FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, THE BROWNS HUNG ON TO WIN

By STEVE KING

So, just how, exactly, did you react when the Browns held off the Pittsburgh Steelers’ furious fourth-quarter rally to win 24-22 on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium in the regular-season finale, thus clinching their first playoff appearance in 18 years?

Did you shriek?

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Did you exhale and start breaking again?

Did you say a little prayer of thanks?

Did you do absolutely nothing other than to smile, in that you were too emotionally drained to do much of anything else?

I did a little of all of that.

And then I cried.

Yes, I cried. I got choked up. I couldn’t get any words out.

Tears of joy? Yes, to be sure, for 2002, when the Browns last got a postseason berth, is a long, long time ago. But they were also tears of fully understanding of what it meant to me and all the people I know who are Browns fans, or were fans before they got drafted to a higher league that is just out of this world.

To be sure, the Browns winning a football game and earning the right to play another football game — against the very same team, no less -=- isn’t going to allow us to find world peace, a cure for cancer and all the other deadly diseases that will remain long after the coronavirus has been sent to its grave, or an end to racial inequality. It will do none of that. But in a very real way, it touches — and soothes — us in a special way.

As I’ve written here several times before, I got my love of the Browns from my father, who was just a tad bit older than the players on that first team way back in 1946. I loved him greatly, and still do. He was my hero, and still is. I miss that man each and every day.

When he got to be an age younger than what I am now, I couldn’t figure out why this big, strong World War II guy would get emotional and shed a tear at the drop of a hat. I would kid him about it, in fact.

Now, all these many years later, long after he got his draft card, I truly understand why this happens not just to him and me, but also to all kinds of people, especially as we get older and can more clearly see the value and worth of everything. It’s because our souls have been touched again by something we’ll remember until our draft day.