FINALLY THE FIREWORKS WILL BE GRAND THIS YEAR

By STEVE KING

There have been fireworks on the Fourth of July and the ensuing holiday weekend since seemingly time began, but for the first 20 years of the expansion era, they have, in a relative sense, been blowing up in the faces of the Browns and, unfortunately, that of their fans – you, that is — as well.

Whatever plan the Browns had for the season, whatever season it was, it didn’t work. It backfired. No matter what the Browns did, or planned or tried, it blew up in their faces. It was like the popular movie from some years ago, “Groundhog Day,” in that the same horrible, nightmarish thing kept happening over and over and over again. It became such a habit – such a fitful routine – that you could predict what was going to occur – what was going to be done, or said – before it actually happened.

The movie’s main character, a grouchy Pittsburgh area TV weatherman played by Billy Murray, couldn’t figure out how to escape the scary, negative loop in which he was stuck. That is, he couldn’t figure out how to change and get on the right path, with his life moving forward instead of being stuck in a series of terrible repeats.

For Murray, the answer was changing his life around, being kind, caring, selfless and considerate and doing the right thing. When he did that, everything – truly everything — in his life changed in a dramatically positive way.

And so it is, too, with the Browns. They figured out how to escape their miserable trap by drafting the right quarterback – a truly franchise one. And when they did – when this savior of a general manager named John Dorsey targeted Baker Mayfield and went out and got him – everything changed for the better in a truly dramatic way.

So this year – today, Thursday, and over the next several days of the holiday weekend – know that the fireworks you’ll be watching won’t be imploding in your face this year. They will be big, bright, grand and beautiful, just as they were meant to be.

Finally.

And won’t it be wonderful?

Happy Fourth of July.