WHAT IF THE BROWNS WERE STILL IN THIS THING?

By STEVE KING

What if, instead of it happening in Kansas City or San Francisco, Super Bowl week were beginning now in Cleveland?

That is, what if it were beginning here with the Browns involved?

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Wow! That’s a great thought, an exciting thought, a thought that makes you stop breathing for a moment.

As big as the build-ups were to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ four straight NBA Finals appearances a few years back – and they were definitely big — and as big as the build-up was to the Cleveland Indians’ 2016 World Series appearance – and it was definitely big, as we all remember – the build-up to the Browns being in their first Super Bowl would be literally off the charts. There would be no way to quantify, exactly, just how big – how incredible – it would be.

I thought the Browns were going to the Super Bowl in the 1968 season. All they had to do was defeat the Baltimore Colts, whom they had beaten during the regular season to hand head coach Don Shula’s team its only loss, in the NFL Championship Game. And it was going to be in Cleveland, where, four years earlier, they had crushed the heavily-favored Colts 27-0 to capture the NFL title.

But they didn’t win. Instead they got crushed even worse, 34-0, and the Colts went to Super Bowl 3, where they were stunned 16-7 by Joe Namath and the New York Jets.

I thought the Browns would get to the Super Bowl in the 1980 Kardiac Kids season. The stars all seemed to be aligned in just the right way for them to go, but they didn’t make it. They were beaten at home by the Oakland Raiders, 14-12, in the divisional round.

And I thought they would go in the 1986 season, especially after they gotten ahead of  the Denver Broncos 20-13 with just under five minutes left in regulation in the AFC Championship Game. The Broncos had to march the length of the field – 98 yards, to be exact – just to tie the score and force overtime. Heck, that wasn’t going to happen, especially since some young, unproven quarterback named John Elway had to go into the teeth of the Dawg Pound to do it.

Yeah, right.

So, here we are, all these years later, still waiting for it to happen. We can only imagine what it would be like.