So on Sunday I drove my family from Michigan to New York for a Thanksgiving Week visit to the in-laws. We stopped in Cleveland to break up the trip, visit friends, and watch the game.

After one of the many lamentable plays fouled up by the Browns (I can’t recall which, there were so many), nine-year-old Lydia quipped, “That’s why most of my school is Steelers fans.”

Yep, that’s right. A fourth-grader living and learning in Cleveland proper is surrounded by classmates who actively disfavor the hometown tradition of the orange and brown. Rather, the very epicenter of the Browns fan base — the pool of all future support for this historic civic institution — is blackening with the garb and the gab of the dreaded Pittsburghers.

Really, what else could better illustrate the pitiful plight of the Browns’ franchise?