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Why are you a fan?


Dawgs89

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This topic isn't meant to slight any Browns fans. I'm simply curious what made you a fan, and furthermore how have you handled these miserable 16 ( 02 & 07 were good years) seasons? For season ticket members, will you be renewing?

 

I've been a fan since the Belichick days. I don't watch every single game, yet always keeps tabs.

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This has been discussed here before a few times, but it's always a good read.

 

My dad took me down to my 1st game in 1971, the Browns beat Cincy 31-27 and I was hooked.

 

By the time I was in high school, me and a few of my friends bought season tickets in the bleachers (1979) at a huge cost of $66 lol...right under the goal posts. The seats opened up because angry fans threw a bunch of stuff on the field vs Houston after a horrible call by the refs (Ken Burrough jumped over Clarence Scott,and of course they called the Browns for pass interference). Basically, fans were pelted with debris/beer bottles and didn't want to sit there anymore.

 

Still a season ticket holder, and yes, I will be renewing.

 

How have I handled the crap since the return?- Not very well, although I figured this year would be awful...never expected to be 0-12 though. The thing that bothers me the most is that I see lots of apathy towards the Browns, and we're in danger of becoming a fair-weather fanbase. It's hard for me to understand, since football, and the Browns have always been a huge part of NE Ohio.

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I've loved the game as long for as I can remember. Dad probably had a lot to do with it as we were Ken Coleman's Quarterback Club regulars. Probably the only show we watched more regularly together was when we had lunch with Soupy (The Soupy Sales Show) every Saturday.

 

The Browns were easy love in the late-50s/early-60s when I became "football aware". And for many more years they were the only provider of relief from the annual disappointment the Indians, and later the "Cadavers", provided.

 

 

As for Browns disappointments I haven't had a tough one to handle since 2014. That collapse was hard to take, because I did not see it coming as I was swept up in our early success.

 

By contrast 2016 has been a piece of cake because I saw it coming. I saw us winning maybe 2 or 3 games, but those thoughts quickly faded after injuries started to pile up. The other sustaining thing is I think I see "the plan"... and I approve of it.

 

It predates my time here, but even 2008 was bearable because I saw it coming. After the DA-BE fueled, 10-win 2007 I wanted to trade both as I saw one-hit wonder written all over them.

 

Almost everything else since '99 is a blur of muddied, low expectations. Davis did give some hope until it became clear he had too much control. Ditto for Mangini, but only because I have more vision in my pinky than the Walrus had in his entire blubber-bloated body...

 

 

But hey... I now have the Cavs and Indians to lean on... and that helps as well...

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Born and raised in Cleveland

 

I'm 24.. so I take pride in the fact I've stuck around even though we've had no success since I've been watching. Wouldn't have it any other way because the success will be SO sweet when we turn the corner

 

Was always a fan but started watching every single game and really getting into it in 2012.. Brandon Weeden's rookie season

 

I CANT WAIT for our rise and the Steelers fall

 

It will be hilarious when all those Steelers fans in Youngstown change that flag in their front lawn from Black and Yellow to Orange and Brown.

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British humor?!

 

Every time I hear the words "British humor", I always think of Benny Hill...one of my all time favorites.

Ha well my poor attempt at humour anyway :)

 

He died when I was 10 I'm afraid CD so I've not really ever seen anything of him!

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This has been discussed here before a few times, but it's always a good read.

 

My dad took me down to my 1st game in 1971, the Browns beat Cincy 31-27 and I was hooked.

 

By the time I was in high school, me and a few of my friends bought season tickets in the bleachers (1979) at a huge cost of $66 lol...right under the goal posts. The seats opened up because angry fans threw a bunch of stuff on the field vs Houston after a horrible call by the refs (Ken Burrough jumped over Clarence Scott,and of course they called the Browns for pass interference). Basically, fans were pelted with debris/beer bottles and didn't want to sit there anymore.

 

I Laugh cuz this story is so true, thanks Bob. Was at same game above Dawgpound between the uprights, but not my beer.(found ticket stub in album) I was 8, might be my dads tough. At 5 Dad locked me in the basement watching his Jim Brown homemade reel2reel game tape on projector & yes the white pullup screen. Dad was a season ticket holder from 65-95 till the day the browns left..Dad & I never miss a game.Just miss The Great Cleveland Browns!!

