2009 Browns season was a nightmare, despite win streak
By STEVE KING
The Browns have won four games in a row.
The last time they did that was 2009.
But the last time the Browns did it and it meant anything was 1994.
Steelers Week.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 15, 2020
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The 1994 season was the one in which the Browns, under fourth-year head coach Bill Belichick and a defensive coordinator by the name of Nick Saban (perhaps you’ve heard of them?), won six straight overall after a loss in the opener to stand 6-1 on their way to an 11-5 finish and a wild-card berth to make the postseason for the first time in five years.
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But 2009 wasn’t anything like that. It may have been the most miserable season in Browns history. If it’s not, then it’s on the short list of those seasons being considered. I can tell you this that, for me personally, it was — by far; it isn’t even close — the most miserable, excluding, of course, the last half of 1995 for obvious reasons.
The head coach, Eric Mangini, was a mean-spirited, disrespectful, brooding, selfish, incompetent and overmatched snob. What he knew about offensive football, or communication or honesty or handling people, could be put onto the head of a pin, with enough room left for, say, Lake Erie, Cedar Point or the city of Steubenville.
And here’s the killer: Mangini was in his first season. Unless he robbed a bank, he was going to get a second season. It was like when you go to someone’s house for dinner and they serve you something that tastes horrible. You somehow get it down and then, to your sheer horror, the host says, “Because you are that so quickly, you must really like it. So I’m going to bring you some more.” The Browns were going to be stuck for another year with the man they call, for some strange reason, “Mangenius.” It’s like calling a really tall person “Shorty,” to make it clear that the person is anything but that.
The 2009 Browns were 1-11 and had been eliminated from playoff contention since about the Fourth of July when the miracle of miracles happened and they won their last four games of the season over, in order, the Pittsburgh Steelers (13-6), Kansas City Chiefs (41-34), Oakland Raiders (23-9) and Jacksonville Jaguars (23-17). I think the winning streak actually made Mangini irate because it was going to mess with his plan of tearing the team down to the bare bones — even more than he had already done.
In addition, running back Jerome Harrison did his best Jim Brown imitation in the last three of those games. It was a great story — the best theme of an otherwise terrible tale about the offense — but the stubborn Mangini would never commit to him as his starter for 2010. As it was, Harrison was used only sparingly the next season and, after his team finished 5-11 for the second year in a row, Mangini was, mercifully, fired.
This 2020 season, no matter what happens from here on out, even if the Browns go into a complete nosedive in these final 11 games, which almost certainly isn’t going to occur, will be extraordinarily more enjoyable, successful and promising than 2009. Guaranteed.
