Cleveland Browns Kool Aid has arrived…drink up!
By Mike Lukas
It’s that time of the NFL offseason where Cleveland Browns fans begin to have hope in their team. Again.
Uh oh, I’m doing it again. For the umpteenth time in my life, I’m beginning to feel confident about the Cleveland Browns. Ugh, what kind of football fool am I?
It happens every March at about this same time.
Doesn’t matter who the Browns’ owner is (there have been three since 1999) or general manager (the Browns are on their 10th over that same period) or which head coach is in charge (it’s been a dozen so far this century) or which quarterback is under center (they’re on their 29th since returning to the league)…
…right about now, without fail, is when the mighty orange and brown start to look totally unbeatable again.
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Well, at least a respectable 11-6, given a 17 game season. Still…
Despite the Browns’ never-ending string of 21st century disappointments (sorry, ‘string’ is the wrong word here – it’s been more like a ‘thick rope of setbacks,’ an ‘undersea cable of letdowns’), there’s absolutely no way you can convince me right now that the Cleveland Browns haven’t finally figured it all out.
Go on, Charlie Brown, kick that ball…it’ll be different this time, I swear.
Ugh, what kind of football fool am I?
Let me count the ways…
…the kind who hasn’t forgotten the Browns have finally found their franchise quarterback. For anyone needing a good memory poke, check out these Baker Mayfield highlights and prepare to engorge.
…the kind who’s been watching Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski systematically use free agency (and most likely the 10th overall draft pick) to get Mayfield the kind of protection he’s been sorely lacking. Because quarterbacking without solid protection is like eating crab legs without a bib – shirt gets messy fast.
…the kind of football fool who has online access to the current Cleveland Browns roster and can clearly see the names of all those play-makers and game-changers listed. Be honest, if any other team had Baker, OBJ, Jarvis, Chubb, Hunt, Myles, Denzel, Greedy and the Scottish Hammer, their fans would be busy buying up layers of thermal for all that January football they’d be watching.
Cleveland Browns Kool Aid is never sweeter than in March, it’s true, but for some reason this time it tastes less like poison and more like that stuff you dump all over the winning coach’s back.
Ugh, what kind of football fool am I?
The kind who’s absolutely certain that the Cleveland Browns I love, this version it took four years of rebuilding to create, will become the winning team they once were back when movies were black and white and the word ‘Otto’ was considered a first name.
Certain the way I am about gravity and my hair loss and gray skies in Cleveland once the NFL begins.
Lovers of modern pro football tend to think of us Cleveland Browns fans as the fools of this league, but that’s only because we put our faith in a team with the fewest amount of wins since 1999 and we think the color orange goes with everything. Which it does.
What they fail to realize is why Browns fans are special. To root for the Browns, you have to totally dig the underdog and enjoy putting your faith in something unique that few consider worthy. Creed fans and naked mole rat lovers know what I’m talking about.
Next. Is Drew Forbes the answer at right guard for the Browns?. dark
From the looks of things in Berea, being a Browns fan is about to finally pay off – and no city deserves to hoist Lombardi metal and host an unironic victory parade more than Cleveland does.
Only a fool would believe otherwise.