One of the coolest things that came out of the Browns’ 23–19 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday was what happened immediately after the game.
Head coach Todd Monken went down to the end of the field where all the Browns fans were sitting, or at least a good portion of them —and there were a lot of fans at the game as part of the Browns Backers chapter in that area — and thanked them for their support. They hooted and hollered and made themselves heard, and then stayed through the two-hour storm delay and came back out into the stands to see the ending, while many of the Tampa fans went home during that time. It was a great example of just how good — how special — Browns fans are.
This, of course, was Monken’s first head coaching victory, as Cleveland is the first team at any level for which he has served as head coach.
You may, or may not, remember when the same thing happened almost exactly 35 years before when Bill Belichick got his first head coaching victory at any level on Sept. 15, 1991 as the Browns edged the Cincinnati Bengals 14–13 on a hot, steamy late-summer afternoon at Cleveland Stadium.
The Dawg Pound was loud and raucous that day, and when the Bengals were operating at that end of the field, they had all kinds of trouble hearing the snap count, even calling the plays in the huddle and making any kind of changes of the line of scrimmage. It caused the Bengals to have all kind of false start penalties, and several times they had to call timeout because there was so much confusion since, again, they couldn’t communicate.
Immediately after the game, Belichick tossed off his headset, raced down to tha end of the field and saluted all the fans in the Pound. He really appreciated their help. I remember thinking that at that moment, he could’ve run for the mayor of Cleveland and won in a landslide.
It’s nice when coaches do things out of the ordinary to communicate with the fans and show their appreciation. Let’s hope this is the start of many victories for Monken both on the road and especially at home, since the Browns want to start creating a real home-field advantage at Huntington Bank Field.
He and his team will certainly need that kind of help on Sunday when the high-scoring Carolina Panthers come to town for the Browns’ home opener.
Steve King