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Been a fan for a couple of months. I've always liked the Browns and I like the Browns fans. We're not winning right now so it's safer to jump on the bandwagon before it starts rolling.

 

Timing is everything! At least after 0-16 you can be pretty sure which direction it will roll when it starts moving again.

 

Born and raised in Cleveland

 

Post #6 already... Here's an overdue welcome to the Board... Welcome!

 

(Benny Hill) died when I was 10 I'm afraid CD so I've not really ever seen anything of him!

 

You did not miss much. Right up there with American TV's Hee Haw for cringe-worthy humor... minus the county music.

 

Dad loved them both.

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This topic isn't meant to slight any Browns fans. I'm simply curious what made you a fan, and furthermore how have you handled these miserable 16 ( 02 & 07 were good years) seasons? For season ticket members, will you be renewing?

 

I've been a fan since the Belichick days. I don't watch every single game, yet always keeps tabs.

 

I can say my football memories go all the way back to "The Greatest Game ever Played" the Giants Colts Championship game in 1958. We'd gather around the black & white TV every Sunday for the Brown's away games- LOL right after Gene Carroll's Polka Varieties- my cousins were actually regular performers on that show. Home games, it was listen to the radio (home games were totally blacked out back then). I've been fortunate enough to have seen Jim Brown play in person many times, my Grandfather used to get schmoozed by vendors with game tickets, and the guy who lived across the street from him had season tickets- and would give them to us kids when he couldn't make a game.

 

This has been discussed here before a few times, but it's always a good read.

 

My dad took me down to my 1st game in 1971, the Browns beat Cincy 31-27 and I was hooked.

 

By the time I was in high school, me and a few of my friends bought season tickets in the bleachers (1979) at a huge cost of $66 lol...right under the goal posts. The seats opened up because angry fans threw a bunch of stuff on the field vs Houston after a horrible call by the refs (Ken Burrough jumped over Clarence Scott,and of course they called the Browns for pass interference). Basically, fans were pelted with debris/beer bottles and didn't want to sit there anymore.

 

Still a season ticket holder, and yes, I will be renewing.

 

How have I handled the crap since the return?- Not very well, although I figured this year would be awful...never expected to be 0-12 though. The thing that bothers me the most is that I see lots of apathy towards the Browns, and we're in danger of becoming a fair-weather fanbase. It's hard for me to understand, since football, and the Browns have always been a huge part of NE Ohio.

 

Wow, I'm glad you brought the Houston game up. That was the "real" Bottlegate. None of that wimpy plastic stuff at the 2nd one I was at. Wasn't at the first one, but I did see it on the tube. It was the 4th quarter- it WAS a lousy call, and the fans in what was to become the Dawg Pound unleashed a barrage of anything that wasn't tied down. We're talking hundreds of glass beer, wine and booze bottles shattering everywhere. I was thinking- you tackle a guy on that stuff, and it's going to be a trip to the hospital. The Refs moved the play to the other end of the field. For you young 'uns, you might find it hard to believe, but security was pretty lax back in the day- you could smuggle in damn near anything, as long as you were 1\2 discreet about it- yeah even coolers were allowed.

 

As to the present, I didn't handle the first 6 or so losses this year very well, but now- hey go for 0-16. I've been a season ticket holder since 1999. My lifelong pal who moved back to Cleveland after college already had been a season ticket holder for 17 years- and I knew with the PSL deal- it was now or never to buy in on decent seats- on his seniority. Of course I'll renew- they're not so much for me anymore, but for the nephews and nieces who will inherit them. As the shirt says "Just one before I die."

 

So everyone that's born is a Browns fan?

 

Only if it was in Cleveland. :)

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Jim Brown. All his fault. Then the next best athlete I'd seen came here, Eric Metcalf with all that speed and elusiveness. And then JM in the era of the internet brought me to this board. And despite his inability to address his substance abuse problems, I stuck around to see how this will all turn out eventually. Now bring on Myles Garrett or you'll never hear the end of it on how well he is doing elsewhere while we added another name to the crossed out T-shirt. :P

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Born and raised.

