Being a Browns Fan - Ain't Easy!

I am a Browns fan and it definitely has been hard.

I wasn’t born in Cleveland. I was born in New York and moved to Cleveland when I was little. I attended grade school and high school in Cleveland and went to college in Ohio. So I have been a fan for a very long time. I have seen and felt the highs and lows of being a Browns fan. In the 50s and 60s, we had THE TEAM. We were winners and champions under Paul Brown and Blanton Collier. We had some great players like Otto Graham, Lou the toe Groza, and of course Jim Brown who was in a league of his own. The Browns were winners in the 50s and 60s. They won their last the NFL Championship in 1964. If they had a Super Bowl back then…the Browns would have had rings on one hand and one for the thumb.

I cheered for the likes of  Brian Sipe and the Kardiac Kids of the 80s. I loved how they would come from behind and pull out a win in the last two minutes of a football game. Those games left me excited, ecstatic, and exhausted!

Then there was the home grown Ohio boy…Bernie Kosar. He loved Cleveland and wanted to be the quarterback for them. Cleveland fans loved him.

I booed Art Modell and Bill Belichick when they got rid of Bernie, along with all the other disappointed fans.

Then Art Modell pulled the Browns out of Cleveland and relocated them to Baltimore. That was the ultimate worst offense and the fans wouldn’t forget it.

I wore a browns sweatshirt “Countdown to 1999” until a new team was formed using the same name, uniforms, and colors.  I owned season tickets with my daughter. We sat in the stands cheering, frustrated, until the Browns team looked like a third class team from some underdeveloped country that had no idea who they were or what they were supposed to do. Winning was elusive and watching them was even harder.

The only bright shining star was their offensive tackle, Joe Thomas who always played the game and always was constantly  named to the Pro Bowl, no matter what Cleveland’s record was.

I watched QBs come and go, along with coaches, players, GMs, and Owners as if there was a revolving door in Cleveland

The Browns were the butt of every joke. All I heard from my family and friends was how the Browns Sucked! That was hard to swallow living in Pittsburgh!

Every year when football season would begin, I would believe in the Browns but then the team just couldn’t do it. But this year, 2018, with a tie and a close lost, came the unbelievable win…after 635 days of not winning a game...the Browns gave the fans something to celebrate…a Win.

I do believe…Go Browns!!!