If you decided to watch yesterday’s 38-37 debacle Browns loss at Ford Field in Detroit, you may have seen a lot of fans clad in Brown and Orange. After seeing so many, you may have asked yourself “who in the heck would actually drive three hours from Cleveland to watch this clown show?”
The answer is me.
Let me just say this trip was planned way in advance and I am a glutton for punishment. Honestly, I was a bit curious to see exactly how two of the worst teams in recent NFL history would react to being on the field at the same time. Two of us were clad in Cleveland gear, and immediately were heckled by two guys in full Lions garb hold a megaphone. “Hey Jose Mesa in ‘97, how did that taste?”
“Is that the best you’ve got” I responded as I continued my trek into Ford Field. It would get worse later. But I digress.
If you haven’t been to the complex, Ford Field and Comerica Park are right next to each other in downtown Detroit, which isn’t exactly a budding metropolis these days. The infamous Cleveland Tourism video (part two) where they end by saying “at least we’re not Detroit (its been taken off youtube) nailed it. That city is absolutely depressing. If you ever want to feel good about our fair city, go visit “The D.”
That said, Ford Field is absolutely beautiful. I have never been to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, but the Lions home is the single best football stadium I’ve ever been to. The place is a palace – it’s not your father’s dome, that is for sure. There truly isn’t a bad seat in the building. The upper deck is lower than you think and isn’t steep like our stadium’s upper level is. One bad, bad sign I saw yesterday was the club seats. I’m not joking when I tell you the sections were close to completely empty. Lets say the club sections hold 8,000 fans, there couldn’t have been more than 1,200 people, tops. And, maybe I am getting old, but I enjoyed indoor football. While the walk from the parking lot was windy and cold, it was a very pleasant 65 degrees in the dome.
Now onto the game. I was sitting around the 35 yard line, lower deck about 25 rows up. There were a few Browns fans near me, but for the most part, we were surrounded by Lions fans. You think Browns fans are jaded these days, you should talk to some of these die-hard Lion supporters. I guess that is bound to happen when you’ve won one game in the past two seasons.
Now I am far from an obnoxious Browns fan. On the road, I am respectful, I cheer for my team, like you should, but I leave it at that. I sat stunned as Brady Quinn went Peyton Manning on the Lions secondary in that first quarter. But as my buddy Ags said in a text after I said “do you believe this;” “This game ain’t over by a long shot.”
After each Lions TD to get back into the game, the jamokes behind us kept sticking their hands in our face for a high five or tapping us hard on our shoulder saying “you don’t come in here and expect to just run over us, do you?” I also got “how does that feel buddy” about five times. I thought to myself “I’ve reached a new low – getting taunted by Lions fans.” After the 10th time these guys grabbed me to taunt, I finally snapped with “do you idiots not get it? I DONT CARE. We are terrible and so are you.”
I seriously couldn’t believe these idiots. I know if Lions fans came to Cleveland, some of our fans would probably be moronic enough to do the same. That said, it couldn’t have been more annoying. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Lions fight song, Gridiron Heroes. After each Lions score, a guy, who looked like the lead singer of the village people, would sing a live version from the sidelines of a song that is beyond comical. Here it is:
“Hail to the Redskins” or “Bear Down, Chicago Bears,” it certainly isn’t. The first time I heard it (we would hear it many times yesterday), I almost cried laughing. Its almost as comical as their defense.
But in the end, Brady put the Browns ahead with a fourth quarter TD pass to Michael Gaines. After Brodney Pool picked off a Matthew Stafford pass in the end zone with just over three minutes remaining, there was no reason to stick around. With a three hour drive ahead of us, who need the extra traffic. Not to mention the fact that the Browns are a 1-8 team (at the time) and only bad things could happen at that point. If this was a game that mattered, its a completely different story.
It was reminiscent of when I left Soldier Field in 2001 with the Browns ahead 21-7 with two minutes left. I was walking out and heard someone yelled my name. It was a guy I knew from Cleveland who said “how can you leave?” On my life, I responded by saying “you know what my father always said, you don’t want to be here when we blow it.” Sure enough, by the time I got to the car, the Bears had scored a TD, recovered an onside kick, scored again, and forced OT, where they lost on the first play.
This time, by the time we got to the car, Stafford had zero timeouts and 88 yards to go to win the game. Even the bad Browns D wouldn’t blow this one, would they? You know the rest. I’m just glad I wasn’t there to see it.
While I was disgusted by this loss, anything that gets us closer to never seeing Eric Mangini on the Browns sideline again is fine by me. Props to the Lions and the Browns for actually entertaining us yesterday. I fully expected a 7-7 game. I guess I was way off.
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
TD-at least you didn’t include your guarantee that BQ won’t be around next year, baseless and without merit as that was.
Brady Quinn tore up the Lions D, congratulations. He will be gone next year, and Mangini will be here with his new GM.
Book it.
didn’t watch the game, didnt read the article. just read the title and looked at the score board pic… GLAD TO SEE THE BROWNS GET A WIN!
As a kid, I went to the Browns @ Minnesota game where Ahmad Rashad made that last-second, hail-mary catch to win the game.
