This week is the deadest time of year in sports, no matter where you’re at in the United States.
In Cleveland, it’s when the Indians are off for the All-Star Game, the Cavaliers are off for the summer and the Browns are off for two more weeks until training camp begins.
Nothing, really, is going on.
So it’s the time when sport talk radio hosts are searching for something – anything – to discuss.
As such, one recent afternoon, some Cleveland talkers were discussing which team – the Indians, Cavs or Browns – was No. 1 in Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
Some of the on-air talent – and a good number of the callers – seemed to think that the Indians and/or Cavs had overtaken the Browns as the region’s most popular franchise.
I couldn’t disagree more.
The Browns had been unquestionably in first place in these parts for decades, and while the Cavaliers, with some guy named LeBron James, three straight trips to the NBA Finals playing for them and the distinction of in 2016 having broken the city’s 52-year pro sports league championship drought, and the Indians, with a near-title World Series crown last year while sitting in first place in the American League Central Division this season, have both made inroads, it’s the football team that is still in the lead.
With the misery that has been the nightmare of the expansion era, the Browns have been woeful since 1999. Almost everything they’ve touched has turned to stone.
As such, they’ve taken a hit – but only in the fact that the fans are rip-roarin’ mad at them. They’re ticked off to the nth degree.
That’s certainly understandable.
But those fans haven’t gone away – not for good, anyway. Because of this so-called marital spat with their favorite team, they’ve just gone to another room in the house to cool off until things get better.
When things get better – and they will – the fans will all come flocking back to the Browns in droves.
For, after all, this is still a football town. It always has been, and it always will be.
In fact, not even the team leaving the field for three years could change that.
