Cleveland Browns: Q&A with Toronto Browns Backers

The Browns Backers Worldwide is considered to be one of the largest organized fan clubs in all of professional sports with members and clubs established throughout the world.

The organization exists as a non-profit group to actively support and positively promote the Cleveland Browns.

Today, in the latest of a series focusing on the best fans in the NFL, we talk with Bryan Loberg, president of the Toronto Browns Backers, one of seven clubs in Canada. You can follow the group on Twitter @TOBrownsBackers and on Facebook at Toronto Browns Backers.

Loberg was kind enough to join us for a virtual Q&A on the club and what it is like to be a Browns fan in the Great White North.

Question: How did your chapter come about?

Bryan: Before I took it over in 2014 the chapter had been in existence under different leadership since 2008. The club had a Facebook page with 40 members listed, but had no active or current discussions ongoing. I stumbled across the page and began posting messages, trying to organize meet-ups, with little to no response.

Matt Weeks, our current vice president, was one of the lone respondents so we agreed to meet up and see what we could do. Fast forward a few weeks and the Browns Backers Worldwide were getting set to overhaul their web portal and were also requiring all clubs to refile for membership. Unsatisfied with the inactivity and the way the current Toronto Browns Backers were being run, I decided to throw my name into the hat to take over as president.

After being accepted and officially named president, I began putting the building blocks into place to revamp the club, and together Matt and I began sourcing out potential headquarter locations, eventually settling at a local sports pub in downtown Toronto. It was there where the foundation of the club was assembled.

Midway through the 2014 season, however, we were forced to relocate as we outgrew the place. Not knowing where to go on such short notice, we decided to bring the club to the No. 1 sports bar in Toronto, The Sports Centre Cafe, which is now our current headquarters.

In just over a year we’ve gone from seven people gathering at our first ever official pre-season event and 40 total members, to regularly getting 50-plus out for game days and having 240 serious members. During this off-season the bar was generous enough to renovate a large portion of the building which is now known as The Dawg Pound North.

In fact, The Toronto Browns Backers are the largest organized fan club of any NFL team anywhere in Canada. Just goes to show how awesome Browns fans are … eh?

Question: What is the atmosphere like when the group gets together for a game?

Bryan: The atmosphere is fantastic, from the moment the ball is kicked off until the last seconds tick off the clock. Regardless of the score, which often isn’t very favourable, our members go nuts all afternoon long. We are always the loudest section in the bar and other patrons often wander over to our section to see what the hell it is we are cheering about.

Every week, without fail, random Browns fans show up to the bar, see us all gathered together watching the game, and will be completely blown away by it all. In fact, when we first showed up to Sports Centre Cafe we were the largest and loudest crowd the bar had seen in 21 years.

As this past year was only our first since the club was revamped, we have lots of exciting things planned for this season to enhance the game day experience, beginning with the official unveiling of the Dawg Pound North. We also have 50/50, game squares and raffles with all profits going to local charities. In short, it’s a dedicated lowered section of the bar, with L-Shaped bleachers, dozens of TVs and a 10-foot-by-10-foot main screen, all dedicated to our group.

Two of the four walls are painted brown and orange with our giant banner hanging on one wall, and our championship banner hanging beside the projector screen on another. Over the course of the past season we encouraged all of our members to bring in any Browns paraphernalia to hang on the walls, and we’ve amassed a great collection, anchored by our inflatable Browns lineman (Brutus), and a six-foot poster of Bernie Kosar that has been through hell and back, but has now been properly framed and forever hangs in the Dawg Pound North.

Question: The NFL is working hard to be a global force; how much interest do you see the game having outside of your Browns Backers’ group in your area?

Bryan: The NFL is huge in Toronto. Don’t base it on the success (or failure) of the Bills in Toronto Series … quite frankly, the citizens of Toronto aren’t all Bills fans, despite popular belief that we are because Buffalo is only a 90-minute drive away. In addition, the venue where they held the games is a dump that is not meant for football, and our government doesn’t allow for proper tailgating, which we all know is a huge part of the NFL game day experience.

