By sometime late Thursday night, the preseason will be over for the Browns.
Thankfully.
It’s been said that in the NFL, nothing is forgotten quicker than these exhibition games. And of those contests, nothing is forgotten quicker than the last one.
For 14 straight preseasons, the Browns’ last one has been against the Chicago Bears. This year’s last one was at Soldier Field.
The Browns went into that game having lost the last one to the Bears the last two years, four of the last six years and six of the last nine.
But no one – on either side – cares because these games don’t count. They especially don’t count in the last one since almost all of the starters on both teams are held out so as to keep them from getting injured. That would preclude them from playing in the games that do count two weekends from now when the regular season begins.
Do you think it – a significant player getting hurt in that last game– can’t happen?
Oh, yes, it definitely can happen, and it has for all teams, including the Browns.
In 1984, Cody Risien, one of the best right tackles in the game at the time, was playing not just in the last preseason game, but also the last quarter of the last game, against the Philadelphia Eagles on the horrible artificial turf at Veterans Stadium. Why he was playing at that point, is anyone’s guess.
Regardless, it was a regrettable decision by Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano, for it did a lot to cause him to lose his job midway through that season. Without Risien helping to block, quarterback Paul McDonald got beaten to a pulp, being sacked 53 times, 11 of which came in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs to set a team record. It made him gun-shy, and he threw 23 interceptions to just 14 touchdowns. No TDs means no points, and no points means no wins.
With the Browns at 1-7 following a 12-9, last-play loss at Cincinnati, Rutigliano was dismissed.
In the last game in 1986, against the Los Angeles Raiders, Browns backup quarterback Gary Danielson – Bernie Kosar’s personal tutor — fractured his ankle, ending his season before it even started.
The Browns, who are trying to get out of the big hole they’ve been in for all of this expansion era, can’t afford any more breaks, especially bad ones.
