THE LUCKY SIDE OF THE FIELD
By STEVE KING
Today, Friday, is March 13, so, then, this is a story about Friday the 13th.
It’s a story about the “lucky” south sideline at FirstEnergy Stadium and how it’s the “lucky” sideline of the field, just like the south sideline was the “lucky” sideline at Cleveland Stadium which, of course, sat on the imprint of FirstEnergy Stadium. By lucky, I mean “winning,” as the winning team using the south sideline.
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The original Browns franchise, which called Cleveland Stadium home for all of its 50-year existence and used the south sideline throughout, won about 64 percent of its home games. Even in seasons when the Browns didn’t have a good team and didn’t win many games overall, they still did well at home.
Since the new Browns came back in 1999 and began play at FirstEnergy Stadium, then known as Cleveland Browns Stadium, they have used the north sideline and have won only about 36 percent of their home games. Even in most of the few seasons that they have done well overall in this nightmarish expansion era, they have struggled to win at home. The visiting teams, now using the north sideline, have been only too happy to draw on that side’s good luck and its winning rate of 64 percent.
A fan from Youngstown, whose daughter is a longtime employee of the re-born Browns, called a Cleveland sports talk radio station once to explain that the lucky side of the field the Browns fail to use is the real reason behind their inability to win at home. It sounded like a funny put-on line of some kind, but he was dead-serious.
And, according to the employee, he still is serious. He still believes it to be the real issue
Long before I knew of the fan from Youngstown, and even after I became aware of him, I wrote any number of stories about the “lucky” and “unlucky” sides of the field in the history of the Browns’ two stadiums.
Anyway, I hope your Friday you find yourself on the lucky side – a great, joyful and fun one.
