What a time to jump onto the Cleveland Browns bandwagon.
As Thursday dawned, I believed that I may be one of that team’s newest fans, given their record, given their futility, given their injury situation, given their, well, everything.
Plus, it’s Cleveland.
My very first game loomed later that evening, as the 2-8 Browns hosted the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers coming to town with their 8-2 record. I’ll be honest here, it didn’t look the best.
I watched anyways, determined to be a stalwart fan, the kind that digs in through thick and thin, mostly thin. Not a fair-weather fan, because, how could there be any prospect of fair weather with a team like this? Plus the weather sucked.
The game, being in Cleveland, had the Browns wearing their brown over orange home uniforms, finished on top with the orange helmet. And as much as it hurt to have that colour combination as the uniform of my new favourite team, I have to say that I liked them as soon as I saw them. Sure, I’ve seen photos online, watched some video, and have even seen the Browns play — I think — on television before, probably while sifting through channels to find another game with better-dressed players. But I liked them as soon as I saw them, in fact loved them. That brown, and that dark, almost burnt orange. Seal brown and safety orange to be exact, or RGB 49-29-0 and RGB 255-60-0 to be even more exact. And man, do they pop.
They even look good in the snow.
This was like the old days, back when I used to watch a lot of CFL, where games would regularly be played in absolute blizzard conditions, football being an all-weather sport. Everything, of course, about the game is impacted by snow, simply everything, and it makes any match between any two teams almost a toss-up because of conditions. Pittsburgh kicked a field goal later in the game that the play-by-play guy said was good, and I had to take his word for it, because I couldn’t see the damned thing and I really don’t know how he did either.
Pittsburgh drove the ball down deep into Brown’s territory early, but were stopped and opted for a field goal attempt. And they missed! What a great start for me after watching the Steelers march down the field on their first possession unimpeded, surely a harbinger for what was to come, surely the makings of a long night. But they missed, and the score remained at zeroes. And the snow hadn’t even started yet. It stayed that way for the rest of the first quarter, the Browns dodging a couple of bullets along the way.
The Steelers got the ball early in the second quarter,, drove downfield again, were stopped again, and attempted a field goal again, this time striking pay dirt and going up 3-0 over the Browns, the Steelers’ Chris Boswell connecting from 48 yards out.
But then Nick Chubb, — can there be a cooler football name? — who I thought was injured, appeared very much alive by plowing into the end zone for Cleveland’s first touchdown, a 2-yard run up the gut that, when converted, gave the Browns a 7-3 lead. The Cleveland kicker Dustin Hopkins later booted a 34-yarder through the uprights for Cleveland to go up 10-3.
Back here in Canada, the land with no snow, the general reaction at my place — I was alone for the record — was basically WTF?. But you don’t go years through the 1970’s and 80’s and 90’s as a Red Sox fan and a Blackhawks fan without learning how to prepare yourself for the ultimate, almost inevitable collapse. So there was no planning for Cleveland’s Super Bowl party, something I think would be mathematically impossible for this year anyway. But still, things were going a hell of a lot better than I had any right to expect.
And sure enough, those Pittsburghers marched downfield again late in the third quarter, but were stopped again, with Boswell connecting again to make it 10-6 Browns. Here comes the death of a thousand cuts I’m so used to experiencing with my teams, and it looked like my new one was playing true to that script.
By now, what had started as light snow had escalated into a full-on blizzard, and it was just like back in the old days. There’s just something about football in the snow, something that makes it more, well, fun. Fun to watch anyways. A recipe for serious injury for the players, but there’s always this notion that anything can happen when the footing isn’t there, the visibility isn’t there, everything’s cold and stiff on the sidelines, and almost every play is defined by a hope and a prayer as much as X’s and O’s on a chalkboard.
What I couldn’t believe was how often each team put the ball in the air in those conditions, when the general wisdom dictates that you keep it on the ground. After all, when you pass, three things can happen and two of them are bad. In a snowstorm, you’d think caution would be the watch-word, but neither of these teams would have anything to do with that conventional wisdom. They went air-mail a lot as their preferred delivery model, which makes for a lot of heart-in-mouth moments for both sides, I’m sure.
Browns’ quarterback Jameis Winston — who? — snuck into the end zone at the start of the fourth to give Cleveland a cushion, and a two-point conversion made it 18-6 Browns with like 13 minutes left. Anyone watching Pat Mahomes of the Chiefs would realize there’s no such thing as a safe lead, although there was no Mahomes in either lineup. But still, you never know, right? Plus all that snow. It looked like Winnipeg out there.
Cue the trumpets, here come the Steelers.
Jaylen Warren runs up the middle for a 3-yard touchdown that, when converted, puts the score at 18-13 Cleveland with just under 8 minutes remaining. Steeler QB Russell Wilson airs one out and finds Calvin Austin deep down the middle for another Steeler touchdown, which made it 19-18 Pittsburgh after the 2-point conversion attempt went awry.
Here’s where the metal of the fan is forged, where the inclination is to reach for the remote with a trembling hand, unable to witness the entirety of the collapse unfolding in front of you, not that you can see it in the white-out anyway. But as I have a history as being a sucker for punishment, and trying to instil some personal pride in myself as a new fan, I hung in, not wanting to bail on the Browns in just my first game. So I remained, watching a television picture that reminded me of what television looked like back in the seventies when you were trying to sneak-watch some channel that you could almost never pick up, because you only got CBC and some French channel that always seemed to be lurking around.
With 57 seconds left in the game, my new buddy Nick Chubb bashes into the end zone again to give Cleveland a 24-19 lead, the 2-point conversion attempt unsuccessful. And try as they did, Pittsburgh could not strike for a TD of their own in the time remaining, giving Cleveland the win over the division-leading Steelers.
Receiver Jerry Jeudy was key down the stretch for Cleveland. Defensive end Myles Garrett had three sacks in the first half. Jameis Wilson ran a competent offence, both on the ground and in the air. And my boy Nick Chubb. And others. Less than a week ago I had heard of exactly none of these guys. Now I’m trying to figure whose jersey to buy.
I have the RGB colours all figured out. I just need to figure out the number to put on the front and back.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 