Let’s have fun with our weekly online poll and my column this week. I need a break from death and taxes! You probably do too. With our increasingly popular Goal Post Pro Football contest about to kick off, how could we not make this week’s poll about the Browns?

Managing Editor David Sickels and I cooked up a fun question about them, but agreed to throw one serious zinger answer in there about the controversial kneeling that happened during the singing of the first preseason game national anthem.

Speaking of our poll, I would like to mention last week’s results to the question “Should we continue tearing down Confederate statues or let them stand?” A commanding 69.8 percent of you answered “we should let the Confederate statues stand” compared to only 5.4 percent that voted for “we should tear them down and destroy them.” That is interesting because if you watch most television news, you would think it would be the opposite. Our poll is getting very popular and we have future enhancements in mind to make even better use of it!

This week’s question is “What kind of season will the Browns have this year?” ... “The stars will align and the Browns will be Super Bowl champions” ... “I have a feeling the team will make the playoffs” ... “The Browns won’t be amazing but they will beat last year’s record of 1-15” ... “The team won’t win a regular season game” ... Those were the fun answers. But we also added one more serious option: “I don’t care about them anymore after the shameful kneeling stunt they pulled.”

Our polls begin on Tuesday, one day before we go to press and last until the following Tuesday. That means I already had time to vote before writing this. Here’s the fun part: guess how I voted? It shouldn’t be that easy of a guess because I had a hard time deciding myself. My finger kept going back and forth.

I will walk you through my consternating. “The stars will align and the Browns will be Super Bowl champions?” That’s not smart. Or funny. Next!

“The team won’t win a regular season game.” That’s not smart or funny either. Next!

“The Browns won’t be amazing, but they will beat last year’s record of 1-15.” I certainly agree with that one, but was it the best answer? I mean picking that one is like shooting fish in a barrel. Smart. But not fun. Next!

“I have a feeling the team will make the playoffs.” Hmmm. Probably not smart. But fun. That sounds like me!

But then there is, “I don’t care about them anymore after the shameful kneeling stunt they pulled.” Hey, I am all about free speech as you probably can tell. But I totally disagree with those that are making this out to be a free speech issue. There are times to speak and others to shut up. Our national anthem is one of the latter. I remember taking a constitutional law class in college. The classic legal question on this subject “Is it okay to yell ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater?” No.

Is it okay to be disrespectful at a funeral? No.

Is it okay as a professional athlete getting paid millions by your employer to put yourself above what is good for the welfare of the team? No. So my own personal feeling is that this was the smart answer. Except for the last part: “I don’t care about them anymore.” Well, I may talk too much and not be as tactful as I should be, but I am not a liar. And for me to say that I don’t care about the Browns anymore would be a lie.

Like many of you, I grew up with the Browns. Sometimes you get mad at a friend or a family member, but to say “I don’t care about them anymore” is another thing. I thought about making this my column for last week but I decided I wanted to see if the players repeated the same thing the next week. They did not.

There comes a time when you might have to walk away from a friend. But this is not it.

I stuck to my usual tendencies. Heart over head. I clicked on “I have a feeling the team will make the playoffs.” Go Browns!