Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh are all visiting the Cleveland Browns this season. Who will bring the most opposing fans?
The 2021 Cleveland Browns home schedule looks like this: vs. Houston Texans (Week 2), vs. Chicago Bears (Week 3), vs. Arizona Cardinals (Week 6), vs. Denver Broncos Thursday Night Football (Week 7), vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Week 8), vs. Detroit Lions (Week 11), vs. Baltimore Ravens (Week 14), vs. Las Vegas Raiders (Week 15), vs. Cinncinati Bengals (Week 18).
Those are some very interesting opponents coming into the Dawg Pound.,
Due to Houston, Arizona, Denver, and Las Vegas all being very far from Cleveland, these teams probably won’t bring in large contingencies of fans to FirstEnergy Stadium. Thus, that leaves the Bears, Steelers, Lions, Ravens, and Bengals.
So which opposing team will bring in the largest contingency of fans to Cleveland?
To help me answer this question, I posed it to my friends and family. I got about 25 responses and there was primarily one team that kept coming up. Their colors are black and yellow and they only have their logo on one side of their helmet…the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This makes all the sense in the world because it appears as though the Steelers vs Browns rivalry has been reignited. But I’m not ready to say that the Browns vs Steelers rivalry is fully back.
First I need to see both teams maintain high levels of play and the games between them need to mean something. Such as Week 17 last year where the Browns had to beat the Steelers in order to get into the playoffs. More often than not, Pittsburgh is seen as the team that you measure yourself against in the AFC North.
There was only one other answer that would occasionally come up and that team has stripes on their helmet and the nickname for their stadium is “The Jungle”…the Cincinnati Bengals. The most obvious reason for this is because the Bengals are the in-state rival for the Browns.
Recently, the only thing that these two teams have been playing for is state bragging rights. However, the Browns went 11-5 and made the playoffs. Whereas the Bengals went 4-11 and had the No. 5 overall pick. But the Bengals appear to be turning it around this season. So that Week 18 game could potentially have something on the line.
My answer to this question just so happens to be the team that Art Modell created when he moved the Browns to Baltimore. Their colors are purple and black. Their logo is a bird with the letter B on it. The Baltimore Ravens.
Baltimore, Maryland is about six hours from Cleveland, Ohio so it’s not easy for Ravens fans to get to Cleveland. These two teams will square off in Week 14 on December 12. Before the season started, there were a lot of people saying that the Ravens and Browns would be fighting with each other for the AFC North division title.
At this time, that ship appears to have left the dock. However, that Week 14 game could still be significant. The Ravens could be trying to get the no.1 while the Browns could be in the mix for a wildcard spot.
The Browns have one of the most passionate fan bases in the NFL, but you know at the same time that opposing fans are going to be in attendance for games.