As the winter holidays arrive, many people turn their attention to the poor and needy in America, particularly with the current state of the economy. Salvation Army bell ringers are at almost every local grocery store and the NBA keeps pumping the "NBA Cares" program to show you the token time each year the players pass out food at a food bank or Shaq is handing out tukeys or hams. These needy people should be the focus this time of the year, but there's another group of needy folks that just were given the gift of hope (even if it is a slight glimmer)...those who are fans of the Cleveland Browns.
I am not sure there is another fan base who has gone through what Browns fans have since the last of the glory days with Jim Brown in the early-to-mid 1960s. Other than a brief window in the mid-1980s when the Kosar-led Browns went to three AFC title games, this team has been awful for the most part (oh, and in two of those AFC title games, fans had their hearts ripped out, so it wasn't all that amazing). But the team belonged to the fans and the city...a HUGE football city in the heart of where the game was founded. Is it any surprise that the short-lived "Sidelines" series on ESPN had higher ratings in Cleveland than any other city? Then, Art Modell, a man who was too poor and too stubborn to own a modern-day sports franchise, sold his soul and stole the team to Baltimore. Of course, the Ravens would go on to win the 2000 Super Bowl...
I don't think other fans truly understand the pain. Baltimore Colts fans can, but not many others. Seattle Supersonic fans or even hockey-loving towns like Winnipeg who lost their teams certainly felt the hurt, but none of those teams had the history and ties like the Browns. It would be like the Green Bay Packers or Boston Red Sox leaving their cities, things people couldn't even wrap their heads around.
The NFL saw the crime in it all but were powerless to do anything about it after Al Davis won his lawsuit in the early '80s that allowed him to move the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles. Why do you think almost as soon as the news was announced the Browns were leaving the NFL stepped in and said they were going to put a team back in Cleveland with the same colors, history, etc.? They saw a town that sold out a crappy stadium to watch a mediocre franchise, but loved every minute of doing so. Heck, the NFL even paid for most of the new stadium!
So, in 1999 the "new" Browns (or as the TMQ on ESPN.com says, Cleveland Browns 2.0) joined as an expansion team. Fans were realistic and knew that not much was expected because of the start-up nature of the team (and because the NFL owners didn't want the Browns to win immediately like Jacksonville and Carolina did in their second seasons, so they made the rules tougher). The team wasn't all that good, but even made the playoffs in 2002. What a tease. The new team has been terrible. So tough to watch, so tough to support.
Butch Davis had to rip up the team due to the salary cap and multiple GMs, coaches and bad draft picks later and you have the 2009 Browns who entered Thursday's game vs. the Steelers with a record and statistics that rivaled the 1999 expansion team. If you don't think that's bad, look who the leaders were on that squad...Travis Prentice?? Kevin Johnson?? Darrin Chiaverini?? Tim Couch?? Wow...
Admittedly, the Steelers were coming in on a four-game losing streak, but this was still the defending Super Bowl champs and a nemisis who had beaten the Browns 12 straight times playing a 1-11 Cleveland team who had NO RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS BY A RUNNING BACK! Expectations were at an all-time low. Apathy was great. Fans had gotten to the point of just hoping for competitive games, let alone wins.
And they won.
It wasn't pretty, but Browns fans didn't care. 13-6 might as well had been 44-6. Joshua Cribbs, the only true skilled-position player on the team, had a terrific game and the defense had eight sacks. And for one fall weekend, Browns fans could smile and hold their heads a little higher and didn't have to hear it from their neighbors from Western PA. It was the type of unexpected gift that brightened a whole fan base and gave them the hope that after all of the Eric Mangini crap this year and all of the terrible games, that maybe, just maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Only time will tell if it really will make a difference, but for one great gift of a win a loyal and hurt fan base can smile this holiday season.
"One fall weekend" you say. I sat through that entire game and now finally on Monday my feet have thawed out. Negative 8 degree windchill does not a fall weekend make. I don't care if technically it isn't winter for another week or so, the weather that night was brutal.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it was well worth it. By the way, when the stadium is half full as it was, no one seems to care when you sit directly on the 50 yard line for the entire game. No questions asked!