A DAY, AND SO MANY REASONS, TO BE THANKFUL
It’s Thanksgiving, the day on which we count our blessings and express our gratitude — our thankfulness — if only silently.
We should be doing that every day of the year, really, but especially on Thanksgiving.
So, then, I can tell you that from a Browns perspective, and from covering this team and writing about it for a number of years, I am thankful for . . .
*My parents, for doing without a lot of things for themselves financially and timewise to accommodate my interest in sports, particularly the writing part of it. Without them, and that, none of this — this career and being able to live out this dream that I had — would have never happened. My dad and my uncle fueled that desire for answering all my questions I had growing up as I listened to them talk about sports late at night during fishing trips to Canada.
*Two teachers at Manchester Junior High School south of Akron 56 years ago, Frank Weaver (Ohio History) and Carol Calhoun (Language Arts), for not laughing me out of their seventh-grade classrooms when I told them I wanted to write about the Cleveland Browns. Mrs. Calhoun, in fact, replied to me, “I know you’ll be doing that someday because I can see that in you,” which just blew me away because it was the first time I had gotten significant praise like that from someone other than my parents.
*Hank Ruminski, a professor at the University of Akron, for giving me a lead on my first job in the business, and then for people such as Ron Thrash, Betty Szudlo, George Hudnutt, Patrick McManamon and Reagan Berube for taking a chance and hiring me.
*All the Browns players I met and, in some cases, also got to know. The list is too long to mention, but in each cade, it was a thrill beyond my wildest dreams.
*Ditto for the coaches.
*And the reporters, both print and electronic, and the announcers. An all-star cast, second to none.
*And the public relations people.
*The privilege of covering the games, at home in both the old stadium and the new one, and throughout the country in the road venues. There was never a bad game, or trip. it was all absolutely fantastic.
*You. Without you reading this stuff all these years, there would’ve been no need for me. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope it is the best one yet, of Super Bowl caliber.
Steve King
