I wish I could tell Hue Jackson this story, but my guess is that he already knows it, or at least of it, because he’s heard some variation of it 1,000 times since he was hired as Browns head coach six months ago.

Anyway, I have a young friend – late 20s – who is a big sports fan. He’s from the Detroit area and roots for all the teams up there, including the Lions. When he found out I was born and raised in Northeast Ohio and have covered the Browns for a long time, he laughed.

“The Browns and the Lions are kindred spirits,” he said with a laugh in reference to the fact the Lions last won an NFL championship in 1957 (beating Cleveland, by the way), which is seven years before the Browns last got a title in 1964.

Because of his age, he knows of the Browns only by what he has seen of them in the expansion era, when they have indeed been awful.

And because of his age – I know I’m going to get into some trouble by saying this, but I’m going to do it anyway – he thinks the NFL began, in earnest, in the late 1990s, which is when he started following the game. Everything before that was just an opening act, as it were.

So I can see why he says what he does. If the world were the way he thinks he is, he would be right about the Browns. But it isn’t, so he isn’t.

I wanted to tell him that, and why, and in a nice way, of course. But you pick and choose your battles, and after much deep thought, I know this is neither the time nor place to raise my sword. And since he’s a great young man, he’s not the person against whom I wish to raise it.

Anyway here’s what I wanted to say to him:

“Yes, the Browns are a mess now, and have been throughout the expansion era since they returned to the field in 1999. But from an overall standpoint, they are one of the most tradition-rich and significant franchises in the history of pro football.

“The spread offense of today? That’s from Paul Brown, the first head coach of the Browns and the man for whom the team is named.

“Full-time, year-round coaching staffs? Paul Brown.

“The face mask? Paul Brown.

“Playbooks? Paul Brown.

“Film review? Paul Brown.

“Classroom teaching of the X’s and O’s. Paul Brown.

“Sophisticated passing attacks? Paul Brown.

“An emphasis on speed instead of size? Paul Brown.

“Radio transmitters in helmets? Yup, Paul Brown. Again.

“Brown is called ‘The Father of Modern Football,’ and with good reason.

“And oh, by the way, the Browns were the first team to permanently break the color barrier in pro football coming out of World War II.

“The men who have fallen off the Paul Brown coaching tree – Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, Weeb Ewbank and Blanton Collier, perhaps you have heard of some of them – look like a who’s who of pro coaches. Bill Belichick, the best head coach in the NFL today, perhaps you know of him as well, is a huge fan of Paul Brown.

“Brown was so far ahead of the curve that he just about lapped the field. It’s why his first 10 teams all made it to a league championship game, and seven of them won titles. They can play pro football until the year 2 Billion, and nobody will ever come close to duplicating that feat.

“In addition, the Browns had a perfect season, and they had a 29-game unbeaten streak over a three-year period.

“When Brown started the Browns in 1946, he said he wanted to make them football’s version of the New York Yankees, the top baseball team of the time. He wanted them to be the very best on the field, and off it, first-class all the way. And he did.

“I just thought I’d lay some facts on you to clear up any misunderstandings that you may have. Are there any questions?”

Jackson knows all this from having coached in Cincinnati for Brown’s son, Bengals owner Mike Brown. So, more than anything, what he is charged with now is making the Browns relative again, a contender year in and year out, so even the young fans like my friend don’t laugh when they think of the club. The Browns’ past is great, but they can no longer live off it. They have to carve out a new success story in this era, so my friend will talk about the Browns years from now when he gets to be my age.

Can Jackson do it? I think he has a chance.

But, like everything else as the Browns re-start for the umpteenth time in the expansion era, we’ll just have to wait and see.