Rich Passan has knowingly ignited a fiery fan frenzy on the boards by opining that the Browns should not exist.

I’m oversimplifying, but that’s what it comes down to. You ought to read the full piece yourself, because it’s a mighty strange thesis.

He doesn’t mention the other Browns, another five-decade franchise that moved to Baltimore and changed its name. Yet somehow he thinks it would be better for the Cleveland Browns legacy to be in the same category as the sad-sack St. Louis Browns. That is, a defunct artifact of fading memory, or, in Passan’s own words, “allowed to rest comfortably in peace.”

Nope. I cannot agree. I cannot see myself rooting so passionately for any other team. In fact, like many non-Clevelanders who love the Browns, I cannot see myself caring a whit about them.

When you make a case in opposition to something — in this case, the continuation of the Browns’ cultural heritage — it is inherently weaker if you do not suggest a constructive alternative. And sure enough, Passan does not. To do so here would be laughable. Just try it yourself. For the expansion Cleveland franchise in 1999, find me the nickname with more emotional resonance than “the Browns.” What color combination would have been deemed most aesthetically pleasing to a fan base brought up on seal brown and orange? What design coup would have yielded a logo that would foster deeper bonds of loyalty than the proud minimalism of the Browns helmet?

It may be a conversation starter, but that conversation would be full of ridicule and sardonic laughter. It would be rich indeed. Perhaps that’s why Passan dared not make any such suggestions. Should it all have been left to a marketing guru, a focus group, an Internet poll?

OK, I’m open-minded. Perhaps something new would’ve knocked my socks off. But even then, tell me how the Browns’ legacy is respected by leaving their old records and their players behind, never again to be referenced on occasion of some topical exploit. For example, when the 99-yard Garcia-to-Davis pass set the all-time Browns record last season, it harkened back to the Kosar-to-Slaughter play it surpassed.

The Browns’ tradition has not been sullied by the overall disappointing play of the last six years. Quite the opposite. It has stayed alive and become richer for all its odd contours.