Some tears, to be sure, but many more smiles

By STEVE KING
I forgot how much fun it was.
I really did.
Oh, I knew it was fun — a whole lot of fun, really — but I forgot just how special Marty Schottenheimer’s time in Cleveland was.
That was my takeaway the other day after going back and watching the Browns’ incredible comeback against the Houston Oilers in the 1988 regular-season finale at Cleveland. Trailing 23-7 early in the third quarter and appearing to be dead in a game they had to win in order to make the AFC playoffs, and on top of that having to rely on 38-year-old quarterback Don Strock, who had throw three interceptions in the first three series of the first half, the Browns somehow rallied to score 21 unanswered points and win 28-23.
It was Schottenheimer’s greatest regular-season game as a head coach in Cleveland, and it turned out to be his last, for he was fired after a playoff loss to the Oilers six days later at Cleveland when he refused to make coaching staff changes ordered by owner Art Modell.
But that game, in particular, and that 1988 season when the Browns had a team-record amount of injuries at quarterback, along with the 1985-87 sessions, when the Browns won three consecutive Central Division titles and made it to two AFC Championship Games which they lost in agonizing fashion, represented just such a wonderful era of Browns football.
You will always get the real deal — honesty — from me, and I will admit that I got emotional– OK, I cried — while watching the second half of that Oilers game The stadium was electric — it was so loud — as the Browns showed just how good they were, even with a fourth-string quarterback who was coaxed out of retirement and signed while coming off a golf course.
If younger fans want to know older fans feel so passionate about the Browns, even with all the struggles of the expansion era, it’s because of times like that and games like that.
That the 2020 season and the march to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years conjured up memories of all that, is why these older fans in particular are so excited about not just next season, but rather the team’s long-term prospects.