The new Browns have never been fans of the old Browns.

That is, the current franchise doesn’t like — or respect — the old franchise. They even hate to admit that there was an original franchise and have attempted at every turn to disregard those 50 seasons as much as possible.

This came up — yet again — the other day when the new Browns fired an icon from the old Browns, former quarterback Bernie Kosar, after he violated NFL policy and placed a bet on the club’s season finale last Sunday at Pittsburgh. He had been doing some radio work for the Browns.

That he announced publicly that  he was making the bet and would donate any winnings to charity, meant nothing to the NFL or to the Browns. There’s no gray area in the rules, so they had to let him go.

But if the truth be told, the Browns were no doubt happy about it, for it gave them a legitimate reason to get rid of Kosar, whose presence is a reminder of the old days that the current team loathes.

The Browns had long wanted to send packing another popular ex-player from the old days, former radio color analyst Doug Dieken. When he retired following the 2021 season, they likely were privately celebrating.

They’ve tried to change the ever-popular Browns uniforms that sport the classic look from the old days. They tweaked them badly in the previous decade, but the fans howled so much and so long that they had to change them back.

In addition, the Browns of the Carmen Policy era looked long and hard at even introducing new team colors. But, again, they backed off because they knew the public outcry would be intolerable.

The problem is, the old Browns were big winners and these new Browns have struggled mightily. That takes away a lot of the vim and vigor from the new guys, not giving them a leg on which to stand. And it ticks them off to the max.

Steve King