CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns fans are desperate for safety help following rookie Grant Delpit’s season-ending Achilles injury. Baltimore cut Earl Thomas, a potential future Hall of Famer and former Super Bowl champion on Sunday. Delpit was injured on Monday.

Back when Browns rookies were missing minicamp and veterans didn’t even have the option of showing up for Berea workouts, coach Kevin Stefanski’s reaction to the perceived disadvantage was to reject that it was a disadvantage. “I think all 32 clubs are going to be playing by the same rules,” Stefanski said in April.

The Baltimore Ravens are favored to win the AFC North and deservingly so. Trailing only Kansas City, the Ravens are a prime Vegas pick to win both the AFC championship and the Super Bowl. That trend continues in the MVP race as Patrick Mahomes (+450) is a heavy favorite but Lamar Jackson (+600) is not far behind.

With his graduation looming, he waits patiently, soaking up the fleeting moments with friends and family that were often sacrificed for basketball years prior. “It’s funny. I was playing two-on-two with some friends recently and we got down 3-0 in a series, and I was heated, to say the least,” Girard said.

James coaches the fourth-grade version of Team Fredette, and these youngsters are already making a name for themselves throughout AAU circles. Highlighted by three Zero Gravity tournament championships already for the boys’ fourth-grade group and a recent Zero Gravity championship by the top fifth-grade girls’ team, Team Fredette is quickly becoming a popular basketball program in the Adirondack region.

An hour before you could not hear yourself think amid the thunder of Glens Falls' first-ever Federation basketball championship inside Cool Insuring Arena. When he emerged from the depths of the arena, he started the long climb up the bowl where his mother was waiting. Hoping to squeeze every last joyous moment out of her son’s final varsity game, she shouted: “Wait, let me get a picture of you.”.

As the final seconds ticked away in the Class B boys final in the Federation Tournament of Champions, the Indians held a nine-point lead and Joseph Girard III started galloping around a floor he’s considered home for the past five years. With everyone on their feet, the celebration was underway. When the buzzer sounded, signaling Glens Falls’ 88-79 victory over Cardinal O’Hara, Joseph Girard III, amongst the gleeful chaos of yet another title win, found Trent Girard standing on the court near press row.

Down four points to Lowville with 15 seconds left in overtime of the Class B public high school state championship last Saturday, Trent Girard looked to the sideline. Joseph Girard III: Naturally, you are going to be a little down on yourself considering the situation, but miracles can happen so I wanted to go down and get the best opportunity to get to the hoop.

Playing for his late grandfather, Joe Girard Sr., Joseph Girard III drove baseline down one point to Lowville in the waning moments of overtime in the Class B state championship on Saturday. Never mind that a moment earlier he hit a 3-pointer to send the game to extra time. Forget the fact he scored 22-straight second-half points, including all of the Indians’ 18 third-quarter points.

Outside of these upcoming handful of games, his high school athletic story is essentially written. He is a Glens Falls, 518, and simply, a New York State high school sports legend, for many reasons other than all he’s accomplished on the field or court. Sure, he has all the stats and records to back up his legendary status, but Girard also holds a 91 average in school, is a leader in his community, and if you haven’t heard, he’ll be a student-athlete at Syracuse next year.

Her son, Glens Falls senior Joseph Girard III, has had a lot of these moments — seven, to be exact — when he is honored for a career scoring achievement. She loves and appreciates each milestone her first and only son reaches. Every trophy or ball he’s ever earned sits in their family living room, hidden behind long white wooden cabinet doors, but can be seen in plain sight upon request.

As the video ended and everyone waited, Girard rose, removed his zip-up and said. “I’ll be staying home like I did in high school and committing to coach (Jim) Boeheim and Syracuse.”. “I was trying to hold back tears the whole time when that video started playing,” Girard’s mother Arleen said. “It all just came together, and I was wishing that his grandfather was here.

“All of social media,” Girard said when asked who he is excited to share this with. “I’ve gotten thousands of comments from (fans) of each and every school. So when they find out, I think that will be pretty cool.”. Sure there was Jimmer Fredette before him, but Fredette was not nationally recruited by the top Division I teams, nor do their high school statistics or accomplishments really compare.

Wednesday morning, Fredette put Girard through a private workout at SUNY Adirondack. The two sharpshooters spent about 90 minutes on the floor. Fredette served as the elder scorer, sharing his arsenal of tricks with a knowledge-hungry Girard. “I wanted to show him some things that I learned later on in my career,” Fredette said.

Inside is a basketball court with a row of folding chairs along one wall and training equipment and balls on the other. The hardwood glistens, shinning brightest at center court, where the words “DAGS Basketball” lay inside a shield emblem, stretching from 3-point to 3-point line. After a few other finishing scenarios, Dagostino puts Girard into pick and roll simulations.

Hitting the game-winning 3-pointer in his first varsity basketball game as an eighth-grader, breaking his childhood idol’s school scoring record, and setting the Section II scoring mark a month later. Sprinkle in a 2016 state football championship, 17 NCAA Division I scholarship offers — the latest of which from the University of Michigan — and averaging nearly 50 points per game halfway through his junior season at Glens Falls High School, and Joseph Girard III’s resume is still growing.