mollyfamwatCLEVELAND — Chris McNeil’s earliest memories of playing for the Cleveland Browns go back to 1987. McNeil was seven years old. The Browns are 10 points behind the Jets with four minutes to go in the AFC Division Playoffs. But I’m standing in my chair, McNeil remembers, screaming: We’re gonna win!
Bernie Kosar scored two spectacular late goals and Cleveland won in double overtime in the third longest game in NFL history – Lake Marathon – for his first playoff victory since 1969. McNeil, there with his parents and his uncle, looked around the beam blocking his view.
That magic never left me, not even when the team was cut, McNeil said. I remember the 7-year-old standing on a chair in the old town hall – and we’ve had that magic ever since.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Sean Williams
Tonight, 50 years after receiving the very first Monday night soccer game, the Baltimore Ravens see themselves in the biggest regular season game in decades in Cleveland (20:15 p.m., ESPN).
Twenty-five years ago this week, the Old Browns played their last game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and the owner Art Modell closed the Dawg Pond and destroyed Cleveland’s soul by handing over the franchise to Baltimore.
Cleveland football is finally back. But the Browns haven’t recovered yet.
Until… maybe finally, hopefully… now?
Prior to the Ravens, Cleveland had his best record (9-3) since returning to the NFL in 1999. The Browns can’t technically secure a play area with a victory. Yet they can only put an end to the NFL’s longest post-season drought – and, as a cathartic bonus, reduce the likelihood of the entity causing so much heartache in the lake.
In conversations with former players, coaches and celebrities, Peyton Manning looks at the history of football and its cultural influence. Watch on ESPN+
I don’t think there is a fan base that has suffered so much over the past quarter century in professional sport, said Joe Thomas, a former Cleveland All-Pro player who survived a rookie season in 2007 before retiring two years ago and now considers himself a full-fledged Browns fan. When you have experienced so much struggle and pain and have come so far, I think that the reward, the emotion and the feeling of joy will equal the feeling of sorrow.
But I’ve been in Cleveland long enough. …you’re gonna have to take it easy with your heart…
Just drive. Tampering. The move. Watch Modell hoist the elusive Lombardi Trophy, but with Baltimore. Thirty different quarterbacks. 1-31. Nose in the league joke.
We’re kids at Christmas who don’t have toys. This is what it’s like being a Browns fan, said Tony Rizzo, an old Cleveland radio presenter on WKNR 850 AM. But the resilience of a Browns fan is unmatched in any sport. … And the playoffs will be the best Christmas present we can get.
One for which the city has waited 17 seasons.
One of the best things about the NFL is Cleveland, says Mike Tannenbaum of ESPN, who worked in the Browns front office in 1995. This town loves its team – it lives it.
And he really deserves a winner.
Fault! The file name is not specified. The members of Cleveland’s Dawg Pond, some of the NFL’s most loyal supporters, were among those who felt cheated when Art Modell transferred the franchise to Baltimore 25 years ago. Kimberly Beard/Getty Images
PHIL SAVAGE STREETS at the Browns Training Centre where Coach Bill Belichick’s staff met Saturday morning. 4. November 1995. Savage served as a scout during the week and as an assistant coach at the weekend. When he turned on the radio, he could hardly believe what he heard: Model dispatched in the Browns, making it one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of Cleveland and the NFL. That’s how I found out, said Savage, who eventually followed Modell to Baltimore before returning to Cleveland as general manager in 2005. Just about everyone understood.
At that time, Cleveland had experienced a revival after becoming the first major city to fail economically since the Great Depression of 1978. From the 1980s Cardiac Kids to Cosara’s deep run in the playoffs, the Browns embodied the return of the city.
We are rebuilding our self-confidence, said Fred Nance, who as city prosecutor will fight for the return of the Browns in 1999. And the Browns played a big part in that.
Fault! The file name is not specified. The Cleveland stadium was used for years as a field for Browns and Indians, and the gardeners often couldn’t grow grass on the field, so they just painted it green. AP Photo/Mark Duncan
In 1994, the city and county of Cuyahoga built a new arena to bring the Cavaliers back to the center, as well as a new baseball stadium, so the Indians no longer had to share the neighborhood with the Browns. But while these lucrative institutions were still in their infancy, the city council literally collapsed. Coaches and players had to hang their clothes on nails in the wall. The field team, unable to grow grass on the field after the baseball season, simply painted it green. The water supply barely worked.
The radio operators on the roof did not even have a bathroom, said Doug Dieken, who set the record for the most consecutive starts as the attacking tackler of the Browns and has been the radio technician of the team since 1985. Instead, they had an outhouse.
Although the city is technically the owner of the stadium, Modell agreed to pay the operating and capital improvement costs in a 25-year lease signed in 1973.
