Jarvis Landry Didn't Guarantee Victory Over the Patriots, But That Doesn't Matter Now

Jarvis Landry and the Cleveland Browns playing the undefeated New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on Sunday. That much we can all agree on. Did Landry guarantee a victory while talking to reporters today? Let's find out!

We begin with Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot, who tweeted this quote from Landry to her 174,000+ followers at 1:58pm.

NFL reporter Dov Kleiman took the quote, word for word, letter for letter, and tweeted it.

Five minutes later, Bleacher Report's NFL twitter shortened the quote, added the "eyes" emoji and a gif.

From there, NFL Twitter took off. Jarvis Landry started trending and the New England Patriots had bulletin board material.

During this time, Kleiman's original tweet was shared in the TBL Slack, prompting Editor Liam McKeone to say "l o l" and "this will end well," while Managing Editor Kyle Koster said, "haha this team." A post was started. We were not alone.

WAIT! What's this? A clarification? Pump the brakes. Stop the online presses.

Hmm... Did Landry misspeak? Was his quote taken out of context? Was he backtracking after he realized what he had said?

Obviously, every team - with the exception of the 2019 Miami Dolphins - goes on the road with the hope and expectation that they will win the game. That's what you're supposed to do.

The clarification seemed spurious. Why would he repeat something like we're going there to win with "it's just that simple" sandwiched in the middle? Still, reporters were on Twitter and television, jumping to Landry's defense.

A short while later, long after the quote had taken a life of its own, video surfaced.

Oooooh... So Landry never repeated the sentence "we're going to win." He was asked if it was different going to New England and he said, "That's the same thing. The mission don't change. The mission don't change. It's the same thing. We going to win the game." In that context, with the actual quote, it does make sense that he meant the Browns are going (there with the intention) to win the game. Here is an example of what is probably a more accurate pull quote.

"The mission don't change. It's the same thing. We going (there) to win the game."

- Jarvis Landry on playing in New England

That is actually a very boring quote. If you tweeted it, no one would care and the guy who said it would not be trending on Twitter. And the New England Patriots wouldn't be asked about it by their media.

The damage is done. What Landry actually meant, or even quite literally said, no longer matters. Jarvis Landry guaranteed victory over the Patriots. He's done it before and he did it again and that's how we'll remember it and laugh about it if the Patriots beat the Browns on Sunday. He's a meme now. It's like pass interference. It can be reviewed, but even if we can see what really happened, that doesn't mean it's going to be reversed. And the actual bulletin board material doesn't even matter because it's not as catchy.