My dad took me and my three sisters. It was at the ol’ outdoor stadium — we had our moon boots on and everything. But it was too cold for my sisters, and we left right before that play.
While I was severely p-o’d as the sisters when we were leaving, after hearing the Minnesota announcers’ jubilation in the car, I did not mind missing that debacle in person at all.
Blissfully has jumped out to an early lead for comment of the week.
“Blissfully has jumped out to an early lead for comment of the week.”
Hear, hear!
speaking of ridiculous endings, have you seen this?
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/news/story?page=goingviral/112209
There is no such thing as a beautiful dome. All domes are an insult to humanity.
@8 clearly havent been to the THUNDERDOME
Worst song ever might belong to the Cubs. They played it over and over after Chicago beat the Tribe one Saturday this past season. It’s not just bad, it’s annoying.
I was in Detroit this weekend for a buddies bachelor party (best man didn’t have a passport or it would have been Windsor)….I was very impressed/surprised with the amount of OSU and Brownies gear we saw all day Saturday at the bars and casino. While listening to the 1st quarter on the way home we were all ridiculing the guy that had to be back early, therefore meaning we couldn’t go to the game to see the Brownies impress. By early Sunday evening he had become the weekend MVP for not allowing us to go to the game.
Did anyone else find the fake FG pass, and then FG attempt on the next play a bit head scratching??
“Did anyone else find the fake FG pass, and then FG attempt on the next play a bit head scratching??”
Yes, until I saw Dawson throw a perfect strike to Furrey without gripping the strings nor stepping towards him. If he wasn’t really left handed, it’d be that much better…
Speaking of, kicks right-footed but throws left-handed. Don’t see that every day. Sort of like the touchdowns.
The fake FG was offensive GENIUS! The Lions never expected a fake field goal followed by an actual field goal! That’s why it worked so perfectly. Just another example of the “genius” of the Mangini/Daboll coaching juggernaut.
Ironically, it was the Rob Ryan-coached unit that lost us the game yesterday.
Not sayin’, just sayin’.
A comment on Lions fans being obnoxious…
A couple years back I went to the Lions/Browns preseason battle in Cleveland. I took my brother in law who is unfortunately a Lions fan. He dressed up in his Lions gear and all, and we even went early to tailgate. The funny thing was not one person heckled him during tailgating, the walk to the stadium, or most of the game. The Browns won that game. But after the game and on the walk back to the car he was heckled non stop the whole way. I just looked at him and said typical Cleveland fans. We need to make sure we win first….we dont have enough confidence to heckle anyone when there is a good chance we wont beat them.
Yet again it sucked to lose the way we did but I’m at least satisfied we showed some effort and made a game out of it. I really don’t care that it was against the Lions the game had the ability to be boring and abysmal to watch.. and it wasn’t.
I know (yet again) it was the Lions but that doesn’t change the fact that Quinn showed he can throw the ball 40-50 yards down the field and near or on target.. I was impressed to finally see that.
“Down the field.. to gain… a Lions victoryyyyyyyyy”
Mr. Cleveland I have to half disagree with you
While living in Chicago and next to Wrigley, the Go Cubs Go is a very fun song to sing while being at Wrigley being about +6 old styles in. However, yeah if you aren’t a cubs fan it could easily be the most annoying thing you’ll here sang after a game. However, I’m a Cubs fan and an Old Style fan so it works out for me.
In defense of the fake FG, I think the genius thought he’d catch them napping and Furrey would waltz in untouched for 6. Surprised they ran it once they saw he was covered.
Also surprised that Mangini has a job today.
Another in the running for comment of the week:
# 310 DP Diesel Says:
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Jets just scored on special teams. I can’t fathom how, since we took all of their best special teams players this year.
My girlfriend dragged me to the Lions Packers Thanksgiving game in Detroit last year. She’s a Lions fan and wore a blue and silver pilgrim’s outfit, but I couldn’t care less about either team so I wore a scarlet Ohio State shirt. What surprised me other than the hilarious fight song was being overrun by obnoxious Packers fans. I know every team has them, but a particularly loud Green Bay fan next to me even told me if Green Bay were to lose he would take off his Packers jersey and pretend to be a Lions fan. I also learned if you yell “O-H!” in the crowd leaving the game you will get a response, but it’s really not worth it.
@19
nullster, all I know is that the Tribe had just lost, and the fans in the Wrigley bleachers were dancing, and they kept playing that insipid song over and over and over and I hated it and them.
I’d give a sixer of Christmas Ale right now for a couple of Old Styles.
“Also surprised that Mangini has a job today.”
Why? If there’s one thing we know about Lerner, it’s that he refuses to make tough decisions or take action until it’s way, way, way overdue.
I’m more surprised he didn’t get a contract extension today, Lerner usually hands ‘em out like candy. I mean, did you *see* all those TDs yesterday?
As a former clevelander who has moved to So Cal i flew back to chicago for the weekend in 2001 and was at that Bears game and was sick as i could be walking out after that Couch INT and took a lot of crap from Bears fans. I am betting the trip out of that craphole known as detroit was the same feeling.