How true Cleveland Browns fans should handle bandwagon fans

Heading into the 2019 season the Cleveland Browns are faced with a problem that they have never encountered before: Bandwagon fans. Should we accept them?

In the subsequent days since the Odell Beckham Jr. trade, there has been an undeniable “internal discord” within the Cleveland Browns fanbase. Just merely mentioning the term bandwagon fan is enough to incite a riot amongst the die-hard contingent. Is the bandwagon fan truly a cancerous tumor within the Browns fanbase, or is it an advantageous means to an end? Let’s dissect this term that up until midway through the 2018 season was an utterly foreign concept.

Let’s start with the threatening nature the die-hards are claiming these bandwagoners are harboring. Surely you’ve heard “if you weren’t with us when we were 0-16 then we don’t want you now.” Certainly, that is a valid point. We, the die-hards, have been to the deepest of depths and had to stare into the void that is perpetual hopelessness season after season. I would say that we wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but let’s be honest, we all wish that on the Ravens and Steelers on a seasonal basis.

But I also believe that is why we shouldn’t be threatened by these bandwagon fans. Will bandwagon fans rooting for the Browns make success taste any sweeter? Absolutely not. If anything you can take solace knowing whatever joy they extract from any success will pale in comparison because of what we have endured for generations. To put it simply, it won’t mean to them what it will mean to us, and how could it?

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If anything, let them root to their heart’s content. We are the benefactors of their newly found fandom. They will buy jerseys, shirts, hats, toboggans, hoodies, Fat-Heads, calendars, posters, etc. By increasing the demand the retailers will be forced to increase the supply, thus ensuring that Browns gear will more readily available than it has ever been.

I would argue that the biggest issue that bandwagon fans actually affect the die-hards is: It will become harder to buy tickets for games. I agree this is concerning. While they are technically not stopping you from purchasing tickets, they are going to make buying tickets on the resale market ultra-competitive. The plus side to that, all home games will sell-out ensuring that there will never be a game blacked-out.

That brings us to viewership. More fans equal more eyes watching on television. If anything is certain in this world it is this: TV ratings determine everything. So say goodbye to 1:00 p.m. kickoffs and to the D, E, and F squad of broadcasters, and say hello to primetime main-event slots with each networks A-team on the call. Get super comfortable with being the team chosen to be flexed out whenever the opportunity presents itself. It’s Red Carpet treatment from here on out Browns fans.

Most importantly and I don’t believe this can be overstated; overall, as a whole, we are an aging fanbase. It may be painful to acknowledge but the fact remains when you are as bad as the Browns have been for the better part of two decades it is hard to attract the younger generations. Be honest, if you’re younger than 25 and were not born into the fanbase would you have chosen it for yourself?

Well, this is where the bandwagoners value is undeniable. While they are not indigenous to the die-hard population, bandwagon fans will have children who will be raised as Cleveland Browns fans. That will make them life-long Browns fans, the same as us. Ensuring that our fanbase remains strong and loyal long after we are gone. Do we want to punish these future citizens of the Dawg Pound just because their parents were late to the party?

Baker Mayfield will be to them what Bernie Kosar was to you and what Otto Graham was to your father’s father. Why would you want to rob them of that?

Instead of resenting these newly found fans, embrace them. It will mean more high-fives, more Brown and Orange flooding the streets, and more of “Here We Go Brownies, Here We Go!” The biggest downside as I see it is, it will make traffic worse for the parade after we win the Super Bowl. But that is a problem that I am willing to live with.