If not for a systematic bias by the NFL schedule-maker, the odds that the Browns would start the regular season at home for each of the nine years of the expansion era are one in 512, or 0.2%.

The weather is one obvious explanation. Looking at the final four regular season games of the year, Cleveland hasn’t hosted more than two since 1956. Since 1999, just 42% of the season’s fourth quarter has been scheduled at home. The need for equal road and away games makes season openers more likely to be at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Plus, the first game of the reborn Browns in 1999 rightly was played here (though not played rightly).

Still, those factors might drive the odds of nine straight home openers down to, say, one in 100. There may be something else happening here, but I don’t know what it is. Do you?

By the way, so far the Browns are 1-7 in their openers. They’re just 2-11 in the 13 home games they’ve played in the last quarter of the season. Don’t know what that means either, but it ain’t good.