These "friends" of mine are college friends I used to watch the Sunday games with. They would proudly cheer on the Bengals and I would sit there in my Kosar jersey barking for the Browns - they had more to be happy about (minus the fact they cheered for the wrong team). Maybe this would be the time I get to cheer a little louder than them. They did not arrive from Cincinnati until very late Saturday night - everyone went to sleep moments after they arrived (although I may have stayed up and watch some NFL previews...).
There are a few things in life that just make sense together: peanut butter and jelly, Bert and Ernie, Metcalf and up the middle, and of course, football and tailgating. Emily, Steve, and I woke up early (what we thought was early) on Sunday to get everything ready. We precooked, we packed, we cleaned - tailgating is no easy task. We drove down Chester Ave. until we reached E. 9th Street and turned to the muni lot to park...apparently about 2,000 other people had the same idea and had gotten up earlier - there were no spots left (in fact, we saw the last car pull into the lot before they closed it). We parked in the garage, but pulled all of our tailgating stuff out and setup shop on the east wall - I thought we had this tailgating thing down. We found ourselves among a legion of other fans who had this sense of happiness about them that can only be matched by a small child finding an empty cardboard box - those make excellent forts.
I am never alone walking through the stadium; everyone has sense of excitement, a sense of hope - it usually is expressed in the same way each game...Here we go Brownies, here we go! The barking that follows this chant must invoke fear in the opposing fans (whether it be about the game or their personal safety); I love it. My friends made their way up to the nose breed section - I gave them instructions to remain quite or they could get into trouble. Emily and I made our way to our seats. We looked on the field and saw the beautiful (note sarcasm) spirit flag; I remain boggled as to how that got into our stadium.
The game started like any other although this time we had some interesting characters sitting around us - they all represented a different phase of fanship. "The New Guy" was sitting to my left - trying to figure out when to cheer and what all the penalties meant. "The Best Fans Ever" were sitting in front of us - too cool to high five Emily for the first half of the game and standing whenever they felt like it. "The Incidental Guy" sat to our right - wearing an Ohio State cap, he came just because it was something to do and laughed as I made comments about how it was our duty to retain hope in the Browns. "The Veteran" sat behind us - he commiserated with us about Browns history and how things used to be (and paid me a compliment on my jersey choice; I know, it's awesome). And then there was Emily - "The Rookie" - she was learning when to shout, when to be silent, and most importantly, when to pray (she learned from the best).
The Browns lost the coin toss and Cincinnati quickly drove down the field and got a TD. Oh no; here we go again. You have got to be kidding me. The Browns made a failed attempt at a drive down the field and punted it right back to the enemy - things were not looking good. At halftime the announcer said the Browns not having a turnover was a big difference in the game...you never say things like that - Anderson's first pass of the half: intercepted. Mysteriously, I wasn't flipping out too much when he threw it. This is when I realized a truth about the world - God is a Browns fan. There is no other way of explaining the divine like play our offensive unit was pulling off. They looked like the Browns of old - making the opposing team hurt with a strong offensive line and running it right down their throats...again, and again. We were clicking on all cylinders - everyone was having a career day. Cribbs was returning kickoffs giving us excellent field position, Lewis was breaking tackles left and right, the O line was giving Anderson time, the receivers were making catches that even the wildest imagination could not fathom; unfortunately, so were the Bengals. This was not a game that was to be won by defense - it was a race to how many times each team could run up and down the field. My personal belief as to why this happened (aside from the theory that God is a Browns fan) is that they stopped announcing the Heinz Red Zone, which historically has been the kiss of death for the Browns.
That legion of fans that I was talking about before - yeah they came to the game too. Chad Johnson made it into the endzone and decided to jump into the Dawg Pound - little did he know what he was in for...the fans held him up and poured beer onto him. Chad took it in stride, but the fans who doused him in beer were escorted out. I don't agree with that at all - Chad knew something would probably happen to him when he jumped in there - it was all done in fun. The fans also made their presence known during the last quarter of the game by cheering so loud we forced Cincinnati to take a couple of timeouts - it truly hurt them on the final drive of the game when Palmer's pass was intercepted and ironically enough...the game was won by good defense.
It was good to see the offense coming out, but it still doesn't feel quite like the Browns of old (I said they looked like the Browns of old before). Nothing short of a win against Pittsburgh will make me feel like this team is the real deal. A win against Pittsburgh means we are back after 12 years of being away. It will be exciting to see what happens when the Kid starts (sorry, not this weekend, Buddie). Despite all of this excitement, major problems still loom: our sole pro-bowl caliber player, our punter is injured, our defense has given up 10 touchdown passes in two games (they gave up 20 all last year), and our secondary is banged up...but hey, our special teams are playing well.
I emailed Bruce's show when I got home and managed to get it on the show...again:
I love your show and your mom is in our prayers.
Last week I wrote to you saying I left like I was walking out of a funeral after the Pittsburgh game, I have to say - walking out of this game I felt like I was walking out of a football game for the first time since, well...probably since Kosar was playing.
Does this mean all of the Browns problems went away? No...but hey, lets enjoy the next 6 days.
Everything is different when you win. You don't mind the person who wants to get in front of you in line, you don't mind hanging out waiting for your friends to meet you, you don't mind sitting in the parking lot, you just become a more laid back individual. It was fun going to Panini's afterwards to get a few wings and relax. Heck, when you win, even hosting the enemy doesn't seem that bad.
Extra Points: Anderson tied a team record with 5 touchdown passes,Lewis ran for the most yards (216) since the man who shares the name of the team ran, and the combined score lead to the 9th highest scoring game in NFL history.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment