Let’s play the ‘what if’ game for the Browns

By STEVE KING
“The Drive” drove a stake into the hearts of the Browns for the 1986 season.
But, as I have written before, the water-torture-like 15-play, 98-yard march through the Cleveland defense by John Elway and the Denver Broncos for the tying touchdown in the AFC Championship Game, and their subsequent 23-20 victory in overtime, also began driving a stake into the hearts of the original Browns franchise’s long-term future in Cleveland. It — the Browns’ move to Baltimore — wouldn’t happen for nine more years, but the first of the series of events that caused it to happen, occurred that day, Jan. 11, 1987.
For if “The Drive” doesn’t happen and the Browns hold on to win 20-13, the deciding touchdown coming on Bernie Kosar’s 48-yard pass to wide receiver Brian Brennan with just over five minutes left, sending the team to its first Super Bowl, then there is no frustration over not getting to the big game in that year, again in 1987 when they lost to the Broncos again in AFC title game because of “The Fumble,” and once more in 1989 when the Broncos completed their three-peat over Cleveland with another conference championship game triumph.
And if there is no frustration, then Browns owner Art Modell and his head coach, Marty Schottenheimer, have more freedom and a better state of mind to work out their differences at the end of the 1988 season when a historic number of injuries at quarterback caused a very good Cleveland team to fall far short of expectations, and the coach and the owner to part ways.
And if Schottenheimer returns to coach the Browns in 1989, then Bud Carson, a likable guy who was not suited to be the head coach, is never hired, lasting just a year and a half with still no Super Bowl to show for it and the team in ruins by the middle of 1990. Schottenheimer begins to rebuild the Browns, just as he did when he first took over midway through the 1984 season with the team at 1-8 and going nowhere fast.
And if Schottenheimer is still the coach, then Bill Belichick, who was extremely unpopular in Cleveland and, with Model’s ties to him, began dragging the owner into the mud with fans and Northeast Ohioans overall, especially with the bungling of iconic quarterback Bernie Kosar, which served as the last straw for many fans, is never hired.
And if Belichick is not the coach, then the animosity toward Modell is not there and he is able to work out a deal with the city fathers to get a new stadium.

And if a new stadium is built, then the Browns obviously never leave Cleveland.
And if the Browns never leave Cleveland, then one day when Schottenheimer decides to step down, the reins of the team is turned over to a popular young defensive coordinator by the name of Bill Cowher.
And if Cowher guides the Browns instead of the Pittsburgh Steelers to Super Bowl victories, then… well, you get the picture.