The Cleveland Browns- My Family

The Cleveland Browns-My Family

John Paul Derryberry

A note on the attack on the U.S. Capitol: In light of insurrection at the Capitol this week, I wanted to say a couple of things before my blog. There are too many emotions, thoughts, and ideas running through my head to put in context what occurred adequately. Many people from so many walks of life have allowed our discord to get to the point that domestic terrorism didn't register the way it should have with a large portion of our country. More blame lies at the feet of some than others, but we don't get to this point without many big players behaving selfishly. At some point, I will write about it, but I could not do it justice today. Call it a privilege, call it wanting to write about something joyful, call it whatever want ever you want, but today in this blog, I decided I needed to write about pure happiness.

The Cleveland Browns My Family

The year is 2002, and I'm sitting in a dorm room full of potential as a 20-year-old college student getting ready to tackle the world. My beloved Cleveland Browns are in the playoffs. I'm not the butt of a bunch of "how do you root for the Browns jokes" yet. I'm full of youthful potential to tackle the world, and so are my Cleveland Browns.

That is until they lose to the sports-hated Pittsburgh Steelers 33-36. Little did I know, but that would the last playoff team from the Cleveland Browns I would watch for 18 years. One winning season that didn't result in the playoffs. Many blah seasons and a couple of real doozies, including a 0-16 campaign; 18 years of Brown's wandering through the football no-name's land. Until tonight: we are in the playoffs and facing those losers from Pittsburgh. Yes, we are perennial losers, but not this year. This year we got ourselves a team that gives us a chance! 

Basketball is my favorite sport, the NBA my favorite league to follow, but the Browns are family. The Cleveland Browns rank number 1, 2, 3 in my heart for fandom. Those late 80s teams, that came up heartbreakingly short, cemented memories in my nervous system. Everyone in my extended family gathered in the basement two years in a row, watching John Elway break our hearts twice. We cheered, we wallowed, the dog wore a Browns sweater. I wish I could cram into a basement with my extended family this weekend and watch the Browns game. It fits the Cleveland Narrative, the first time Cleveland is good in forever and we can't gather with other fans to hug it out!  If there was ever a group of sports fans that deserves a group hug, it's the Cleveland Browns.

It's a right of passage to pass on your fandom for the Cleveland Browns. Both my girls can participate in the "Here we go Brownies, here we go" chant! Just yesterday, my youngest said Cleveland Browns as plan as day at the ripe old age of one year and nine months.  They both got scared when I jumped up and down as the Browns won game after game this year in not so typical Browns fashion.

After enduring all the jokes about the Browns, their epic losing, their color scheme, and their name, the Browns fans for at least one night get to watch their team in the playoffs. A truly joyous occasion, after all, what's better than watching one of your family members find success? Nothing, so maybe it will be another 18 years before we see this type of success; perhaps it won't. Hopefully, we win tonight; more than likely, with our history, we will lose heartbreakingly. But I know you don't give up on family, so for tonight, for my life:

HERE WE GO BROWNIES, HERE WE GO!