Browns thoughts for Terry Pluto

Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto recently posed questions to his readers about the Browns for an upcoming book.  I thought I would take the opportunity to answer his questions and send them off, but I also wanted to run them here:

Dear Browns Fans:


In conjunction with The Plain Dealer and Gray Publishing, I'm writing a book with the working title of What I've Learned From Watching the Browns.

I need your input. Here are some of the topics:

A) The scars from the move.

In many ways my entire life has revolved around sports. From an early age, I knew it was my interest and passion. So as I grew from the fan as a child and became a sports-industry professional as an adult, many of the feelings and ways I view sports changed. I no longer hero worship and I no longer let things in sports eat away at my insides.

However, the scars from the move still linger. The Cleveland Browns mean so much to the historically-rich football area of northeast Ohio that it was particularly painful when they were taken. The only comparison may be if the Packers were moved from Green Bay. The Indians and Cavaliers are loved, but the Browns leaving was a dagger to the soul of the city.

Even at that point, the city’s championship drought was over 45 years old, but even those terrible Browns teams got the people of Cleveland through the cold, gray winters. There was something so special about a Browns’ NFL Sunday. I used to look forward to the next game five minutes after the previous one ended.

As for me personally, it was at college at Ohio University. The final season came my freshman year and for the next three years I was in fan purgatory. The knowledge that Cleveland would again be getting a team helped, but being located about halfway between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh meant those teams on locally every Sunday. For the first time in my life, I found myself going to the library and doing schoolwork on Sundays.

We all were excited when the Browns came back, but due to the tough expansion situation and bad front office decisions they have not been successful. In fact, they have been awful. I still pull for them, but being in the new anti-septic stadium with a poor track record has definitely made the aura and feel of this team different from the past Browns. It is a feeling I hope one day returns because it was the best feeling in the world.

The city was betrayed by Art Modell (photo: waitingfornextyear.com).

B) Why fans love Bernie Kosar.

Fans love Bernie Kosar because he reminds them of themselves. He was not the best athlete. He was not the GQ cover boy. He was a kid from northeast Ohio (Youngstown) who WANTED to be a Brown.

There are a few things that will endear someone to Cleveland sports fans and wanting to be there and playing hard are at the top of the list. Kosar had both traits. Add that to the most successful run of the franchise since the Jim Brown days, and he became beloved by fans and the city.

Kosar wanted to be a Brown, making him beloved (photo: SI).

C) Why I keep watching this mess.

I keep watching this mess because I am a born-and-raised Cleveland sports fan. As such, there is no team more tied and loved by fans than the Browns. Maybe it is the hope that one day I will finally get to see that Super Bowl title and the unbridled joy of a city that has long deserved it? Maybe it is because I can say I am not a fair-weather fan? It is probably a combination of the two. The pride I would feel for the area along with the response I would receive from friends and family who know how much they mean to me would make it all worth it. I hope.

D) What NFL draft day means to me.

The NFL Draft means different things to me because it varies about how much it means to the Browns. If they are in a key draft position with intriguing players and trade possibilities, I am more likely to be tuned into the details of that year’s selections. However, if they are drafting near the bottom of the rounds or do not have a first-round selection, I do not focus on it as much.

I have the draft on every year if I can, but it is usually in the background and I switch over for the Cleveland picks and analytical breakdown. I do read about the picks from the online talent evaluators, but I also realize the nature of the draft and that patience is required.

Florida cornerback Joe Haden comes to Cleveland with big expectations as the 7th overall pick.

E) My best/worst day at Browns stadium was ...

My highlights:

Oct. 23, 1989: Browns beat the Bears 27-7 on Monday Night Football. Kosar had two 90+-yard completions to Webster Slaughter and the Browns won a big primetime game.

Oct. 27, 1991: I sat in the Dawg Pound for the first time in a big game against the Steelers. The atmosphere was electric and I still recall the different characters and personalities out there that afternoon. Cleveland won on a fluke tipped touchdown reception and Gary Anderson, who was almost automatic from a short distance, hit the post for a 17-14 Browns’ win.

1994 Playoffs: This was the last playoff win for the franchise with Bill Belichick leading the Browns to a 20-13 win against his future employer, New England. A friend and I bought tickets the day before the game and got good seats, which is amazing nowadays. There was not much as far as expectations with that team, but they had a great day from the start and I remember the festive atmosphere of the old stadium made the moment magic.

Oct. 31, 1999: I was visiting a friend at Tulane Law School and we planned the Halloween weekend around the “new” Browns visit to New Orleans. Cleveland entered the game 0-8 in its return season and we were just hoping for a competitive game against the Ricky Williams-led Saints. What we were treated to is one of the best moments of the “new” Browns.

