SMALL WORLD: Yours truly has an indirect connection with the newest member of the Cleveland Browns. Not too long ago, I used to work with a nice woman named Kathe, and some of the lunchtime chat would focus on her son, who wanted to play football in college. She was very proud of Noah when he got a scholarship to the University of Toledo, which is less than an hour south of here. (It’s also my parents’ alma mater, and I spent a good deal of my childhood on that campus for one reason or another.) Noah Swartz redshirted his freshman year, but he turned out to be a pretty decent guard in a pretty decent program. Today he was signed to the Browns’ practice squad. Here he is in pass protection along with running back Chester Taylor, now a member of the dreaded Ravens:

Also signed to the practice squad was another lineman, Dave Petruziello, a Mentor native who played his college ball at Michigan, whose campus is even closer to my home than U-T’s.

Gone now is David Young, who joined the practice squad last month but was just signed to the New York Jets’ active roster.