BEREA — Kickoff is still four days away, but Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards can’t wait to play the New York Giants on Monday Night Football at Browns Stadium.
The charismatic Pro Bowler filled the locker room with the sounds of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” on Wednesday morning, hoping to inspire his teammates to be as fired up as he is about the game.
“A lot of guys are excited, but this is a dream for me to play on Monday Night Football,” Edwards said. “Back to when you were a kid, everybody wants to have three or four touchdowns on it and be player of the game.
“We’re gonna be so pumped up, the first two series we’ll just work on getting rid of the butterflies and try to get everyone going.”
Cleveland has not appeared on MNF since a Dec. 8, 2003, loss to the St. Louis Rams at home.
Edwards was still in college then, so he has no memories of that game, but he does vividly recall attending a Monday nighter at the Pontiac Silverdome on Sept. 25, 1995.
“I was in the seventh grade and I was a big 49ers fan, so my family went to the game and I was cheering for San Francisco,” he said. “(Detroit’s) Herman Moore, Brett Perriman and Barry Sanders went crazy and beat them out (27-24). It was a lot of fun and I still remember it.”
Instead of rooting against the local team on MNF, Edwards will be a part of it this time. It will be the Browns’ third nationally televised home game this season after they laid eggs against Dallas and Pittsburgh.
As running back Jamal Lewis bluntly put it, “It would be nice to actually start showing up (competitively) on national TV.”
The ever-confident Edwards, however, sees the Browns’ glass as being half full, rather than half empty with ESPN coming to town for the first time this fall.
“We’ve been getting our butts kicked in prime time and on Monday night, so we have a lot to prove,” Edwards said. “Expectations are down and people don’t have any hope, which is fine with us. The same thing happened last year and we proved everyone wrong then, too.”

Injury update

Browns defensive end Shaun Smith (left hand surgery), tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. (illness) and safety Sean Jones (knee surgery) sat out practice, while tackle Kevin Shaffer (concussion) was held out of contact drills. Defensive tackle Shaun Rogers (shoulder) and running back Jason Wright (knee) both saw limited action. Smith said he would heavily wrap his hand, but will play against New York. Wide receiver Donte Stallworth (quadriceps) and guard Ryan Tucker (hip) are also expected to play.
• Giants tackle Kareem McKenzie (concussion) and linebacker Antonio Pierce (quadriceps) did not participate in practice in East Rutherford, N.J., while wide receiver Domenik Hixon (concussion) and defensive end Jerome McDougle (knee) were limited.

Roster shuffle

As expected, the Browns added wide receiver Steve Sanders to their practice squad after he cleared waivers. Sanders was released Monday in order to make room on Cleveland’s 53-man roster for safety Hamza Abdullah. The 6-foot-2, 216-pound Abdullah played in 24 games with Denver over the past four years, including one this season.
“We might be able to get some quality experience at the position with him,” coach Romeo Crennel said. “He has some height, some good frame, he’s played special teams, and we think he’ll provide some good competition.”
Though the move cost Sanders his position on the active roster, Crennel said it was essentially a safety-for-safety trade as Travis Key was cut from the practice squad.

Vintage apparel

The Browns will wear throwback jerseys from their 1957-1959 seasons against the Giants.
Since the team’s wardrobe has largely gone unchanged through the years, the most noticeable difference will be three-inch numbers on both sides of their helmets.
Cleveland will not, however, be wearing the gaudy brown pants it did during the preseason at Giants Stadium.
“I didn’t get to wear those (because of a foot injury), but they were doable,” Edwards said. “I get tired of wearing the same jersey all the time, so we can definitely do some things with them for next year.”
The infamous brown pants were forced upon the franchise by the NFL’s marketing department, which planned on including them as an optional uniform in all 2008 video games.

Giant jottings

The Giants have won 11 regular-season road games in a row, tying them for the second-longest streak in NFL history. San Francisco posted 19 straight wins away from 3Com Park (now Monster Park) from 1988-1990.
• Former Browns running back Reuben Droughns is strictly playing special teams for New York and has one kickoff return for 34 yards. He rushed for 1,232 yards with Cleveland in 2005 — the 12th-highest total in franchise history — before being traded to New York for wide receiver Tim Carter on March 9, 2007.
• Giants punter Jeff Feagles has played in an NFL-record 324 consecutive games. Jim Marshall (282) and Brett Favre (257 and counting) are next on the list.

Extra points

Rainy weather forced the Browns to practice indoors Wednesday.
• WJW-TV 8 purchased the over-the-air broadcast rights for all three of Cleveland’s Monday Night Football appearances.
• The Ohio Department of Transportation was scheduled to perform stress tests on the troubled Innerbelt Bridge during the overnight hours. If ODOT closes additional lanes, driving into downtown Monday could be an arduous task.

Quote of the day

“They were playing like it was a regular-season game and we were approaching it like it was a preseason game. That was the difference.” — Browns coach Romeo Crennel on his team’s
37-34 exhibition loss to the Giants.
Contact Brian Dulik at (330) 721-4059 or brisports@hotmail.com.

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