FINALLY, MERCIFULLY, THANKFULLY, THE PRESEASON IS HISTORY

By STEVE KING

The preliminaries, sideshows and opening acts are all finally over.

Now the important stuff – that for which Browns fans have waited for months if not for all of this miserable 20-year expansion era – begins.

The moment the final gun sounded in their preseason finale against the Detroit Lions on Thursday night at FirstEnergy Stadium, the Browns turned their nearly full attention – officially so, anyway – to their regular-season opener against the visiting Tennessee Titans in about a week and a half, on Sept.8.

But if the truth be told, despite what head coach Freddie Kitchens said several days ago, the Browns have been laser-focused on the Titans for months now. The game against them is ultra-important, for it is one of 16 they will play in what is set to be the most celebrated season the club has had since it returned to the field in 1999. Indeed, the Browns are the darlings of the NFL right now, and have been since the offseason began in earnest and they started adding a plethora of all-star talent, including wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., one of the league’s best overall players.

Can the Browns fulfill the lofty expectations so many have for them? They certainly have the horses to do it, but with the fact that this talent all needs to blend together for it to happen, along with having in Kitchens a guy who has never been a head coach at any level, not even in the pee-wee leagues, there are some hurdles that will have to be overcome, and some questions that must first be answered.

So we don’t really know. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see.

But at least that waiting is almost over, for, with the preseason finally, mercifully and thankfully out of the way, the games that actually count in the standings are in plain view now.