a grand win. I don’t even mention the quarterback they took before Shadoor Sanders, by the way. How they got there is certainly a lot different than — how I
— love their draft and I like we, we did the regrade the draft, you know, after the, the Judkins thing. My grade didn’t change. I thought it was a great draft. I, I just think this is completely unnecessary. Yes, the receiver room is lacking. That’s your own fault because you can’t draft and you can’t. And by the way, Deonte Johnson apparently has fallen off a cliff in the last two weeks of camp and isn’t. I I think jeopardy of not making this roster. Hey, listen, man, I, I will say this, there’s always if, if those guys turn out to be good, it’s funny that you go from the worst to people saying this is the draft that got people extensions. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen that much give between, it’s, it’s fascinating. We’ll see.

The sexual assault case against former Texas wide receiver Isaiah Bond has been no-billed and he faces no further criminal charges, Collin County (Texas) District Attorney Greg Willis said Thursday.

“After reviewing all the evidence presented, a Collin County grand jury returned a ‘no bill’ in the sexual assault charge involving Isaiah Bond , meaning no indictment will be issued,” Willis said in a statement. “This concludes the criminal proceedings in this matter.”

Shortly after news of the case being closed broke, Bond posted a statement on Instagram indicating he plans to sign with the Cleveland Browns.

Bond thanked the Browns “for believing in me” and said he was “grateful for the decision of the prosecutor and the courts not to pursue charges.”

He added: “I’m determined to prove the Browns organization and everyone who believes in me right for putting their trust in me.”

Sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, however, that no deal between Bond and the Browns has been finalized. | https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45980953/ex-texas-wr-isaiah-bond-no-longer-faces-charges-agent-says

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