 

Browns and Indians.

Cavs weren't even around, but they became part of 'hometown' fandom since inception.

 

My dad was a minor league baseball pitcher, so baseball has always been more of a draw to me. Still my fav sport.

 

To be a true fan, you follow and root for your teams in both up years - and especially - in down.

This is an - unusually long - down period for the Browns, for various reasons that are endlessly debated on these boards...

They will have the corresponding 'up' period in history.

 

Oddly, I have always had this strange notion that since the Browns were the LAST team to win a Championship before the Super Bowl era, that they would be the last team to be in a Super Bowl... however they will be the FIRST team to three-peat...

 

go figure...

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Born and raised in Cleveland

I'm 24.. so I take pride in the fact I've stuck around even though we've had no success since I've been watching. Wouldn't have it any other way because the success will be SO sweet when we turn the corner

Was always a fan but started watching every single game and really getting into it in 2012.. Brandon Weeden's rookie season

I CANT WAIT for our rise and the Steelers fall

It will be hilarious when all those Steelers fans in Youngstown change that flag in their front lawn from Black and Yellow to Orange and Brown.

I live near Youngstown. Browns fans actually out number the stool and urine. They just haven't had reason to put out the colors for soooo long. But when the Browns finally wake up, you will see this regions true colors. It's still N E Ohio.
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Jim Brown. All his fault. Then the next best athlete I'd seen came here, Eric Metcalf with all that speed and elusiveness. And then JM in the era of the internet brought me to this board. And despite his inability to address his substance abuse problems, I stuck around to see how this will all turn out eventually. Now bring on Myles Garrett or you'll never hear the end of it on how well he is doing elsewhere while we added another name to the crossed out T-shirt. :P

 

 

As said... Jim Brown got me.

 

It was Leroy Kelly who kept me.

 

Far and away my favorite Brownie after #32.

 

So, if this hasn't been asked before, and to keep this sucker going...

 

WHO IS YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE BROWNS PLAYER?

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Born and raised in Ridgway, Pa. My Dad was a Steeler fan, my Grandfathers were Steeler fans, my uncles were Steeler fans, my older Brother was a Steeler fan ... I guess ... you'd never know, because at the time of this story it was the late 60's and the Steelers still sucked and I don't remember them talking about them. Now, of course, the survivors are proud to be Steeler fans. Family get-togethers can be tense.

I was born in April 1964. They must have put my crib close to the TV on December 27th of that year. Because while my five older siblings were running around the house in their little Steeler pajamas, playing with their Christmas toys, I must have been soaking in Jim Brown, Gary Collins, and the Browns defense putting away the Colts in stellar fashion.

I had two Aunts, my Mothers sisters, that lived in Cleveland, one in Euclid and the other in Lakewood. In the Summer of 1968, we held a family reunion at My Aunt Kate's house in Lakewood. She had 7 kids, all older than me, the boys would have been Browns fans. I've always loved big cities, didn't belong in little Ridgway, and I must have fell in love with Cleveland that weekend. Cleveland was the "Big City" to four-year-old Zombo, I had never been to Pittsburgh ... probably for safety reasons.

That fall, four-year-old Zombo ventured into the family room on a Sunday while my Brother (six years older) was watching football. I said, "Who's playing?". He answered "Pittsburgh is playing Cleveland. We're for Pittsburgh." I guess I was a bit of rebel already at that young age, with fresh memories of the Summer trip to Cleveland, because I responded "No, you're for Pittsburgh ... I'm for Cleveland."

Here I sit 48 years later, blowing off pressing business matters so that I can write about how much I love the Cleveland Browns in the midst of soul-crushing 0-12 season.

The Browns won that game that day, and having my brother pissed off at me was priceless. By the time I entered the First Grade two years later, I had memorized the backs of the football cards of all the Browns: Bill Nelson, Walter Johnson, Gary Collins, Erich Barnes, Paul Warfield, Gene Hickerson, and my hero ... Leroy Kelly.

