‘THAT’S KIND OF PATHETIC’

By STEVE KING

Way back in the day when the Browns were winning games – and even championships – in bunches, there were no moral victories.

Only real ones.

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The Browns played in 10 league title games, winning seven of them, in their first 10 years of existence. They captured five straight championships right out of the gate, but when they finally lost one – 24-17 to the Los Angeles Rams in 1951 on a 73-yard touchdown pass from one Pro Football Hall of Famer, quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, to another, wide receiver Tom Fears, in the closing minutes after two Cleveland defensive backs collided – Browns head coach Paul Brown nearly lost his mind. He was so upset that he changed everything about his team heading into next season.

The bar was set very high – the highest it could be set. Anything less than that was a failure.

Those were the things I immediately thought of when I heard a comment by new Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens at his introductory press conference on Monday at FirstEnergy Stadium.

He said near the end of his opening remarks: “In saying that, I will end with this: our only goal ever – 7-8-1, it drives me crazy that people are happy with 7-8-1. It drives me literally crazy. If I was in a different setting, my vocabulary would demonstrate that. That is not acceptable. Nobody here wants that. We all understand that it was an improvement, but under no circumstances is that ever going to be acceptable. We only have one goal here and that is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.”

All Browns fans were giddy that the club turned it around in the second half of 2018 and, heading into the regular-season finale at Baltimore, had a chance with a victory to have a winning record. It wouldn’t have been an overwhelming kind of winning record, mind you, but one that was just barely over the line, by the narrowest of margins, in fact, at 8-7-1.

That’s kind of pathetic. It really is.

Put it this way: Do you think anyone over in Pittsburgh is happy that the Steelers finished 9-6-1 and came within a whisker of winning the AFC North title? No! Like Paul Brown 67 years ago, head coach Mike Tomlin is losing his mind.

Another plus for Freddie Kitchens.