Happy Labor Day!

Let’s hope you get through the day without doing too much laboring.

Let’s also hope that the Browns, who begin in earnest their preparations for Sunday’s regular-season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns Stadium, have a better Labor Day today than they did on the one 39 years ago.

It was Sept. 3, 1984 and the Browns were in Seattle to play the Seahawks in the regular-season opener. Because of a conflict the day before with baseball’s Seattle Mariners, who shared the Kingdme with the Seahawks, the game had to be moved to Monday afternoon, Labor Day. It is probably the only time in NFL history, at least the modern version of it anyway, that there was a game on a Monday that was not part of the Monday Night Football package.

The Browns, who had been picked before the season to win the AFC Central title, turned in a shockingly miserable performance, losing 33–0. And it wasn’t even that close, as the Browns trailed 20-0 at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, the Seahawks had finished scoring and took their foot off the gas pedal.

Browns quarterback Paul McDonald, in taking over as the starter following the offseason free-agent signing of Brian Sipe by Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals of the USFL (where his offensive coordinator was Chris Palmer, who would go on to be the first head coach of the expansion Browns 15 years later), epitomized his team’s effort, going just 8-of-27 passing for 114 yards, with two interceptions.

It didn’t get any better for the Browns in 1984. After they fell to 1-7 at the halfway point of the season with a 12-9 loss to the Bengals at Riverfront Stadium on a last-play field goal by Chris Bahr, the brother of then Cleveland kicker Chris Bahr, head coach Sam Rutigliano, the orchestrator of the Kardiac Kids, was fired. He was replaced by defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer, who guided the Browns to a 4-4 record in the second half of the year for an overall 5–11 finish.

The season — and not just that opening loss in Seattle — was hardly a labor of love for the Browns or their fans.