Williams fumbled three times and with no time remaining Tim Couch hit Kevin Johnson on a “Hail Mary” to give Cleveland its first win in over four years. I will never forget the unbridled joy among the handful of Browns fans at the game. My buddy and I were hugging strangers and jumping up and down like little kids. I remember heading down the escalators on the way out and high-fiving Browns’ fans heading the other way and seeing the sadness on the faces of the Saints’ fans. I have to say, it gave me a tinge of pride that the Browns gave them those long faces.

My lowlights:

Nov. 18, 1989: This was a lowlight because it was the only tie game I attended. If memory serves, it was a very cold, lake-effect day on the lake. The Browns and Chiefs tied 10-10 and I just remember the uncomfortable and empty feeling walking out of the stadium.

Nov. 15, 1992: In a snow-swirling, freezing day at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Browns led the San Diego Chargers 13-7 late in the game when Stan Humphries hit Anthony Miller with a bomb with two minutes left and Eric Metcalf fumbled in Charger territory on the final drive.

One of the few Belichick bright spots was the playoff win over New England in 1994 (photo: espn).

F) What the Browns mean to my family.

I am a sports fan, let alone Browns fan, because of my family. We used sports as a time to come together and speak a common language, no matter how old we were or where our lives were taking us. Some of my fondest family moments include rushing home from Sunday school, throwing off my nice clothes and running downstairs to get in place for the last few moments before kickoff. We regularly ordered Chinese food and would sit around television tables in the family room while watching, shouting and cheering at the happenings on the screen.

This extended to my other relatives too. Part of my family had company tickets to Browns games and when they had an extra ticket, I was the one who got the call. Sometimes it was at the last minute, but it was the most exciting call to get. Not only would I be going to the game that day, but my parents would let me miss Sunday school because they knew how much it meant to me.

G) Favorite Browns: Jim Brown, Brian Sipe, Sam Rutigliano, Joshua Cribbs, Brian Brennan, etc.

I am not old enough to have seen some of the great legends of the franchise, such as Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Lou Groza and Jim Brown. For me, I grew up with the Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar teams. As a little kid, my favorites were Sipe, Mike Pruitt, Ozzie Newsome and Eddie Johnson.

As I got older, my fanhood has changed and I no longer have favorites the same way. Of the “new” Browns, I really enjoy Joe Thomas and Joshua Cribbs most. Probably for the same reasons Kosar was so loved—they play hard and want to play in Cleveland.

H) Meeting Browns players.

I would like to share this story because of all the things I have done in sports and all the people I have had the chance to meet, nothing was a more impactful moment for me and my future.

I was eight years old and our family was flying to Los Angeles on vacation to see relatives. When we got to the airport, we found that our seats had been separated. My five-year-old sister and my mother went toward the back of the plane and my father had the middle seat and I had the aisle seat in a row with a graying-haired man by the window.

During the flight, I noticed the man was wearing a 1980 Oakland Raiders Super Bowl ring. So, being the uninhibited kid, I asked the man about his ring. At first, he was quite surprised that this little eight-year-old kid recognized the ring, but then he mentioned he was the running backs coach on that Raiders team and was the current Browns running backs coach. His name was Joe Scannella and he was on his way to California to visit his daughter.

We talked football during the long flight and Joe was so impressed with me that he wrote me a nice note about being a fan and invited me to a Browns’ practice during training camp. I was so excited, but little did I know my expectations were about to be exceeded.

My parents got in touch with Joe and we went to Berea for practice. At some point during the practice, Joe came by and told me they were going to take me back to the locker room! I will never forget the look on my dad’s face, and the grin on mine, as the golf cart headed for the locker room and they were shutting him out behind the chain-link fence.

Inside the locker room I had the chance to meet many of my heroes. I had a small pad of paper with “Adam” printed on the top and the guys went around signing my pad for me and saying hello. At one point, I was sitting on Ozzie Newsome’s lap and talking with him as players came by. Now, more than 25 years later, I can still close my eyes and picture myself in his lap and seeing that scene.

I was hooked. The Browns had me before and now they had me for life. I was also officially hooked on sports and decided right then that I would work in the industry. I think of this day every now and then and I always smile and remember why I love what I do and why sports are so important to so many people.

Ozzie Newsome is a Hall of Fame tight end and a Hall of Famer in my sports life.

I) To make the team better, I wish the Browns would ...

…stay the course and pick an identity. All of the good NFL teams start with an identity. With all of the front office changes, obviously the philosophies and plans have been in constant flux.

Look at some of the better teams. Pittsburgh and Baltimore started with a defensive identity and made that part of their team championship caliber. Only then did they get the pieces to fill in the offenses. Teams like Indianapolis and New Orleans went with offense first. The Browns need to decide what they want to be, build that up to a championship level and then advance.