There's never a dull moment with the Cleveland Browns.
It's often about the quarterback position, and that's true this week: Dillon Gabriel has been tapped to replace Joe Flacco as the starting QB for the Week 5 game in London against the Minnesota Vikings. Shedeur Sanders remains the No. 3 quarterback, behind Flacco the backup.
Gabriel spoke to the media Wednesday for the first time as an NFL starter, and he shared a story of a text message from a friend, who sent him a picture of a fire station. The message: You never know when your time is coming, so like firefighters ready to spring into action, you better be ready.
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After explaining that interaction, Gabriel dropped a strong line:
"You wait for the perfect time, you're gonna wait a whole lifetime. So for me, I've always been ready."
That's certainly a good mentality to have at the most important position in sports.
But of course, football fans are trying to find the subliminal message in what Gabriel said.
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Some were already convinced in the preseason that Gabriel had thrown subtle shade at Sanders, and that's being suggested again now. Sanders apparently rejected the idea of being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in April before ending up with the Browns, and the idea would be that Gabriel is calling out Sanders for trying to dictate his own timing.
That seems incredibly unlikely. Gabriel has nothing to gain from such a move. This is a guy with ample college experience at three different schools who set lots of records and is now about to make his first NFL start. Why in the world would he spend time thinking of lowkey ways to insult someone in his own quarterback room?
But humans like controversy, and so they seek it out.
In this case, Gabriel just appears genuinely grateful to have this chance, and he's ready to seize it.
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