Ohi-woe Sports

People know one thing in life when it comes to Ohio sports. The Browns are terrible. This has been surrounding them for their developmental years until it becomes part of them. You can see it in the eyes of Browns fans when people discuss the realm of professional football, you see the hopes and dreams of the young child inside them dashed. That same inner child leaves with nothing but new hopes and dreams that begin with those words that were echoed in Brooklyn in the fifties and Chicago in the entire 20th century “Maybe next year…”.

The Browns have been a part of the NFL since the 1950’s and won the league championship 4 times of the total of 11 times they appeared. They were the top team in football before the Super Bowl era winning their last championship in 1964. The Browns have never been to a Super Bowl coming close twice in 1987 and 1988. Lead by Bernie Kosar and high powered offense the Browns had home field advantage in the AFC Championship and looked very primed to be heading to their first Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos. Kosar threw a 48 yard touchdown pass to Brian Brennan to take a 20-13 lead with 5 minutes and 32 seconds left in the game and Denver then fumbled on the ensuing kickoff leaving the Broncos with 98 yards to the end zone. The outlook from the Browns perspective was ecstatic but it quickly turned sour as John Elway lead the Broncos down the field and scored as time expired to tie the game. Then Elway engineered another drive to win in overtime.

The next year saw a rematch in the AFC championship game but this time Cleveland engineered a late drive to try to take the lead and the trip to the Super Bowl. The Browns were down 38-31 and had only one yard to go to tie the game but Earnest Byner, a running back for the Browns ran into a hole and was tripped up and fumbled the ball just inches before he crossed the goal line costing the Browns the game. The Browns have not gotten that close again.

Recently the Browns have raised the losing to art forms. They just lost every single game they played this season and have not won since November of 2016. The end of the struggle is nowhere near the current time. Fans, however, have not lost hope and keep going out there with the promise of the new year. Every year the Draft sees the Browns fans huddled around the TV searching for the one player to turn their fortunes around. It looks as if fans will have to keep waiting.