The Browns got a lesson on the Browns last week.

That is, the current Browns got a lesson on the old Browns — the original Browns — as they traveled to Canton for a light practice at the Pro Football Hall of Fame during the team’s mandatory, full-squad mini camp.

During the bus ride there, players watched a video special on the greatest player of all-time at any position, former Browns running back Jim Brown, and before they returned to Berea, they toured the Hall of Fame, which has as one its most notable enshrinees Brown, plus a number of other Browns.

We had a memorable Day 2 of mandatory minicamp down at the @ProFootballHOF

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) June 15, 2022

With the ugly, hard-to-watch and for some even harder-to-stomach situation involving quarterback Deshaun Watson, and with the fact the Browns have struggled mightily in this nightmarish expansion era since 1999, it’s hard to view the club in a positive light and it’s much harder to see it for what it is as one of the foundations of pro football. Indeed, the imprint of the Browns is all over the Hall of Fame.

From playbooks to full-time assistant coaches to the wide-open passing offenses and much, much more, so many things about the modern game trace back to HOF head coach Paul Brown and his early Browns teams in the late 1940s through the 1950s. That’s why they call Brown “The Father of Modern Football.”

With all that, then, the fact the Super Bowl trophy is named for Vince Lombardi instead of Paul Brown is an absolute joke.

Hopefully, some of that historical significance of the franchise was absorbed by the present-day Browns players and they realize what a special franchise they have joined.

If so, then the trip was worth it.

And if not, then, well, it was a big waste of time.

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