When the Browns are good, it’s good for Northeast Ohio in so many ways.
With all due respect to the Cavaliers, who, with the best player in the world in Akron’s own LeBron James, hopefully will win a championship, possibly as soon as this season, which would be wonderful, and the Indians, who thankfully did not trade away any of their bounty of pitching in the offseason, which definitely gives them a better chance to compete for the A.L. Central title, but the Browns have been the big story in this region for decades.
And we’re not talking about just sports. The sphere of influence of the Browns is much, much broader than that.
But you already knew that.
When the Browns win a game, it puts a bounce into the step of everyone the next morning.
When the Browns win a lot of games, such as they did in the Kardiac Kids season of 1980 and then in the last half of the 1980s, it puts more than simply a bounce into everyone’s steps, but rather quantum leaps to the point of skipping, seven mornings – seven days, all day – a week. Problems in our lives – problems in the community — are covered over temporarily.
Even if you’re not a football fan, you see your friends, family members and neighbors happy and you become happy. You just do. That’s the joy of sports.
Winning teams make a city, a region look good, look cool, be attractive, be a happening place.
It is the goodwill that doesn’t cost anyone other than the team owners, a dime to produce. Talk about good, cheap fun!
That’s what’s happening right now in Denver and Charlotte as their teams get ready to square off in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday night.
But as big of a party as it is in those cities – and it is indeed big, as nobody is getting anything done in the workplace there and the bosses and business owners really don’t care – it would pale in comparison to what would take place in Cleveland if the Browns ever made it to the Super Bowl.
And they will indeed make it at some point. I really, truly believe that, especially after seeing who the Browns have hired in the past month. But more on that sometime soon.
The Browns have to get to that point so their fans can have that days-long celebration. These are the best fans in the world, no doubt about it. They deserve that, and more. They really do.
Every year during Super Bowl week, that point is driven home to me. Over and over again, I see it, causing me to be extremely excited on one hand about what it could be in Cleveland, but also extremely disappointed that it hasn’t happened yet in the Super Bowl’s first 50 years.
I hope – I think – the people running the Browns now see, too, which is a great sign as it becomes the carrot that is dangled in front of them each and every day.
By Steve King
