THE LEAD-IN TO THE OPENERS IS FINALLY HERE

By STEVE KING

Little by little, bit by bit, the beginning of the NFL regular season has been piece-mealed these last several days.

First it was the end of the preseason last Thursday night.

Then it was the mandatory cutdown to 53 players late Saturday afternoon.

That was followed by the scurrying about to add and delete players from the bottom of the roster on Saturday night and throughout Sunday.

Now here we are on Monday and the start – at least for all but two teams, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, who play on Thursday night and have already begun — of the first work week of the regular season. It occurs on, most appropriately so, Labor Day.

The beat reporters, who have not had access to the head coaches and players of the teams since Friday afternoon conference calls, return to the training facilities to start writing stories about the roster cuts and, more importantly so, the openers on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night and Monday night.

Yes, there is a regimen – a sameness — to the NFL, much more so than the other pro sports. If the truth be told, that is one of the appeals of the league, providing a gradual and measured build-up to the big days, with the games themselves.

And so it is with the Browns, who will open their very-anticipated regular season at 1 p.m. Sunday by hosting the Tennessee Titans at FirstEnergy Stadium.

The reporters will go to Browns Headquarters in Berea on Monday morning to interview rookie head coach Freddie Kitchens and the players around a practice. The players will be off on Tuesday as the coaches huddle to prepare the game plan for the Titans.

The reporters return on Wednesday for the biggest work day of the week for everybody involved as the game plan begins to be installed and the interviews now have a specific focus to them.

Two more days of availability will occur on Thursday and Friday, with Saturday being a hands-off day leading into Sunday’s game.

The excitement is so thick in Cleveland that you can almost cut it with a knife.