From Full Steam Ahead! A Cleveland Steamers fan blog dated November 20, 2022, promoted on the FanBlog Network. Picture is dated to March 4, 2022.
March 4, 2022.
It was supposed to be a happy day. The Cleveland Steamers of the World Football League signed quarterback Drake Cozens to a five year, $175 million contract, though with only $55 million guaranteed. It was supposed to be a sign that the Steamers, owned by the Cleveland Steam Company and professional football's oldest team, was suddenly relevant again and serious about winning. A team that was once the standard bearer in professional football but had become a perennial laughingstock (in more ways than one), Cozens' signing was meant to be a sign that the team was as tired of their losing ways as their fans were.
Sure, Cozens entered Cleveland with a lot of baggage, and many pundits believed Cozens was signing with the moribund Steamers because he had burned all his bridges in the WFL and had no options left. Still, Cozens' gifts could not be ignored and while he wasn't elite, Cozens had a winning record as a starting quarterback and his smart, efficient play promised to bring stability in an area that the Steamers' offence needed it most.
So the team happily arranged a photo opportunity to display its newest signing, seen in the picture here. Brought to the picture was the Steamers' cheerleading squad, the Boiler Crew, as well as the team's official mascot, the happy steam engine Boiler Bill, and head coach Kareem Salim. Taken at the Steamers' practice facility, the aim was to create a photo that showed Cozens happily enmeshed with the team, creating a sense that now he was part of "the family".
The reality was anything but, and Steamers brass should have realized problems were coming just from looking at the picture. Though the cheerleaders are happy, most of it is performative, as Cozens gave off a vibe that was off-putting for many of them. Cozens stole one of the cheerleaders' hard hats and insisted on posing with the cheerleaders instead of having them simply surround him as was intended. The middle blonde cheerleader, Melissa Graves, would state that Cozens didn't ask to put his arm around her but she didn't offer a protest because she knew management would protect Cozens. Two other cheerleaders off to the right side can be seen holding each other's hands in an effort to steady themselves and "just get through" the photo op.
Finally, Salim stands to the far left like a sentinel, his presence there to make sure things didn't go completely off the rails even though he knew there was not much he could do if it did.
The photo foreshadowed a 2022 season that was as uneven as the image itself. After ten games, the team sat at a point where a winning streak might secure a playoff spot but a slump could derail the season completely. The defence kept the team in games while the offence lurched between flashes of brilliance and frustrating inconsistency. At the core of the offensive struggles was the clash between Cozens and Salim, as Cozens frequently audibled out of Salim’s play calls and attempted to run the offence himself.
When the offence clicked, Cozens often claimed the credit. When it stalled, he publicly blamed others- the coaching, the weapons, the schemes- following the same script that had already worn out his welcome elsewhere in the WFL. History, for the Steamers, seemed to be repeating itself.
Yet Cleveland’s front office refused to let the season drift away. A series of aggressive midseason trades- expensive in future draft capital but immediately impactful- injected new life into the roster. The Steamers began to look less like a fringe hopeful and more like a legitimate contender. Fans embraced the surge, even as many quietly wondered what the long-term cost might be and whether the franchise was sacrificing tomorrow to stay alive today.
Still, that wasn’t the worst of Cleveland’s tension entering its Week 12 matchup with the Chicago Caribou, a “Showcase Series” game in Borealis Bay in Sǫ̀mbak’è that could either confirm the Steamers’ resurgence or expose it as temporary.
Just days before, Graves resigned from the Boiler Crew and immediately gave a scathing tell-all interview with renowned sports investigative journalist Erin Campbell. Graves described for Campbell that Cleveland had cultivated a deeply ingrained "frat boy" culture within the team, with Cozens at the centre of it. Graves asserted that drinking was rampant among coaches and players, even during games, with obscene pranks, comments and gestures being commonplace. Graves further claimed that the cheerleaders were often targets for abusive conduct and harassment, with Graves stating, "I experienced one grope too many which is why I left the team".
Notably, Graves did not blame Salim for the culture, stating the team often hid the worst parts of it from him and that Salim made multiple attempts to stop the toxicity but management and security kept stonewalling him. Graves said that by the end of her tenure with the Steamers, Salim was "the only nice guy left".
The interview cast a pall over what is arguably the Steamers' most important game of the season, with the question remaining- can it get any worse?
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