I’ve long exclaimed that the Browns receive way too large a share of the city’s time and attention. And not just when it comes to the Cleveland sports media, though in this case, it’s the most obvious example. While I don’t buy into the recent study of NFL fan bases, conducted by the usually estimable Emory University, that has Browns fans at 28th, I do believe we should reassess our attitude towards the Browns organization as a whole.
There are many reasons why the Browns should not be the best loved sports team in our city, especially right now. Nor should they be the number one concern of our city at-large. Not only have the Cavaliers and Indians both reached the pinnacle of their sport in the last two years, but the Browns are 88-216 since returning to Cleveland in 1999. And as every Clevelander with a pulse knows, we’ve gone 1-31 the last two years. Possibly the only positive decision they’ve made since their return in 1999 was the drafting of Joe Thomas. Any other decision could be debated. And, to top it off, the owner of the team runs another company that defrauded truckers and trucking companies out of money.
But yet we hear consistent refrains about how we’re a “football city,” and that justifies our intense coverage and devotion to the Browns. Nearly every city in America with an NFL team is a football town. The only possible exceptions in my lifetime would be St. Louis and possibly Los Angeles. A case could be made for others like Boston, but I digress. Any one debating the significant popularity of football in America could check out, amongst many others, this study by Forbes magazine.
Even if it’s true that we’re a “football town,” does that make it right that the Browns so dominate our media coverage as well as our interpersonal conversations? If you’re a man in Cleveland, you can just expect to be asked about the Browns at least several times per week (I can’t speak for women…nor would I try). And sports talk radio is dominated by Browns talk, with the current LeBron James saga proving the exception to the rule. The reality is that all of us knows someone who truly believes the Browns will be a playoff contender this year. For real! Those people exist. While I surely want the Browns to make the playoffs, this type of fanciful pipe dream has something to do with the uncritical eye we in this city, and the media in particular, use to look at the organization as a whole.
If we’re to expect more from our sports teams, and our civic leaders as well, we must demand more. And the Browns are perhaps the best example of us as Clevelanders needing to demand better. Don’t get me wrong Browns die-hards, I like football too. It’s just that Ohio State is the apple of my pigskin eye. Perhaps some of the Buckeye fandom (I hope it’s not an obsession) is due to the Browns ineptness, but I can’t possibly know because said ineptness continues unabated.
Who knows, maybe the Browns will make an unexpected run to greatness a few years from now and all the boyhood love and affinity I had for the Sipes, and Kosars, and Dixons will come flooding back. But this focus on the Browns has been to the detriment of not just the Indians, Cavaliers, and Buckeyes, but also the city itself. The focus on the Browns sucks the air out of any potential conversations about other aspects of Cleveland’s civic and economic life. The areas where the city REALLY needs fixing.
