Malik McDowell’s signing was a mistake that was always going to blow up in Andrew Berry’s face

Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Malik McDowell was never a good signing.

This was inevitable. Active pro athletes just don’t change. It’s not really known why, but they just don’t. So when ESPN posted a blurb on their website that said “Cleveland Browns DT arrested”, I didn’t even need to click before I knew it was about Malik McDowell; which it was. Andrew Berry’s reclamation project had a laundry list of issues that made him untouchable in my opinion, and I wrote about how it was only a matter of time before he slipped up again.

Well, on Monday, McDowell was naked outside of a child learning center that was in session, and when the police came to arrest him, McDowell attacked and nearly blinded an officer, with the ESPN article saying the officer may have suffered permanent damage to his eye. McDowell then took off running. He was later apprehended the same day.

This was not the first time McDowell has had issues off the field, and Berry’s project has proven to be exactly what I thought he was. Pro sports is not the place for a person to recover and rebuild their life. We see it all the time, this was a predictable outcome.

Malick McDowell’s season was reason enough to move on from him

The arrest should end McDowell’s tenure with the Cleveland Browns, if not his career. Naked and outside a building dedicated to a child’s education? That’s not something you bounce back from in the public eye. His season should’ve been all that was needed for his career to be over, however, as he was truly bad and also inconsistent for huge stretches.

Yes, at times McDowell looked good, but the other 99% of the time he wasn’t even looking passable. He got moved off the point of attack far too much, and his ability to make plays was almost nil. He was not a good player on tape, and PFF agrees, giving him a season score of 47.0.

On a human level, it’s sad to see McDowell spiral again. Be it mental health issues or addiction issues, this isn’t what anyone wanted to see. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t expected. Athletes in pro sports who have issues are almost always going to fall down the rabbit hole.

It doesn’t matter the sport, Josh Hamilton, Lamar Odom, Ryan Leaf, Antonio Brown, and so many others have shown us that when a person is struggling with severe issues, they are not a reliable option to bring into a team. I hope for McDowell to get healthy, to move on from these issues that have defined his life, and to become a better person who can help others.

That just shouldn’t be done as a member of the Cleveland Browns.