LOVING IT AT LAKELAND

By STEVE KING

The Browns, like everybody else in the free world, are expecting wildly fun and exciting times in the team’s training camp in a little over a month.

And if I could tell the people who run the Browns one thing in advance of that so they could get a true understanding of what it’s going to be like, or at least what it could be, I’d implore them go talk to Bernie Kosar.

And Doug Dieken.

And Brian Brennan.

And Kevin Mack.

And Sam Rutigliano.

And Hanford Dixon.

And Bob Golic.

There are also plenty of others who were with the Browns teams during the glorious 1980s when they trained at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. They would all say that it was never as much fun at camp in the history of this team as it was when it was staged at Lakeland from 1982-91. That covers the final two seasons of the Kardiac Kids era and then the best part of the Kosar era

It was like a party every day there. There were no gimmicks or inflatables or tents or other goofy things like that to attract people. The fans came for one thing and one thing only, and that was to watch the Browns practice.

And those fans came in great numbers, so much so that with 10,000 out there on many days, if the Browns had taken the time to count them, it would have set all kinds of attendance team records that never would have been touched, let alone broken.

They were great players on both sides of the ball during this time. They practiced hard and spent a good part of those practices playfully jabbering at, and pushing, each other to be the best that they could be.

Those players understood the fans and the passion they had for them individually and the Browns as a whole, so they played up to them. They gave them a great show every day.

Will the upcoming camp be as cool as those were way back when?

I don’t think so. I really don’t think so.

In fact, I know it won’t be.

But if the top people at the Browns talked to those former greats, then they would get tutorials of what they need to do to make the camp the best this re-born franchise has ever had.