We didn’t know it then.

No one did.

Really, no one could have known.

Too much — so much — crazy, unbelievable, historic stuff had to happen afterward for the significance of what we witnessed to take hold and crystallize into what we now — and will forever — view it.

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But it was exactly 31 years ago Thursday, on Jan. 1, 1995, that the last big, memorable moment — in a good way — of the original Browns franchise occurred in a 20-13 victory over the New England Patriots at Cleveland Stadium in the wild-card round of the 1994 AFC playoffs.

And, before we forget, Happy New Year! It certainly was such on that long-ago day.

In fact, there were more than a few storybook aspects to it.

Then Browns owner Art Modell hired Bill Belichick away from the defending Super Bowl champion New York Football Giants to be head coach and fix his own football team. The first three years, 1991-93, did not go well — at all, in any way, shape and form — as the Browns went, in order, 6-10, 7-9 and 7-9, with the last season being especially memorable — in a bad way — as the Browns went from 5-2 and in first place in the Central Division following a dramatic 28-23 home win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to, in just two short weeks and a day, cutting tremendously popular quarterback Bernie Kosar.

It was like you contracted with someone to completely remodel your house, only to have the job stalled in neutral at an especially ugly point. And also, add in that the foreman of the work crew mistakenly tossed your most precious family heirloom because he thought it was a piece of junk from the dollar store. Then the foreman, instead of apologizing, tried to justify what he did.

It could not have gone worse. It was a near-riot.

Really.

The only way to save the situation to any extent was for the 1994 Browns to win — a lot. And that they did, bullying teams with a physical, stingy defense. They started 6-1 and 8-2 en route to an 11-5 finish to earn a wild-card playoff berth.

The fans cooled down a bit — not totally, but still enough that they returned to the flock.

Belichick had finally done it. He had gotten the Browns back into the postseason for the first time in five years. He earned a partial pass — a stay of execution. It was probation, with an ankle bracelet.

So, there was that. The playoff game had a great storyline, with Belichick facing off against his mentor and the man under whom he worked with the Giants, Bill Parcells. And then the student goes out and beats the teacher, beginning to carve out his own niche, which made it just that much better.

Indeed, the Belichick era was at its zenith. His Browns were legitimate Super Bowl contenders, just like Modell was betting they would eventually be. The Browns were back. All was right in the world.

That the Browns lost 29-9 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round the following week was, certainly, a disappointment, but it was hardly a deal-breaker. The optimism for the 1995 season was already high, just like it was for the great Browns teams of the last half of the 1980s. It was fueled even more when, nine months later, Sports Illustrated, the magazine of record for all sports back then, especially the NFL, predicted in its 1995 season preview issue that the Browns would make it to their first Super Bowl and lose 34-13 to the defending world champion San Francisco 49ers.

But a loss?

The response from Browns fans: “Ah, don’t worry about it. We’ll deal with that later. We’re not going to let a score prediction steal any of the joy of what we’re feeling now.”

That’s the spirit!

At that point, no one — not even those for whom the glass was always half-empty — could have conceived the horrors that would occur within the next year or so.

Bill Belichick was gone, and so was Art Modell, having gone to Baltimore and taken the Browns with him.

That glorious win over the Patriots was not the beginning of something special. It was the beginning of the end of such.

Even three decades later, it still makes me sick to my stomach to write that sentence, just as I am sure it makes all of you sick to your stomach to read it.

Steve King

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