My mom enabled my Browns crush, and every year when she went to do Christmas shopping in Erie, PA, I got Browns gear for Christmas. I had a Brown and Orange shirt with "44" on it, and I was Leroy Kelly playing football with the older kids in the mud bowl that was our front lawn. As the youngest child, I skipped a family Christmas party with "Santa Claus" down at the local Knights of Columus so I could stay home alone and watch the Browns play the Redskins in a game with playoff implications. I was Seven.

As the 70's wore on, the Browns greatness faded and The Steel Curtain hovered over my tiny town. All the kids wore their black and "gold" (It's yellow), and they were all football experts now that the Steelers were winning Super Bowls. On your typical school bus there were 40 little Steeler fans, the odd Cowboy or Raider front-runner wannabe ... and me. Decked out in my Brown and Orange winter gear that my Mom got at J.C. Penny's in the Millcreek Mall.

Snowballs whizzed past my head as I waited for the bus. Hats and gloves were stolen. I learned to hate Steeler fans with a passion. If they Beat the Browns, 25 kids had to tell me about it the next day. If the Browns won, no one talked to me ... Oh, Thank You, Dr. David Mays and Joe "Turkey" Jones, Thank You.

Under the guise of visiting my aunts and cousins, my father took to me a couple of Browns game in Cleveland. My first live Pro Football Game was a Browns whipping of the Houston Oilers at the old Muni, 42-13. Ol' Leroy Kelly was slowing down at this point, and there were some guys, probably in their 20's or early 30's, there heckling him. Young 9 year-old Zombo got in their faces and scolded them, and they liked my spunk and bought me a coke.

After Kelly retired, Greg Pruitt became my hero, and then Brian Sipe. My passion for the Browns spread into other sports and I am certain that I was the only Indians and Cavaliers fan in Elk County PA in the 70's. I used my money cutting grass not only on football cards, but to send away for Sports Illustrated posters, and each wall of my bedroom had one: Greg Pruitt, Buddy Bell, Brian Sipe and Austin Carr.

By 1980, I was 16 years old and I was wearing out the record player (and irritating my family) by playing "12 Days of a Cleveland Browns Christmas" on a continuous loop. I was all about the Kardiac Kids. The week between the Browns winning the Division Title in Cincinnati and hosting their playoff game, I had my first date on the night the Oilers and Raiders were playing in the Wild Card game ... I wasn't too worried about those teams, this was the Browns year, the football gods were going to make everything right again, and Dean (the odd Cowboy fan) and I had a double date with two Catholic girls from St. Mary's in my little red Chevette ... these were pretty heady times.

The next week an experienced Zombo sat down to watch Sipe and the Browns take on those Raiders on the frozen turf at Muni. There was the Ron Bolton pick six, there was the missed extra point ... and FGs ... and there was a whole lot of rising tension. My nephew was about one year old and was toddling around the room as my sister (Steeler fan) and Mom (By now a converted Browns fan) watched the game with me. I thought Don Cockroft had one good kick left in him, but Same Rutigliano, the "Riverboat Gambler" decided to roll the dice one more time and put the whole Kardiac Kid Season on the right arm of my hero, Sipe. I watched in disbelief as that ball floated into the end zone in the arms of that SOB, Mike Davis. I knew right away that the game was over and while my Mom and Sister were still figuring out what was going on, I stormed out of the room, and in doing so, accidently knocked my little nephew over. I still remember being yelled at for my outburst as I headed to my room to sulk. but once again the powers of TV absorption were at work ... as that nephew was the only one I was able to convert to being a Browns fan ... and he now meets me in Cleveland for a game every year.

In 1986 I was just out of college, and I was now a young professional, working for People Express Airlines and sharing an apartment with six other people in Woodbridge, NJ. We didn't have a lot of furniture, but we had a huge TV in the living room, a couple of folding chairs, and plenty of beer as I sat down to watch the Browns first appearance in the AFC Championship Game. My roommate was a Browns fan from Salem, Ohio ... Finally, I wasn't alone in my Browns obsession. That was the day I spoke the words that I will never speak again, and that I apologize profusely to all Browns fans for ever uttering. I guess it was the beer. I guess it was all those years of frustration of growing up in Steeler Country in the 70's. I guess it was the sheer excitement of the moment. But when Bernie Kosar hit Brian Brennan down the sideline for a TD to put the Browns up seven with five minutes to go and the best defense in the land on our side, I turned to my friend Bob, and said "Oh my God, the Browns are going to the Super Bowl." I am sorry. I am heartily sorry.

