An open letter to the Browns players and coaches:
You open the regular season later today against the Jets in New York with low expectations – at least from the outside.
Members of both the local and national media project you to win only three to five games, which, they further predict, will cause head coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer to get fired. They also expect quarterback Johnny Manziel to be a bust, which they say will send the team back to the NFL Draft yet again next year to continue to look for its franchise passer.
And so and so forth. Bad, bad and more bad. It’s nothing but bad.
You – and only you – can change that. You do that, of course, by winning, not just today but on a lot of Sundays this year, so much so that all the doom and gloom goes away and everybody keeps his job. Winning does that. It’s the cure-all, end-all and be-all. It’s all that counts in pro sports. It is the magic tonic that destroys all the bad stuff. It works every time it’s tried.
Just win. It would be nice if it’s pretty, but it doesn’t have to be. Just win, no matter if the score is 3-2, 50-49 or 101-100. Just win and everything will be fine.
There are no style points for coming close, playing well offensively, defensively or on special teams, or taking the game down to the final seconds.
Just be ahead on the scoreboard when the game ends, and do whatever it takes, for as however long it takes, to make it happen.
Maybe there’s some good karma for the Browns on this date, for it was on Sept. 13, 1946 that the first-year Browns – the original franchise – beat the odds and the heavily-favored Chicago Rockets 20-6 to gain their first road win – on their first try.
Pro Football Hall of Fame fullback Marion Motley scored the Browns’ first touchdown on a 20-yard run in the first quarter, then another Hall of Famer, Lou Groza, kicked field goals from 21 and 37 yards in the third quarter to push the lead to 13-0 and get the Browns going.
You, too, are underdogs today against the Jets. The Jets are bad – really bad, in fact – yet you are predicted to lose. That’s how little the oddsmakers think of you.
That’s not nice to hear, but you can change that perception. Just win, and it will start to happen. Then just keep winning, and it will happen in total.
Good luck.
Sincerely,
Steve King