In a sentence, that experience was just a disaster. People come to our bar to watch NFL games, period. Since we don’t have an NFL franchise in Toronto, you will find fans of nearly every team represented in the city. Bus trips are organized out of Toronto every week to go to the U.S. and see games and they’re always sold out.

Make no mistake, NFL football is huge here.

Question: What off-season move was the Browns’ best?

Bryan: I’d say it was our two picks on the first day of the draft.

Drafting Danny Shelton at No. 12 and Cameron Erving at No. 19 really helped in two key areas. Despite all the rumors of the Browns trading up to draft Marcus Mariota or even trading to get Sam Bradford, which both would have been terrible moves, the Brown stuck to the game plan and addressed the lines.

Our run defense was atrocious last year and Shelton becomes an immediate improvement at nose tackle, and coupled with the free agent acquisition of Randy Starks as a veteran presence on the line, I think our defensive line becomes much tougher to run against.

Erving gives us a safety net at center if Alex Mack decides to leave. Erving can also play guard in the meantime and, if not, he adds depth that we desperately need for if and when injuries occur.

Related: The Day The Tickets Arrive

Question: The Browns are trying to win with a dominant defense and running game, rather than a dominant quarterback. Can they pull it off?

Bryan: Without a decent quarterback this is certainly not a Super Bowl team, but I think we can pull off an above-average result without one. It’s been proven many times that teams can be successful with a strong defense and solid running game. I think we have a good enough team to contend for a wild card spot at best. But before this club makes any real noise in the AFC, we will eventually have to figure out what is going on at quarterback.

I’m not convinced that Manziel is our franchise quarterback and I know many other fans will echo that sentiment, but I like what he’s done with himself this off-season while saying and doing all the right things.

If we can continue to build on what looks to be the potential for a dominant running game, great runners and a top offensive line already in place, while doing what we did during the draft to build the defense, we can survive a couple of years until either Manziel can prove himself or we eventually draft a first round QB … again.

Question: “In Pettine We Trust!” Yes or No?

Bryan: I like Pettine. I think he did some great things last season and didn’t succumb to any of the outside pressures of throwing Manziel in right away (he had to when he did, there wasn’t another choice to make). He’s great with the media, I like the attitude he brings to the locker room, and I think the players really respect him.

I don’t know if I’m ready to call him a great coach … but this organization has been far too hasty with their decisions to shake up the coaching staff. I want them to stick with Pettine and get some consistency going for once. When the coaching staff changes as often as it does in Cleveland, and you constantly have to instill new schemes and systems with players on a yearly basis, how can you expect to have any on-field success?

If the Browns don’t make the playoffs this season I won’t view it as a failure, but I really hope that they don’t give Pettine the axe because of it.

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Question: Have you ever been to Cleveland for a game or does the group have any plans to do so?

Bryan: I’ve been to many games in Cleveland in my 35 years of being a Browns fan. I love that city and I love the people. I actually gave up my season tickets this year, which is kind of sad, but it also means that our club is growing so much in Toronto that I would rather be running our game day events at the Dawg Pound North.

We don’t have a large group going to any games this year, no bus organized, but we do have a dozen or so of us going to the Broncos game this year.

Question: What’s the best part about being a Browns fan?

Bryan: The camaraderie. We are the most loyal group of fans in the NFL or any sport for that matter. There aren’t many franchises who have gone through the pain and torture us Browns fans have gone through. Season after season of turnover and turmoil only brings us closer together. I always say, and I say it a lot, losing unites people more than winning does.

The classic line misery loves company certainly suits us well. And because of that, whenever I see another Browns fan walking down the street, or anywhere for that matter, we immediately strike up a conversation and end up becoming good friends.

Next: Why the Browns should sign Ahmad Bradshaw

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Q&A with the Toronto Browns Backers

By Thomas Moore | Jul 27, 2015

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