The next year I sat alone in a hotel room in Orlando with a pizza and a 6-pack of Sam Adams as Ernest Byner fumbled away a Fairy Tale come back. Luckily I was not savvy enough to make a noose out of the hotel bath towels.

Two years later I had gone back to school and my girlfriend watched in horror as I melted down in my apartment as the Browns lost a third chance to go to the Super Bowl. She didn't make it through the next season. I barely did.

By 1994 I was living here in Sunny Florida, and the Browns were relevant again. They had a hotshot coach named Belichick, a defensive coordinator named Saban, a guy picking the players named Newsome, and defense that would knock you the f*** out. Even though they lost in the second round of the playoffs to the hated Steelers that year, you sensed, no, you knew there were great things ahead.

Cut to 1995. I took a job running a Real Estate office on Marco Island and was living on the island. My Sunday ritual was to walk over to the local sports bar and enjoy a bucket of beers and a steak sandwich as I watched the Browns on the satellite. On one such October Sunday, I was preparing to head over, as the Browns were to play the Oilers, but Chris Berman was very somber on the pregame show in my living room while I put my Browns gear on. Some how ... Some way ... Art Modell had made arrangements to MOVE the Cleveland Browns and the cat was out of the bag. I had been in a few fights in my youth, but I had never been hit as hard in the gut as I did that moment.

I still went over and watched the game in silence, by myself, all the time mulling what I had just heard. I was, of course, everyone's "one Browns fan friend" and the calls were pouring in. I honestly didn't know how to react. I just knew I was sad, I hurt, and that my life would never be the same ...

The next three years were an abyss. No Browns. Nothing in the sports world tasted the same to me ... football, baseball, basketball ... sports had betrayed my trust. And I really had no one around to talk about my Browns angst with. I concentrated on business, and in October of 1997, I decided to buy myself a home computer so I could work 24/7. I unpacked my "Gateway 2000" and hooked it up to the phone line, and heard that now familiar buzz as it connected me to this great thing I had heard of ... "AOL". I had to choose a screenname, so I choose one for work, and one for play. It was close to Halloween, so I went with "Zombo2000" after a funny character named Zombo on a Munsters episode. Then a screen came up that said "type in a keyword". And the first thing I typed into the "World Wide Web" was "Cleveland Browns". It took me to the page called the Cleveland Browns Grandstand, and when I clicked on it I was amazed to find ... people like me! There were characters named Hoorta and Atenears and Furnier ... and even a "Ghoolie" ... and they were all obsessed with the Cleveland Browns.

For years we debated the 99 Browns, that 99 draft class was the most scrutinized draft in on-line history, to this day if you name any guy taken in that draft I can tell you all about them. We had some epic battles and different "camps", but in the end, we all became friends, and I started making annual pilgrimages to Cleveland to see this fledgling floundering football team and connect with my on-line family. I eventually bought season tickets and would fly up a couple times a year from Florida for a Browns loss and an epic tailgate.

Back here in Naples, when the Browns came back in 99 I started going to a bar call B.T. Boomers, owned by a Browns fan, but half the bar was Steeler fans ... Can't get away from them. We started with a group of 8 or ten Browns fans, and like Moses in the desert we kept moving from place to place as they closed down or gave us the crappy TV in the corner. Finally, in 2011, we decided to make it official and I started a Browns Backer Chapter. Suddenly, everyone was finding us and we were getting upwards of 100 fans a week to watch this struggling franchise. We started doing charity raffles and have raised over $10,000 for families of cancer victims and other charities. We also attend all of the Browns games in Florida and tailgate our butts off. This year we moved into a new, bigger facility and we still pulled in 75 fans last week to watch the winless Browns get beat down by the Giants.

I refuse to give up on this team, or this franchise ... I love them ... they are just part of me. A big part.

So anyway, what was the question? ... Why am I a fan? I guess I didn't like my brother's tone.

Zombo

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