Kevin Love ditching 361°, expected to sign with Nike
September 30, 2015The Doctor is out: Michael Brantley shut down for the season due to shoulder injury
September 30, 2015I flew from San Francisco. California back home to Akron, Ohio this past weekend so I could go with my friend — a Raiders season ticket holder — to see the Cleveland Browns take on the Oakland Raiders at FirstEnergy Stadium. It was my friend’s first road Raiders game, and it was my first home Browns game in about five years (I try to make one road game a year now that I don’t live in Ohio).
I arrived at the Muni lot around 10 a.m., excited to tailgate amongst the degenerates I see so often on line. I was greeted hours before kickoff by countless, “McCown f—ng sucks!” lines from the Browns faithful. The McCown bashing continued into the stadium, as just eight minutes into Week 3, nearly the entire stadium booed their home team relentlessly after the Browns failed to move the ball down the field on their first drive of the game.
Nevermind the fact that a Mitchell Schwartz holding penalty left McCown in a difficult second-and-19, and a third-and-13 checkdown to Duke Johnson forced the Browns to punt. The point is that before even entering the stadium, the vast majority of Browns fans had made up their minds to hate McCown no matter what. After one (good) drive in Week 1, his first in Brown and Orange, the fans had already given up on the 36-year-old McCown, a “no good journeyman quarterback.”
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I felt ashamed walking away from that stadium Sunday afternoon, with no desire to return any time soon.
After eight years in the CFL, Doug Flutie returned to the NFL at age 36. He went 7-3 as a starter that season and led the Bills to the playoffs, where he fell victim to the Music City Miracle and the Tennessee Titans. The next season, he went 10-5 as a starter, though the Bills missed the playoffs.
Steve Beuerlein played for four teams in his first seven seasons in the NFL. He went to Carolina in 1996 but didn’t get the starting job until age 33. The next year, aged 34 years young, he led the NFL in passing yards and threw 36 touchdowns.
Vinny Testaverde was 48-83-1 in his first 11 NFL seasons. In 1998, at age 35 and on the fourth team of his career, Testaverde went 12-1 as a starter for the New York Jets, throwing 29 touchdowns to just 7 interceptions in the process. He won a playoff game that season.
Tommy Maddox joined the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2001 after being out of the NFL since 1995. In 2002, his number was called upon after a Kordell Stewart injury, and Maddox went on to go 7-3-1. He helped lead the Steelers to the Playoffs in 2002. (I probably don’t need to remind anyone that it was a fourth-quarter comeback victory over Kelly Holcomb and the Butch Davis led Browns.)
Kurt Warner, five years removed from the Pro Bowl-form fans saw in St. Louis — he was bagging groceries before joining the Rams, mind you — Warner reenergized his career with the Cardinals…at age 36. One year later, he lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII thanks to Santonio Holmes’ timely hands.
Of course, there are countless 30-something, retread quarterbacks who have failed (I warn you to hide your eyes from Jake Delhomme’s Browns highlights). But it’s not impossible. And it’s not fair to assume McCown can’t be the Doug Flutie to the Browns’ Jeff Garcia. The fans aren’t booing McCown. They can’t be — after all, he’s played just five quarters for the Browns.
I was embarrassed on Sunday. I was embarrassed that a fan base could turn on a quarterback after his second drive on the team. I was embarrassed that the “winnable home game” everyone is scrutinizing today was actually lost before the game even started. The team had no chance to please the home crowd, and it was absolutely pathetic.
I understand where the fans are coming from because I’m one of them. But Josh McCown isn’t Charlie Frye. Mike Pettine isn’t Romeo Crennel. Ray Farmer isn’t Phil Savage. Give them a fair chance. They deserve that in the very least, though I of course scratch my head from time to time, too.
There’s a common dialogue that calls Browns fans “the best in the NFL,” ones that “deserve a winner.” I was at the game Sunday, and I could not disagree with those sentiments more. The best fans would not have treated their then 1-1 team like that. Week 3 was a pitiful showing by a starved fan base that is just as toxic as all of the men who have made decisions in Berea since 1999. Sunday’s display was not a disgraceful performance by the Browns players. It was a disgraceful performance by the fans. The team was forced to play in a game that felt more like a road game than I could ever have imagined.
I left FirstEnergy Stadium with my friend who was decked out in all Raiders gear, and even he had an easier day with Browns fans than Josh McCown. I felt ashamed walking away from that stadium Sunday afternoon, with no desire to return any time soon. It had nothing to do with the team on the field and everything to do with an unreasonable, hypocritical fan base that acts like 15 years of futility somehow entitles them to success more so than anyone else.
