I don’t care that the San Diego Chargers missed two field goals down the stretch.
I don’t care that the Chargers had to travel across three time zones to play a meaningless game in freezing-cold weather on Christmas Eve.
I don’t care about any of that, or anything else.
I just care that the Browns won 20-17 in their home finale at FirstEnergy Stadium on Saturday.
They have had all kinds of things go wrong for them this season. A lot more things will have to go right for them before the Browns’ account with the football gods is balanced out.
Yes, they won. They won their first game of the season. They will not duplicate the 2008 Detroit Lions and finish the year 0-16.
Perhaps 1-15 — the Browns play at Pittsburgh in the season finale next Sunday — but not 0-16.
And that’s a big, big difference. It’s like night and day.
Nobody — but nobody — wants to go oh-for-the-season. That puts you into a category that is embarrassing to the nth degree. You land on the NFL’s version of The Island of Misfit Toys. You’re the team nobody wants.
Granted, it’s not that fans are now chomping at the bit to hitch their wagons to a one-win team, but it’s better than the alternative.
You have to start somewhere, and the Browns started on Sunday. It’s where the head coach Hue Jackson era began in earnest.
Jackson and his players deserve this. Despite all the negativity surrounding them — despite being the butt of every joke in the sports world for weeks on end — they refused to give up and to give in. Hard work does pay off.
Indeed, it is a very, very Merry Christmas in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
