SUPER HANGOVER IN CLEVELAND

By STEVE KING

A friend of mine mentioned to me last week that the day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday.

I hadn’t thought about that for a while, but the idea, which I believed was absolutely preposterous when it was first mentioned some years ago, is gaining steam. I still don’t know if it will ever be a national holiday, but it could turn into something similar to the day after some major holidays when a lot of companies close or restrict their hours and not a lot gets done.

There were obviously tons of predictions over the last two weeks about what was going to happen in Sunday night’s Super Bowl 53 between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. This is being written before the game – deadlines, you know – so I can’t tell you whose predictions turned out to be right. But whatever happened in the game, it didn’t take a genius to predict that Monday was going to be a sluggish day – at best – at workplaces all across the country, especially in Boston and Los Angeles.

With that having been said, then, what would the day after be if the Browns ever got to the Super Bowl? And what would that Monday be if they won?

It would be absolutely crazy in both cases, and obviously more so if they took home the Lombardi Trophy. In fact, it would be so crazy – a super high, or a super letdown – that businesses, schools and the such in Northeast Ohio might be forced to take the day off, whether the people in charge wanted to do so or not. Their hand would be forced.

I can vividly remember the build-up to the 1986 AFC Championship Game in Cleveland between the Browns and Denver Broncos. How much more incredible would it be for a game at the next level 30-plus years later?

The celebration for the Cavaliers’ 2016 NBA title was off the charts. With all due respect to what happened with the Cavs, a celebration for a Browns championship would be well beyond that – two or three or even four times greater, in fact.

It’s fun to think about it. it’s even more enjoyable now that there is legitimate hope for such.