I grew up about 70 miles south of Cleveland during the Bernie Kosar era, and the Browns were like gods to me then. Now, the Browns are 1-31 in the last two years, and 4-44 in the last three. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002, their longest stretch EVER. They haven’t even had a winning season since 2007. They’ve had a top 10 or better pick in the draft for a straight 10 years now, and have actually gotten worse!
Why on earth should anyone buy tickets to watch this flaming shitpile of a franchise, or turn on the tube when they’re playing? Aren’t we just being played ourselves if we do?
It gives you a sense of camaraderie with all of the other poor schmucks rooting for them. Which, after all, is pretty much the purpose of professional sports, to the extent that they have a purpose at all.
I for one happen to believe that they aren’t too far from turning the corner and getting from horrible to mediocre. They’re assembling some really nice pieces on both sides of the ball, they were competitive in many of their games last season, and are going to get a bunch of nice picks in this draft. Their new owner is better than their previous ones (which is kinda damning with faint praise) and they’ve kept their coach on for a third year (whom I actually think is a good coach), so there’s some continuity there as well.
Their biggest need IMO, since they are clearly drafting yet another QB, is to protect the guy (probably Darnold) by building a competent offensive line to surround him. I think they might eke out five wins this year, with hopefully four of those coming against the Stealers and Ravens.
A judge took the unprecedented step of allowing an abused boy to propose who should have custody of him, after the families he was assigned to care for him turned to have members that beat him.
After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the Child Welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Cleveland Browns, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.
Was there a point in rooting for the Boston Red Sox, or Chicago Cubs, or Chicago White Sox?
Was there a point in rooting for the Golden State Warriors during, say, the 1990s? You just never know…okay, it won’t happen overnight, but if they do become a contender, you won’t be a bandwagon jumper.
In the past 20 years the Cubs won a World Series. The Red Sox won three. The Eagles won a Super Bowl. The Rams have turned it completely around, twice. Even the Clippers, a team whose name was synonymous with incompetence and futility way longer than the Browns have been that team in the NFL, turned it around and made a legit run.
Every team has its day in the sun. The Browns will have theirs, possibly sooner than later. They’ve made a series of non-terrible moves of late and seem to be at least turning toward the right direction.
Correction: upon perusing Ebay for old Senators tickets, it looks like it cost at least a buck to get in. However the old Washington Star ran a promotion called the Knothole Club where, I think, it cost a buck to go to ten games.
Never mind that all the games were (seemingly) against the Kansas City A’s, and they sat you in the upper reaches of the bleachers (even though the ballpark was 9/10 empty).
The best thing about rooting for the Senators was that it gave my dad and I the chance to watch them on TV together, at a time when I was a raging hippie and he was a Nixon voter.
The team can only get better, and when they do, you’ll be able to loftily tell the new *arriviste *fans that you were a Browns fan when nobody else was. That has to be worth something, right?
The speed with which a terrible team can become a great one is astonishing. History is full of examples of shit franchises turning it around and winning championships. You’ll feel bad abandoning the Browns when they hoist the trophy after winning Super Bowl LXVII.
Don’t believe me? Chicago Cubs, buddy. Or how about the Chicago Blackhawks, who quite recently was a total joke of an organization and then swiftly became the best team in the league?
There was once a day when the New England Patriots sucked. The Tamp Bay Buccaneers actually won a Super Bowl. The 2005-2006 season was the twelfth consecutive season in which the Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs. One could go on. The Philadelphia Phillies were once so bad that they could hardly have been described as a major league team, but they turned it around.
It’s not even about winning championships - the Browns just plain don’t win (as evidence, I offer Packers v. Browns 2017). It’s one thing to have up and down seasons, sometimes making the playoffs, sometimes sucking donkey dick, but never winning the big one. It’s quite another to be penciled in to last place in the division before the Super Bowl winners have their parade, every year.
It’s possible they turn it around, but the same conversation happens every year. Every year but three (2002, 2007, and 2010), they finish dead last in the AFC North, going a combined 76-180 over that time period, and 1-31 under Hue “Winning Is Hard” Jackson the last two seasons. I’ll attribute any Browns wins this season to a dead cat bounce before I truly believe they’re turning things around.
The St. Louis Blues have never won a Stanley Cup, and haven’t been to the finals since 1970. As of tonight, they’re fighting just to get in the playoffs. For a Blues fan, every year starts with optimism and ends with disappointment.
But year after year Blues fans keep buying season tickets and filling seats. Love comes from the heart, not the head.
The Red Sox* had lots of very good or at least competitive teams over their long Series drought.
The reincarnated Browns have rarely been good, seldom competitive, and lately just embarrassingly bad, with an owner who sabotages improvement** and a coach whose performance badly lags his billing.
Maybe the new GM and staff will manage a few decent picks before getting fired.
*not about to discuss Chicago sports teams.
**He may have been distracted by efforts to avoid being dragged down by the truck stop scandal.