The art was very, very indebted. He had to ask his wife for a loan to sign Andre Rizzo. He wanted to show it to people who don’t play with him in the new stadium.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Then Mayor Mike White gives a speech during a rally on Capitol Hill on the 29th. November 1995, with a sign asking the Cleveland Browns not to move to Baltimore. AP Photo/Doug Mills.
Mike White, mayor of Nance and Cleveland, organized a $175 million community renewal while gathering support for a sin tax to help fund it, although Modell this summer called for a moratorium on negotiations until the end of the 1995 season.
Last weekend, Nance and White were in their office to prepare for next week’s mood when they saw images of Modell on television. Like a lot of Brown’s fans, they felt sidelined.
This is the biggest success I’ve ever seen in the city in terms of a sports team, said Jim Donovan, an old Cleveland athlete who’s been calling the team play-by-play on the radio since 1999. Because he’s a haymaker who destroyed the city in cold blood.
The next day, ironically, the Browns played the Houston Oilers, who announced their own move to Tennessee two weeks later. The sponsors immediately dropped Modell, and their panels were blackened with paint before the start.
According to Mr. Savage, the stadium seemed to be on fire. And, of course, it was like a morgue. And we were beaten and just stunned for the rest of the year.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Cleveland Browns fans, upset by the team’s decision to move to Baltimore, rejected the Browns’ 26-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in week 17. December 1995 some seats on the field. Getty Images
In the last game at Municipal later in the season, fans brought hammers and saws to dismantle the seats and stands and take them home – tangible reminders of a magical past yet to come. Players like Earnest Byner, who sulked against the Broncos in 1988 but also helped Cleveland qualify for the play-offs, toured the stadium with 50 fans before making his last visit to his dilapidated dressing room.
I only remember being speechless and not understanding how a Cleveland Browns franchise could get to Baltimore, said Kevin Mack, Byner’s team in Cleveland’s dominant rearguard in the 1980s. I couldn’t understand. … It was just unbelievable.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Landlord Art Modell has agreed to pay the rent of the Cleveland Municipal Stadium to move his team to Baltimore. Fred Nance.
Over the next two months, the city has successfully fought to keep the name, team colours and history of the Browns in Cleveland alive. The model agreed to pay damages and a fine for breaching the stadium rental agreement. And the NFL has promised to give the city a team within three years. But with Cleveland winning these battles, Modell eventually won the right to an immediate pitch to Baltimore. A year later, the municipality was demolished so that a first energy phase could be built in place of the new Browns. It was a physical sign of the end of a beloved era.
According to Nance, who was LeBron James’ personal lawyer when James was in high school in Northeast Ohio in 2002 – the last time the Browns made the playoffs.
To this day, Nance, now managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs, cannot speak emotionally about the loss of the Browns in Cleveland: I can still feel it. There was a lot at stake. There were so many people for whom that battle determined what Cleveland was all about.
Fault! The file name is not specified. head coach Bill Belichick fell out of favor after defeating Brown’s legend Bernie Kosara. He was fired after the team moved to Baltimore. Getty Images
Belichick – who had already lost favor in Cleveland for firing Kosar two years ago, news so important that local schools announced it over the morning news bulletins – was fired after the season when Modell was looking for a fresh start. This paved the way for Belichick, who was going to win six Super Bowls in New England with Tom Brady.
Savage and a handful of other front office employees who will move to Baltimore, including the former Browns Ozzie Newsome greenhouse, actually stayed in Cleveland until April to prepare for the project. The first two teams that would later be renamed the Ravens opted for offensive Jonathan Ogden and linebacker Ray Lewis. Both became Hall of Famers and Super Bowl champions five seasons later.
For Cleveland, who had never been in the Super Bowl, the fight had only just begun.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Browns owner Al Lerner was sure to be his man in the 1999 NFL draft after Cleveland selected Tim Couch, the Browns’ first draft pick since the franchise restarted. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
The Browns returned to the field in 1999 for a preseason game in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south, as an expansion franchise. Then Cleveland beat the Dallas Cowboys in overtime. Four years earlier, the Carolina and Jacksonville expansion concessions also came together in the Hall of Fame. One season later, they both made the playoffs.
We were obviously very naive, but I think everyone felt like he was stopping where he left off, Donovan said. Al Lerner was a billionaire, everyone knew he’d spend a lot of money. And that is the influence of the 49ers [in the front office] on Carmen Politics and Dwight Clark. All in all, in the eyes of the public, it will be easy.
And it soon ended with a knockout against the Steelers when they were completely flat [in a 43-0 loss]. And I think everyone was thinking at the time: This is gonna be a lot harder than we thought.
