So, after watching last night’s premiere of Believeland,” part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, which one of the dreaded Cleveland sports nightmares jabs at you the most?

For me, there’s absolutely no question about it in that it’s “The Drive” from the 1986 AFC Championship Game between the Browns and Denver Broncos.

Yes, of course, there are others choices for this dubious honor, and you heard about almost all of them last night.

There’s “The Fumble” from the 1987 AFC Championship game, again between the Browns and Denver.

There’s “Red Right 88” from the 1980 AFC divisional playoff between the Browns and Oakland Raiders.

There’s “The Shot” from the 1989 NBA playoffs between the Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls.

There’s Game 7 of the 1997 World Series between the Indians and Florida Marlins.

There’s “The Decision” from LeBron James in the 2010 offseason.

And there’s “The Move” from the 1995 NFL season.

All of them certainly have their “merits” for standing out, but to me, none of them can compare to “The Drive,” the 15-play, 98-yard touchdown death march that paved the way for the Broncos to edge the Browns 23-20 in overtime on Jan. 11, 1987 at Cleveland Stadium.

If, after the Browns went ahead 20-13 on Bernie Kosar’s 48-yard pass to wide receiver Brian Brennan with just under five minutes left in regulation, and then the Broncos fumbled, bumbled and stumbled on their return of the ensuing kickoff, causing them to end up starting at their own 2, someone had wanted to bet me that Denver would win, I would have been all in even though I’m not a betting man. We all would have been all in.

Here’s my wallet.

And the titles to my vehicles.

And the deed to my house.

And everything else.

Yes, literally, everything.

Why not?

John Elway wasn’t John Elway yet. He was just a good, young quarterback trying to make his mark in the NFL. The great Cleveland defense had kept him in check all day. There was no reason to think that Elway would suddenly, and miraculously, turn into a superstar right before our eyes and drive his team 98 yards through the teeth of that defense into the teeth of the Dawg Pound just to tie the game, and that then he would find a way to drive the Broncos again, this time into position to kick the game-winning field goal.

It simply defied logic.

The Browns were the No. 1 team in the AFC that year. They had finished a conference-best 12-4 to clinch home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

Then, eight days earlier when the Browns came back from the dead to top the New York Jets 23-20 in the divisional playoffs, it seemed like a higher power was at work, paving the way for the Browns to get where they had never been before, the Super Bowl.

And I think they would have been a matchup problem for the New York Giants, who ended up doubling up on the Broncos in the Super Bowl, winning 39-20.

Don Shula, the Painesville (Ohio) Harvey High School and John Carroll University product who played in 1951 and ’52 as a defensive backs with the Browns and, at that time, still had a decade left in his Pro Football Hall of Fame coaching career with the Miami Dolphins, was working as an analyst for the AFC playoffs for NBC. I’ll never forget him saying very confidently and assuredly, “The stars seem all aligned for the Browns to go to the Super Bowl.”

That clinched it for me. No one knows great teams better than Shula, and when he said, it appeared to be a lock. The Master had decreed it.

But even the smartest guys can be wrong, for that TD drive by Elway was like being subjected to the Chinese water torture. Drip by drip by drip – 15 drips, one for each play – the game got away from the Browns. Several times on that drive, the Browns looked for all the world to have stopped the Broncos, only to have Elway find a way to escape and make a play

All 79,915 in attendance watched in stunned disbelief as it happened.

And then to watch Rich Karlis, a guy from Salem, Ohio, near Alliance, who grew up a Browns fan, kick the game-winning field goal in OT to drive the final nail into the coffin, was a bit much. It was over the top. That the kick might not have been good, only added to the unbelievable storyline.

If you had written that as a movie script, no one would have bought it. It would have seemed too contrived, too cheesy, too silly.

Then there’s this quote from Karlis about the kick in case you didn’t already feel badly enough already.

“When the officials signaled that it was good, I immediately went crazy,” he said. “Then in the next instant, my heart sank, because I realized that I had just broken the hearts of all my family members and friends back home.”

And, too, of a lot of people who didn’t live anywhere near Salem. In fact, their hearts have never quite healed, and won’t until the Browns at least get to the Super Bowl, if not also win it.

More on The Drive tomorrow.

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BIRTHDAYS: Two former Browns of note were born on this date, May 15, running back Leroy Hoard in 1968 and Dr. Tony Adamle, a linebacker, in 1924.

Adamle played six years for the early Browns, from 1947-51 and then again in 1954. He became a starter at left linebacker in 1948 and remained there through 1951. He was part of five league championship teams and was twice named to the Pro Bowl.

Though born in Fairmont, W. Va., Adamle had strong local ties overall, not just in football. Adamle graduated from Collinwood High School in Cleveland and then played at Ohio State. After retiring from football, he became a doctor and settled in Kent, Ohio, serving as the team doctor for both Kent Roosevelt High School and Kent State University. He son, Mike, a Roosevelt grad, played running back for three NFL teams and served as a sports broadcaster.

Dr. Adamle died in 2000 at the age of 76.

Hoard, a University of Michigan product who turns 48 today if you can believe that, was the first player taken by the Browns in the 1990 draft, being a second-rounder, at No. 45 overall. A 5-foot-11, 225-pounder who ran as if he were much bigger, Hoard started to really come into his own in 1991 when Bill Belichick arrived as head coach. Belichick emphasized his backs both as runners and receivers, and that suited Hoard fine. In 1991, he was a go-to receiver at the goal line, having a team-leading nine touchdown receptions – nearly half the club’s total – among his 48 catches.

He had the best season of his career in 1994, earning a Pro Bowl trip by rushing for 890 yards and five TDs and catching 45 passes for four scores to help the original Browns, at 11-5, earn a wild-card berth and make the playoffs for the last time.

Hoard remained with the Browns through 1995, then played with the transplanted Cleveland franchise in Baltimore for part of the following season before moving on to the Carolina Panthers and finally the Minnesota Vikings.

In nine NFL seasons, he rushed for 3,409 yards and 26 TDs and had 221 receptions for 15 scores, including 2,203 rushing yards and 10 TDs and 177 catches for 14 scores for Cleveland.