CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The voice you'll hear calling three Browns preseason games, starting with the Giants game on Thursday, is one you've heard on ESPN for years.
Jay Crawford, an Ohio native who has worked in TV sports for three decades, will serve as the play-by-play man, with former Browns QB Tim Couch as his partner, when the Browns play the New York Giants on Thursday, the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 17 and the Detroit Lions on Aug. 30.
First, Crawford joined this week's Takes By The Lake for an in-depth conversation on what's been wrong with the Browns, what he thinks of LeBron James, his life as a Cleveland sports fan while working in TV sports, his opinion of his friend and former co-worker Skip Bayless and what it was like to work for and then leave ESPN, when the company laid off more than 100 employees last spring.