Today I ask Browns fans just one time to stop pointing fingers and saying the team sucks. I ask them to look in the mirror, and they’ll get a good look at something that sucks.
177 Comments
I just checked. He’s still chucking perfect spirals 19 hours in.
I went to bed. He might have took a nap in the van at some point during the night.
I pulled my sarcasm batteries for the bs detector
Actually, that’s not it at all. I just would understand if people let it go, and I’m not going to chastise them. Better yet, people that find other things to do on Sundays while listening to the radio. You don’t have to pick another team, just don’t wallow and obsess in the negativity.
I have issue with these supposed die hards that show up to every game, piss and moan about the team, and then proudly wear their misery like the proverbial albatross. But like captain Mal once said, the albatross wasn’t bad mojo until some idiot killed it. How about we just cheer our team. We don’t have to like every move, and we can question. But the fan negativity is toxic.
I think the argument is that we heartily cheer. Silence is just a passive form of unprovoked hostility toward our fair team that’s doing the best they can.
Ok, we shall all whistle the Bridge Over The River Qwai whilst we eat our crap sandwiches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3ezq7G5E8
No, no. Everyone is still free to have tantrums. Sometimes crying and screaming makes you feel better.
That violates the code of embracing the suck.
Right, this team’s problems are my fault… To be a good fan I must accept the losses and cheer for them – Thanks for the tip Jordan, I’ll be sure to keep hope alive
Ah, you’re one of the “fans have real power” guys. Did you wear your lucky socks? If only the fans didn’t boo, they would have won? Why does Farmer suck at the draft, do the Browns pipe booing into the war room?
The fact that you think the fans booing is what keeps the Browns sucky (“don’t complain about the results of your actions”) is mind boggling. Fans are by their nature short-sighted. Indians fans cheer Albert Belle because he hit homruns. SF fans love Barry Bonds even though he’s a creep. Browns fans boo BECAUSE they suck. If the Browns won, the fans would be going fucking crazy. For proof, look at week two. No boos.
Can he play WR?
That’s right. You’re free to do so, but that means you aren’t embracing the suck. Crybabies cry; they don’t suck it up.
He can do anything he wants.
So, then being so beat down, you don’t have the willpower to actually cry anymore, technically qualifies as embracing the suck. lol
go
browns
No, that’s just “getting beat.”
The Cavs need to hurry up…
Well, look no further than the name of this webpage…..”waiting for next year” What does that tell you? Don’t blame the fans. Don’t. Just don’t. The fact that the Browns still sell ANY tickets at all is nothing short of a miracle. The only thing that we have to to hold onto, the only reason we haven’t jumped off a bridge yet, is hope. HOPE. Two weeks ago Cleveland had hope for the first time in a decade. Right or wrong, the stadium saw hope in Manziel. The energy in the stadium was tangible; I could feel it through the TV. And then, less than 3 days after a high many haven’t felt in a long time, the Browns ripped it from us and crushed our hopes once again. Reality is staring you in the face. McCown is who he is– a mediocre backup QB incapable of clutch, game winning play. He is not the future of the Browns. Manziel might not be that future either, but we need to find out.
Fans are passionate. What does it mean to be passionate? It means to feel pain and agony. The fans do not owe McCown, the coaching staff or the Browns organization anything. Nothing. We owe them nothing. The fans pay the bills, and the fans deserve a winner. We are tired of this charade.
Naw, we aren’t the Jets.
I bet that Raider fan didn’t boo when they settled for a field goal…Just saying
it seems to me the one who isnt a Browns fan is Mr Marks
Why would any fan be supportive of a journeyman QB with a team who hasn’t even won 49% of their games from 1999 through the third game of the 2015 season!? You said it yourself in the fourth paragraph of the article….”It’s Rare” for Journeyman QB’s to win. Loyal Fans are becoming frustrated and to see the team bring in McCown?…It’s salt in the mediocrity wound that is Cleveland! So yes, the Fans have a right to be frustrated and critical of this team!
Yep. That’s it.
Jordan Marks. I’m sorry you feel the way you do. I’m also sorry that you lack perspective which is likely just a fact that you’re not old enough to know what you should know. The Browns haven’t just been around since ’99. They have behaved and performed this way since ’64 and in reality a little bit more so earlier. It’s just a bad organization that engenders bad outcomes.
So, do I get an apology at this point?
This was mean……and proving incorrect.