Since then, the Browns have had three different owners, ten different general managers and twelve different head coaches, allowing them to win two seasons and have only one play-off appearance.
I don’t think there’s a fan club that has endured more suffering in professional sport over the past quarter century.
Joe Thomas, former All-Pro forward for the Browns.
When the Browns came back, they had something like a whole roll of string to fly the kite, Savage, the GM behind one of those winning seasons in 2007, said. Some of these lines were worn out in the first years and became even more so after that. And with each additional mode, there were fewer and fewer lines to work with.
There was less patience and more pressure to do things quickly.
Eric Metcalfe, a member of Cleveland’s last All-Pro team to win a playoff game in 1994, believes the Browns’ desire to regain their former glory has instead created a vicious circle of unrest.
All participants were eager to bring a winner to the city of Cleveland, said Mr. Metcalfe. But by wanting it so badly, he created a problem. Because there is never stability in an organization. We haven’t won in two years, the coach is gone, new coach, new coordinators, new attack, new quarterback.
Since 1999, Cleveland has had 30 different starting quarterbacks – after Brian Sipe, Kosar and Vinny Testaverde held the position for virtually the same length of time as before.
The right quarterback is the most important thing in football, Thomas says. It is the most important position in all sports, because it has the most influence on profits and losses, not on getting that position over and over again. … You can’t win consistently.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Cleveland Browns fans swim in the Perfect Season Parade after the regular season 2017. The Browns became the second team in NFL history to lose 16 games in one season. AP Photo/Tony Dejak
AS LOS ANGELES during the 2016 season, McNeil launched the idea on his massive Twitter after the 0-16 year-end parade, if only as a mechanism to overcome any losses.
Actually, I didn’t expect anyone to take it seriously, he said. I’ll settle for a $25 donation to the local mayor’s office. But of course the Browns kept losing and the pressure started to increase: Hey, is this gonna happen?
The Browns have finally saved McNeil with a victory in week 16. But they won’t be able to do the same in 2017, on their way to second place 0-16 finish in NFL history. The same week that the playoffs started, McNeil led a parade of more than 2,000 people around the FirstEnergy Stadium.
It was cathartic, McNeil said, raising thousands of dollars for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank with sponsors like Excedrin. Even though our team sucks, we got the idea from Cleveland Browns…. the idea of Cleveland Browns. …with the message that we, as fans, deserve better.
However, this series of historical defeats gave the Browns another chance to finally succeed.
In the next version Cleveland quarterback chose Baker Mayfield as first choice. The Browns also took the Pro Bowl by chasing Nick Chubb and cornerback Denzel Ward. A year earlier, they had made the best choice Miles Garrett, who is now a candidate for NFL defensive player of the year. Then, in the off-season, owner Jimmy Haslam hired General Manager Andrew Berry, who has made Cleveland’s offensive line a force to be reckoned with, and Kevin Stefanski, who was on the NFL Coach of the Year short list because of his spectacular play.
– Darrell Bevell, Brett Favre, long
– Accounts must win a key against the Steelers
– Bengals could use a QB like Andy Dalton
– Panthers/Broncos disappeared in QB
– Finnish will try to confuse Patrick Mahomes.
It has been a long and difficult road, Haslam said. But we think we have the right people in the right place.
The Browns enter Monday night soccer with their most impressive victory in years after beating the Titans in Tennessee last weekend. In winning his fourth straight game, Mayfield produced Cleveland’s best performance as quarterback since Kosar was behind center, throwing four touchdown passes in the first half alone, the most since Otto Graham in 1951, and renewed hope that the winner of Oklahoma’s third year Heisman Trophy could be Cleveland’s long-term response to the position.
I heard about the Cleveland Browns… …and how important they are to this place, Mayfield said afterwards. I didn’t believe it until I got here. It means a lot to the city. When I came here, I thought: Wow, it’s true. It’s a passionate fan club that lives, breathes and dies in football, and it’s Cleveland Browns football.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Fans ofCleveland have a good feeling about quarterback Baker Mayfield and the 2020 Browns ending a 17-year drought in the playoffs. Andy Lyon/Getty Images
Mayfield boldly added that it’s time for Cleveland fans to reconsider their expectations, as the team is definitely on the right track.
I hope we’re done with the bad stuff, Donovan said. Because when it was great here, you never knew which day of the week it was because you were following the team and you just knew it would soon be Sunday and it would be the best day ever.
McNeil also wants to talk about what it would be like if the Browns made the playoffs. Especially if they happen to shut down the Ravens on the way.
But like a lot of other Brown’s fans, he doesn’t want to curse it.
Soccer gods like to shit on Cleveland, and when I say something like that, even in my head…. McNeil said that before he quit. But when I think about it, I go back to 1987. And I can’t wait.
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