It’s my favorite time of year again. You have your jersey crisp and ready to go, cornhole boards have a fresh coat of wax, you have already locked-in your fantasy football roster, the Browns have a first-place 0-0 record, and us Browns fans are already charting their path to the playoffs.
Never mind the fact that our team hasn’t been to the postseason in 9 seasons, or that they have only had 2 winning seasons since 1999. None of that matters when you are on the brink of a new season, full of hope and optimism. As unrealistic as it sounds, you have already gone over the ways this team could be the one to surprise you and put together a run at the playoffs. You push to the back of your mind the fact that you have done this every year only to be disappointed half-way through the season or earlier.
Such is the life of a Browns fan. We’ll be there tomorrow at 6am, in our tailgating bus, and we won’t even be among the first to arrive. We’ll be talking about how Greg Little or Evan Moore could be our next big breakout player. And we’ll do this despite the fact that we have said the same about Charlie Frye, William Green, or countless others who have flopped.
Nobody could mistake us for fair-weathered fans. Browns fans have had almost no reason to come out and support the team year after year, yet they have. Not a game has been played that wasn’t a sellout.
But we know there is a good chance that tomorrow will be the high point of the season. We know this because, as much as we don’t want to admit it, the team has little chance of being a contender. They do have an easy schedule, and they do appear to be much improved over last season, but it would take something just short of a miracle for them to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Nonetheless, we will still be giddy like little kids on Christmas morning tomorrow. We will suppress the knowledge that our team isn’t among the best in the league and we will don our beautiful Orange and Brown apparel, kiss our Bernie Kosar poster on the way out the door, and we will support the team like they are a perennial powerhouse. We do this because we are a most loyal fanbase, and we know that when the day comes that the Cleveland Browns are making their first Super Bowl appearance we can say that we have always been there, and it will be glorious.
Until then, we will take our workmen like approach to being a fan. We will continue to show up in the face of disappointment, heartbreak, and incredible bad luck. We will keep getting up off the mat.
And it all starts tomorrow.
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