Things were contentious Friday morning on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland as Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter tried to explain why he was optimistic that cornerback Denzel Ward would play in Sunday’s season opener.
He responded to a question from Ken Carman by saying that Ward “looks perfectly fine” despite suffering a concussion in the team’s final preseason game. Anthony Lima took exception to that characterization.
“Looks perfectly fine?” he said. “We’re talking about a concussion.”
That set off a heated back-and-forth between the two men. Lima asked Ruiter if he was a neurologist. Ruiter fired back telling Lima to “knock it off” multiple times.
“I am telling you what I observed,” he argued. “Knock it off. Not in the mood for that today! Don’t come at me like that, that’s disrespectful! I’m relaying what I observed.”
After a prolonged silence, Lima accused Ruiter of wanting to “take your ball and go home.” He added that the idea that Ward “looks perfectly fine” is a bit flippant considering the conversations in the last few weeks about the status of the player’s career after suffering his fourth concussion since entering the league.
Lima then said that Ruiter is extraordinarily angry about “the most innocuous question.”
“’Are you, a neurologist?’ Yeah, you’re right. That’s innocuous,” Ruiter shot back.
The two argued for a bit longer as Ken Carman tried to get the conversation back on track and talk more about the Browns’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals and the outlook for their season. Lima got one more shot in about the seriousness of concussions before Carman asked Ruiter to look up the weather forecast for Sunday.
Ruiter said it is supposed to be “70 and sunny” to which Carman sheepishly responded “so no need to bring a poncho” and moving on to other topics.
