YES, INDEED, ‘THINGS ARE BUZZING ALONG HERE’

By STEVE KING

No one in the media – or out of it, other than the coaches themselves — knows more about the Browns than Jim Donovan does.

In fact, few – perhaps even no one – knows as much as he does.

And on one – absolutely no one – is able to capsulize what’s going on – that is, the theme, the heartbeat, the skinny – of the Browns as well as Donovan, who has been the radio play-by-voice of the club for all of the 20-year expansion era dating back to 1999, along with being the sports director at Cleveland’s WKYC-TV since he came to Cleveland from his native Boston 35 years ago, in 1984.

I say all this in lieu of the fact Jim texted me this simple phrase the other day: “Everything is buzzing along here.”

He meant, of course, the Browns. The city – the region, Browns Nation – is buzzing about the team.

There is always a buzz about the Browns. It started decades ago when, in each of the first 10 seasons of their existence from 1946-55, they appeared in the league championship game, winning 10 titles. It’s an unprecedented streak of excellence, one that will never be matched in pro football.

The buzz is obviously stronger during some periods than it is at others depending on the hope and optimism for the club’s success, and this is obviously one of those really strong times. In fact, there hasn’t been a time in the expansion era when the buzz was this strong. And that includes 2008, when the Browns were coming off a 10-6 finish and were awarded with five prime-time TV appearances, and 2003, when they were coming off a 9-7 mark and their lone playoff appearance in this re-born era.

The city can’t wait for training camp, let alone the start of the regular season. And as we get closer and closer to camp, the buzz could get so loud that it’s almost deafening.