**This post contains explicit language.
Yes, the Cleveland Browns are my team, and no, it's not rough. And for you bandwagon fans, fuck off.
This blog has been a long time coming. Anytime I meet someone new and the NFL gets brought up and I say my favorite team is the Cleveland Browns, I am usually met with "Oooooo, that's rough." Or when I go out, and am wearing something Cleveland Browns, a random stranger will say, "You're actually a Browns fan? That's rough." Well, I am here to tell you it's not, because unlike you, I love my team through thick and thin.
I have been a die-hard Browns fan since before I started Pre-K. I have only ever lived through one winning season during my eighteen years of fandom. Many "fans" would have given up after three straight losing seasons, but I didn't. I persisted. Being a die-hard fan of the "laughing stock" of the NFL for years has made me a stronger person. It has shown me what true fans are and what it feels like to love and believe in something. This is something a lot of sports fans never achieve; when their team starts losing, they quit watching until they hear they are good again, but not I. Sunday after Sunday, I sat in front of my TV and watched as the Browns would usually lose in the worst ways possible, many times in the last couple of minutes. I would, for a brief second, drop my head in sorrow but would quickly pick it right back up and think, "Well, we're going to win next Sunday, mark my words."
Year after year, I had to hear analysts and friends alike say "Cleveland is where quarterbacks go to die," which, if you actually know what you're talking about, isn't true. Did we go through a lot of quarterbacks, yeah, but to say the Browns ruined every one of their careers is the most absurd thing ever and your credibility as an analyst or fan of football should be thrown off the top of First Energy Stadium. We went through many coaching changes as well, but as bad as it got (0-16 in 2017), I still wore my Cleveland Browns gear proud and without remorse.
Now the Browns are viewed as a good team and every analyst who said Baker Mayfield would be wasted in Cleveland, every bandwagoner who watched "Hard Knocks" this season and every "fan" who is a fan because we are winning, wants to jump on. To you I say, "Fuck off." Most fans would welcome you scum bags with open arms; to you I say, "Go root for the LA Rams." I don't want you; other actual Browns fans don't want you. We didn't go through all the hardship just for you to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm a Browns fan. I think Baker has the gusto to turn this team around." Or, "Oh yeah, the Browns are gonna bless 'em, just gonna bless 'em." Fucking eye roll. Of course Baker Mayfield has the gusto to help turn the Browns around; he's a fucking G. There is also no faster way to be caught as a fraudulent fan of the Browns than to say "Bless 'em." It's a good saying for Jarvis and Co., but if that is your go to Browns motto, you're a fraud. Our motto is, "Here We Go Brownies, Here We Go! Woof! Woof!"
Do you remember when you were in high school and you were assigned group work? You did all the work and after the project your partners got the exact same grade as you, even though they didn't do jack shit. Well, that is exactly what it feels like when you love and admire a team with all your heart, and you wouldn't trade it for the world even though a lot of shitty crap has happened, and then some dumbass who decides, "I'm a Browns fan because they are good," comes along. It is debilitating. It crushes you because it's like where were you during 4-12? 3-13? 5-11? 1-15? 0-16? For fuck's sake 2014's 7-9? Do not come here with that bullshit; Browns fans are few, but we are a very proud bunch and we have paid our dues for what looks like a bright future. (If you don't know what that feels like you were probably the kid that didn't do shit during group work and are a bandwagon fan now.)
If you don't know who Tim Couch, Brandon Weedon, Brady Quinn, Colt McCoy, Cody Kessler or DeShone Kizer are, don't say you're a Browns fan. You are also not a true fan if you don't know who Paul Brown, Otto Graham, Joe Thomas, Jim Brown, Brian Sipe, Phil Dawson or Bernie Kosar are. If you don't know The Fumble, The Drive or Red Right 88, go jump in the Cuyahoga River. If you didn't know Bill Belichick was a head coach of the Browns, don't woof. If the Cardiac Kids don't ring a bell, Peyton Hillis's rushing campaign is obscure to you, or the sheer fact that the CLEVELAND BROWNS HAVE WON FOUR NFL CHAMPIONSHIPS, WITH IF YOU WANT TO COUNT THE AAFC CHAMPIONSHIPS, then don't waste your breath. If you don't hate the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos, then we hate you. Part of being a fan of a sports team is knowing the team's history, their glory moments and their hardships.
One thing that makes being a Browns fan so great is meeting another Browns fan outside of Cleveland. Usually, they'll smile at you across the room until they get your attention, and then, when you recognize that they too are a Browns fan, you two total strangers who will probably never see each other again will meet up in that room and just talk Browns. I don't want that to go away. I don't want to see someone wearing Browns apparel and not have that connection because a bunch of people decided, "Oh, they're good now, let's cheer." It's a feeling only a true Browns fan gets.
I'm not saying kids can't hop on; they're kids. Kids can like what they want, But, if they decide to move on from the Browns in adulthood because they hit another rough patch, they can just go away. I've also heard some people say 'I'm actually a Baker Mayfield fan," or "I am just a fan of Jarvis Landry" or whoever; I can respect that a little more. I don't like it, but at least you weren't pretending to be something your're not (a Browns fan). I can respect that.
I know what's coming. The Browns are a very young, very talented team with championships written all over them, and I am very excited, but with that will come bandwagoners. Unfortunately that is the price one will pay for championships.
As always, "Here We Go Brownies, Here We Go! Woof! Woof!"
Also, as always, fuck Art Modell (and if you don't know this story, don't claim to be a Browns fan).
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