Those three AFC Championship Game losses to the Denver Broncos 3½ decades ago, including the excruciating ones in 1986 and ’87 that went right down to the end, hurt, and continues to hurt,  the Browns franchise.

That they are a big reason why the Browns have never been to the Super Bowl, leaves a hole, a stain. It’s a bad look to this day since only a handful of teams have never played in the big game.

But it has also hurt the Browns players, and continues to hurt them, in terms of their worthiness for induction into the Pro Football Hall of game.  The voters look hard at what players do on the sport’s biggest stage, and the fact that those Browns never even had a chance to show what they could do, is a hard thing to overcome. Yes, a player can make it into Canton without the Super Bowl appearance, but it’s not easy.

Losing those games was a blow at the time, obviously, but the fact the losses continue to resonate all these years later makes matters even worse. Hanford Dixon realizes that, and it’s why the former Browns cornerback cried when I brought it up to him in that interview.

Clay Matthews knows it, too, as, in being one of the semifinalists for induction, he sits and waits to learn his fate. He won’t say it, but he fears the Super Bowl issue may be the thing that keeps him out, if indeed he doesn’t make it.

That would be a shame, for otherwise, he has all the right credentials.