LeBron James pointed it out so well upon his return to the Cavaliers in 2014.

“In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. You have to earn it,” he said.

Never were truer words spoken, but actually, it’s that way in a lot of places in this country, including with sports and the NFL.

Fans saw evidence of that, particularly down the stretch these last two weeks, as teams scrambled like crazy to make the playoffs. Some of those clubs made it, and some didn’t.

The Browns, of course, were among the successful ones and, as the top-seeded wild-card team in the AFC, and No. 5 overall, will go on the road on Saturday to play the South Division champion Houston Texans, a team they beat there 36-22 in the regular season just a little over two weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, in their playoff opener.

It’s so very difficult to make the playoffs, even for the best teams, so accomplishing the feat is a really big deal in itself.

As such, then, Browns fans, enjoy these days leading up to Saturday, and hopefully beyond. Take in everything about them. Revel in it all. It is so much fun. It is like Christmas Day for those who love pro football.

As the best fans in football, you deserve all the spoils.

On another, and much, much different, note, Tuesday is the 61st anniversary of a very important — and to this day, still a bizarre and almost unbelievable — event in Browns history. It was on Jan. 9, 1963 that team owner Art Motel fired head coach Paul Brown, the man for whom the team is named, of course. It would be like Ford Motor Co. firing its founder, Henry Ford, years ago.

Brown’s dismissal was done during a newspaper strike in Cleveland, so the coverage of it was greatly limited. Still, it sent shock waves. It is interesting to think about, though how that event would be covered today in the era of the Internet and social media. It would be an atomic explosion, much greater than it was all those years ago. The news of it would be everywhere.

The fact that the anniversary of it comes just two days after Brown’s two teams, the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, played each other in the regular-season finale in the stadium that used to be named for him, seems appropriate.

Steve King