Cleveland Browns fans must be feeling pretty conflicted about their new safety Damarious Randall right about now. Randall -- who was traded to the Browns from the Green Bay Packers this offseason -- isn't going out of his way to make friends in his new city. The apparent Warriors fan tweeted out that if the Cavaliers win the Larry O'Brien Trophy over the heavily favored Warriors, any fans that retweet him will get a bonus: A new jersey.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2018 NBA finals I’ll buy everyone who retweet’s this a jersey... — Damarious Randall (@RandallTime) May 29, 2018
That tweet had 122,000 retweets as of Tuesday afternoon, so Randall would be in deep trouble money-wise if the Cavaliers pull off an improbable upset. So far the jerseys, if they come from NFL Shop at $99 apiece, would cost about a $12.2 million. Randall is due $1.5 million next season. The Packers' Davante Adams noticed what kind of trouble Randall could be getting himself into. Adams tweeted: "Right now your bill bout $10 million lol."
Another fan said that there's no way Randall would deliver on this promise, which Randall did take issue with.
Even Fanatics got in on Randall's tweets, although they didn't indicate if they'd give him a reduced price for buying in bulk.
If the @cavs win, you know where to go — Fanatics (@Fanatics) May 29, 2018
Randall also tweeted that he's "glad" that the Cavaliers made it so that Stephen Curry can cook. The Florida native added that he has court-side seats for Games 3 and 4.
If people were undecided about who they're rooting for before this, Randall definitely just gave them some reason to root against the Warriors. This deal is going to be difficult to follow through on should the Cavaliers upset the Warriors -- which is a long shot at the moment -- and Randall's retweet number is climbing rapidly.
As for Randall, it's going to be an awkward first step into FirstEnergy Stadium on Sep. 9. He'll have to play well to escape the ire of the Cleveland faithful, who for a long time have had only LeBron James to cheer for.
Cleveland Browns safety Damarious Randall may have to dig deep into his wallet if the Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA championship. Randall has promised everyone on Twitter who retweeted the following that he would buy them a jersey -- if the Cavs beat the Golden State Warriors in the Finals.
As of Tuesday morning, Randall had 72,801 retweets, and the number was growing fast. In 30 minutes the number of retweets went from 65,000 to almost 73,000. At an average cost of $99.99 on the NFL Shop, he's committed to $7.279 million in jerseys. Randall's promise was borne out of his apparent support for Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
The Browns new free safety, acquired from the Packers in an offseason trade, stirred up the hornet's nest that is Cleveland fandom by blatantly rooting for the Warriors, to the point of almost taunting Cleveland fans on Twitter.
Though some fans understood Randall has no obligation to root for the Cleveland teams, others were not pleased.
One fan responded to the jersey post by saying "Zero chance he delivers." To which Randall responded:
Randall, who grew up in Pensacola, Florida, did tweet that LeBron James deserved the MVP award, and that he would have pulled for the Cavs if Houston had won. Now he's evidently going to have courtside seats for two games while cheering for Curry and playing for the Browns.
The Checkdown's daily collection of football culture stories for May 29, 2018. This is The Extra Point.
1. Browns S Damarious Randall could be on the hook for over 500K jerseys -- the number is growing by the minute -- if the Cavs upset the Warriors in the 2018 NBA Finals.
If the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2018 NBA finals I’ll buy everyone who retweet’s this a jersey... — Damarious Randall (@RandallTime) May 29, 2018
2. We hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day and took some time to think about the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice. Check out this video to learn more about the life of the late great Pat Tillman.
3. Most fans last saw Tom Brady throwing for 505 yards and three touchdowns in Super Bowl LII. Over the weekend, the 2017 NFL MVP was seen throwing passes from yacht-to-yacht in Monaco -- Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was his WR.
4. Congrats to Chiefs OT Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, today he's graduating from the McGill University in Montreal. Duvernay-Tardif has earned his medical degree and will officially become Dr. LTD.
Damarious Randall hasn’t yet played a game with the Cleveland Browns after he was traded from the Green Bay Packers in March, but he’s already drawing plenty of attention for his NBA opinions.
Instead of supporting the hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, Randall has been a vocal supporter of the Golden State Warriors:
I’m glad the Cavs made it to the finals so I can watch Curry light that bitch up Game 3 & 4 ♂️ — Damarious Randall (@RandallTime) May 28, 2018
And he’s really confident the Warriors will beat the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, which begin Thursday:
If the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2018 NBA finals I’ll buy everyone who retweet’s this a jersey... — Damarious Randall (@RandallTime) May 29, 2018
As of the publishing of this post, Randall’s tweet has eclipsed 300,000 retweets. That’s a LOT of jerseys. And the Browns defensive back says there’s a 100 percent chance he delivers on the promise.
So what would the logistics of that kind of jersey giveaway look like? Let’s imagine:
There’s just no way he can afford to buy new Cavs jerseys for everyone
Randall has been an up-and-down player so far in his NFL career, but the Browns already picked up his fifth-year option so he’s not set to free agency until 2020. He’ll move to safety after three years of playing cornerback in Green Bay, and if Randall excels in his new role, he could be on his way toward a sizable contract.
For now, though, he’s set to make $1,090,381 in base salary in 2018 with a $424,037 roster bonus. As Randall’s former teammate Davante Adams pointed out, that’s not going to cut it.
Right now your bill bout 10 mill lol no bullshit — Davante Adams (@tae15adams) May 29, 2018
At the time Adams tweeted that, he might’ve been right. The number of retweets has continued to climb, though.
On NBA.com, a replica LeBron James jersey is priced at $74.99. Multiply that by the 300,000 people who have retweeted so far and that’s a cool $22.5 million.
But Randall didn’t specify what kind of jersey he’d buy
If the Cavs win, Randall’s best chance at actually paying up and not squelching on the bet is to be creative. Randall told everyone he’d buy them a jersey — he didn’t promise that it’d be a nice one.
On NFLShop.com there are some truly awful Browns memorabilia up for sale. Randall could save a lot if he goes digging through the graveyard of Cleveland past to scoop up Brandon Weeden, Trent Richardson, Peyton Hillis, and Colt McCoy jerseys.
But he could go even cheaper. Randall could find the kind of blank practice jerseys that a high school would buy for dodgeball in gym class. Purchase in bulk and just a couple dollars per jersey is doable.
But that’s still going to be a lot of cash.
Let’s go way outside the box, then. What if Randall gave out coupons for some free Jersey Mike’s? That’s close enough, yeah?
How would a free jersey giveaway even work?
Congratulations person who retweeted Damarious Randall, it’s the near future and the Cavaliers just became NBA champions. Now what? Do you DM him your address or something?
What if you retweeted him after the Cavs won? Was he jotting down the names of people who retweeted him while the offer was still open?
Randall could drop jerseys all across Cleveland out of a helicopter, but his promise was to each person who retweeted him. I have no clue how that could ever be policed.
Luckily for Randall, there’s a strong likelihood he won’t have to pay up. As of right now, the Warriors are huge favorites to beat the Cavs in the NBA Finals.
But if the Cavs pull off the upset, sorry retweeters, there’s just no way you’re getting a new James jersey in the mail. You’d be lucky even to get a laptop battery like Scott’s Tots.
