It is said that patience is a virtue and if that is so, no fan base is more virtuous then those who cheer on the Cleveland Browns. The annals of sports history tell the story of Cleveland as a bad luck town across all major sports. Yet the deepest fracture in the hearts of Cleveland sports fans is for their beloved Browns.
With news breaking last week that the organization had traded star running back Trent Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts for a first-round pick in next year’s draft, the Dawg Pound, as the most zealous fans are known, felt the fracture further splinter their shared heart.
To know the pain of such a move is to know why Browns fans have been the bearers to more suffering than any other NFL fan-base.
One of the NFL’s original franchises, the Browns were champions from their inception in 1946. In their first 10 years as an organization, the Browns won the league championship seven times. The Browns last title came in 1964, six years before the AFL-NFL merger. Since then a black cloud has hungover the team.
They have made the playoffs 14 times since their final title and have made three AFC Championship games since the merger. All three of those games (in the 1986, 1987, 1989 seasons) were losses handed to them by the Denver Broncos.
If that wasn’t heartache enough, in 1986 and 1987 the Browns lost both games on two of the most memorable and painful moments in NFL history.
In 1986, it was “The Drive”. In which the John Elway-led Broncos marched down the field with a mere five minutes left on the clock to tie the game at 20 – to – 20 with 37 seconds left. A field goal in overtime would send the Broncos to the Super Bowl.
In ’87, it was “The Fumble”. In which Browns’ running back Earnest Byner fumbled the ball on Denver’s two-yard line with just over a minute left in the game. The touchdown would have sent the Browns to their first Super Bowl but the Broncos recovered and again would head to the Super Bowl.
With the Browns so close, the Dawg Pound was rabid with a Super Bowl appearance, to them, in sight. Yet, fate would play a different hand.
In 1995, owner Art Modell agreed to move the franchise to Baltimore after vowing to fans that he would keep the organization in Cleveland. Fans revolted and beckoned not to have their beloved Browns stripped from them. The NFL heard the pleas and announced it was “deactivating” the team and that football would come back to them in 1999. Also, the city would receive a new stadium and keep their illustrious history.
When football resumed in 1999, it did so with hope and happiness. But it was short lived. The team ranked last in both total offense and total defense.
That trend has since remained until today.
From their revival in 1999, the Browns endured five head coaches and four general managers until their highest hopes were set by the announcement that legendary Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Holmgren would take over as team president in 2010.
Holmgren, would last only three years before he left the team in the wake of an ownership change.
On first thought, Holmgren’s brief tenure is viewed primarily as a disappointment with only 14 wins in three years. But taking a minute look over what Holmgren did, in his totality, will cause one to stop and rethink how successful he was.
In his three drafts with the team, Holmgren brought in 16 players on the Browns current roster. Of the 16 players on the roster, 12 are starters quarterback Brandon Weeden, wide receivers Josh Gordon and Greg Little, tight end Jordan Cameron, tackle Mitchell Schwartz, defensive tackle Phil Taylor, linebacker/defensive end Jabaal Sheared, and defensive backs Joe Haden and TJ Ward.
Those players in addition to linemen Joe Thomas and Alex Mack form the nucleus to a very talented and youthful Browns roster. Weeden is the clear exception, however the building blocks that new general manager Mike Lombardi and head coach Rob Chudzinski are working with were placed before them by Holmgren.
Of course, the most glaring name absent from this list is Richardson.
The third overall pick last season, the former Alabama running back was poised to be the Browns figurehead of that nucleus. Yet another page was turned in Cleveland Browns history book by new CEO Joe Banner and Lombardi.
A new scheme implemented by Chudzinski, had no place for the talented, young runner and so he was traded away. For a pick, a promise, a hope, that they can turn their 2014 draft into the draft that they finally get their franchise quarterback and there are plenty of options: Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, Alabama’s AJ McCarron, Georgia’s Aaron Murray.
But the question the Browns faithful are left wondering is, why would you give up on the season after two games? Because virtually that is what the Browns new front office decided on when the trade was made.
Holmgren echoed those sentiments days after the trade.
“How do you make your team better by trading your best player,” said in an interview with Seattle’s KJR-AM radio station. “He’s the best offensive player. He’s a valuable, valuable guy.”
Holmgren would continue. Saying “I struggled with [the trade]. Philosophically, if I’m the coach and someone came in anywhere and did that, I’d say ‘Okay, fire me or I’m going to quit. Or we’re going to both go into the owner and talk about this and then we’ll see who’s standing.”
Initial reaction to a former third-overall pick being traded one year later is that the team getting rid of the player is crazy, but are the Browns crazy or just mad geniuses?
The first week post trade the Browns under the guidance of backup quarterback Brian Hoyer led the Browns to their first week of the season, a close 31-27 victory over the Vikings. As for Richardson, he scored on his first carry for the Colts and helped them to victory.
A win for everybody? Not so fast. That “win” for the Browns, also showed a failed rushing attack. Veteran Willis McGahee, who was signed in the wake of the Richardson trade, led the Browns in rushing with eight carries for nine yards. Cleveland ranks 27th in the league in rushing.
It’s still too early to tell if the trade will truly work for everyone. That answer will come next May when the Browns put that first-round selection to use. For now all there is to do is take a page out of the Dawg Pound’s playbook and wait and see. Next up is the division rival Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday at 1p.m. EST.
