Brady Quinn puts his Notre Dame education to good use...

[JayDizzle]

As Per Shutdown Corner:

ESPN's John Clayton stuck an interesting tidbit about the Cleveland Browns quarterback battle in his latest report from Browns training camp (also known as the Eric Mangini control festival). It seems that young Brady Quinn(notes) is not above a little bit of chicanery in his quest to win the Browns' starting quarterback job.

Derek Anderson(notes) said the radio receiver in his helmet wasn't working Sunday, so he had to work with hand signals. Anderson said Brady Quinn, who was quarterbacking the White team, schooled White defenders on those hand signals, which made it harder for Anderson to work a drive filled with short passes.

Helping the defense intercept signals during a scrimmage in order to gain an edge in a training camp position battle ... that's kind of awesome.

Quinn has not had a chance to respond to Clayton's report. But if it's true, is what he did cheating? I guess you could call it cheating. Is it unethical? Probably. Would I do it? I would absolutely do it.

And before passing judgment, remember that we don't know all the circumstances here. Maybe it was a scrimmage where something was on the line. For example, maybe the Brown team got out of practice early if they won, or maybe the White team got Popsicles if they won.

Maybe Quinn was just practicing the stealing of signals for the regular season, in which case, it's something that would be beneficial to everyone in the Browns organization, would it not?

Maybe there was a purpose beyond, "Screw Derek Anderson, I'm trying to win this job."

Or maybe there wasn't. Does there have to be? I would guess that Eric Mangini wants his players to be that competitive about their spots. If it's not something that's hurting the team (and it's not, since it's a scrimmage), where's the harm?

Is this a dick move? Probably. But I have to agree with the author in that this is pretty damn smart when both dudes need this job.

[steeljake]

this is gayness on the part of quinn. skillz need to detrermine the winner of this job, not who can be the most gansta.

[Irish]

Thats my boy, doing whatever he can to win the job

[Boucher]

Brady Quinn is smart, shame on dumbass Anderson.

[Fox1994]

That's underhanded. At that point, it's not actual competition for the starting job, it's just cheating. Of course, Quinn will probably win, anyway, seeing as how the organization has so much vested in him and Anderson hasn't proven he can perform consistently.

[Kuzzy Powers]

The most pathetic thing here is that Brady Quinn still has to compete with Derek Anderson for a starting job on a rebuilding team..

[BigBiss]

This is like standing behind the scout team and pointing were the ball is going for your home boy, he looks good in practice, but you know hes going to be embarrassed on game day

[Maynard]

this is gayness on the part of quinn. skillz need to detrermine the winner of this job, not who can be the most gansta.

one of the skills in football is intelligence.

I suspect that if big ben picked up on some of the pats signals that you would expect him to just keep that info to himself. of course being a steelers fan it is not an expectation of anyone that you understand this post

sidenote: the browns 3rd string QB threw and INT today.....big fuking deal right? problem was that he did when trying to spike the ball

[Deviant]

I like that. A quarterback going all out to win the job. Thumbs up in my book.

He already has part of the name of one:

[Woy]

Brady Quinn is a fucking douche. He blows.

[KillaK]

one of the skills in football is intelligence.

I suspect that if big ben picked up on some of the pats signals that you would expect him to just keep that info to himself. of course being a steelers fan it is not an expectation of anyone that you understand this post

sidenote: the browns 3rd string QB threw and INT today.....big fuking deal right? problem was that he did when trying to spike the ball

I really wish I could have seen a video of that.

[Hasselbeck]

The most pathetic thing here is that Brady Quinn still has to compete with Derek Anderson for a starting job on a rebuilding team..

That's Mangini for you.

The Browns are going to be so bad.

[steeljake]

What if neither player has these so called "skillz" that you speak of? Then what?

then it is bussiness as usual in cleveland.

[steeljake]

one of the skills in football is intelligence.

I suspect that if big ben picked up on some of the pats signals that you would expect him to just keep that info to himself. of course being a steelers fan it is not an expectation of anyone that you understand this post

sidenote: the browns 3rd string QB threw and INT today.....big fuking deal right? problem was that he did when trying to spike the ball

how is ben picking up on signals from belicheat the same as quinn having to cheat his way into a starting spot on the browns? you really need to lay off the drugs.

the spiked ball INT was funny tho, so +1. i sure hope there is youtube video of this at some point.

[padman59]

Anderson was joking with reporters when he made the comment. This looks like questionable reporting by John Clayton considering no one else reported the comment.

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2009/08/quarterbacks_mangini_work_to_d.html