“At the right time and the right place, they’re capable of anything” — Chinatown, 1974
For more than one Browns fan, watching the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl was just the latest cascading indignity to which we have become inured. Yes, our archrivals are once again the toast of the NFL, and we’ve been burnt in the process.
But it could hardly be worse than having our own owner abscond with the team itself, right?
Nor could it surpass seeing Art Modell dance in celebration with the likes of Ray Lewis following the Super Bowl win that Cleveland has thus far been denied.
And then we witnessed another erstwhile pariah, Bill Belichick, execute his own taciturnaround to glory. In five tumultuous years at the Browns’ helm, he had just one winning season, featuring a playoff win over the Patriots. Now, he’s Hall of Fame material, having taken those Patriots to the pinnacle three times in four years.
Here in 2006, a native Ohioan has become the youngest player to quarterback a team to the Lombardi Trophy. Now, a former Browns linebacker and assistant coach, passed over for the Browns’ top job in 1991, is the league’s longest-tenured head coach, and he has every reason to hold his jutting chin higher, spurting spontaneous salivation with even more arc and distance. Never have Terrible Towels been more in demand.
And meanwhile, where do we stand? When is it the Browns’ turn? Is it realistic to expect a February game in the near future, or can we only hope for the intervals between insults and injuries to increase?
After all, what could possibly happen next? A Lions/Cardinals Super Bowl? A Tim Couch comeback win against the Browns in Cleveland? Butch Davis’ new team spilling its guts to stop a Browns season cold? Braylon Edwards on a crotch rocket?
For sanity’s sake, it’s better to focus on ourselves, our team, our present tense and prospects for progress. So here’s the baseline: the Browns are a 6-10 team just one year removed from total upheaval.
On the bright side, they shut out a 9-7 Miami team and beat the 11-5 Bears. With rookie QB Charlie Frye starting the last five games, the Browns won twice and came within a score of beating two other playoff-bound teams (Jacksonville and Cincinnati).
However, they lost to the horrid Houston Texans. Similarly shameful was letting the Detroit Lions and 2004 flop Jeff Garcia steal a win in Cleveland. Also in the battle for Most Discouraging: the 41-0 home loss to the Steelers on Christmas Eve. Cynics might harken back to the reborn Browns’ 1999 debut, the deflating 43-0 debacle against the same team in the same stadium. Seven seasons since, just two points of difference. Unless your name is Job, it’s not a friendly trend.
But the importance of the 2005 season transcends the won-lost record. The roster turnover was necessarily extreme, and the salary cap was laden with dead money (reflecting past bonuses to offloaded players).
Not only were the general manager, head coach, and offensive and defensive coordinators new to the team, they were also new to the full slate of responsibilities that awaited them. Phil Savage learned a thing or two about office politics. Romeo Crennel suffered some game-day coaching growing pains. Maurice Carthon’s play-calling featured many a rookie mistake. And Todd Grantham’s unit struggled to stop the run and generate a pass rush in the newly-installed 3-4 defense.
It can only be to the positive that so many rough edges were sanded somewhat smoother in a single season, a season which still produced an improved record that met consensus expectations. To an accountant, it’s like bunching all of your deductible expenses into a calendar year, still treading water, and emerging primed to take full advantage of your investments.
OK, that strained analogy left me a little spent, I admit, but my springtime hopes aren’t completely taxed.
And such hope must, by nature, spring from the groundwork that has been laid, as well as the continuing churn of new processes set into motion: the scouting system, the coaching schemes, the conditioning and teaching and unit cohesion that just plain takes time to bear the fruits of victory.
Again, it begs the question: how much time? What can Browns fans realistically expect in 2006, and — for the love of orange and brown — when are we going to the Super Bowl? Is it mentally sound to believe that 2006 could be the season?
No: The division is just too tough.
Yes: We are adding playmakers faster than anyone while the likes of Wheelie Winslow and Braylon Edwards are on the mend.
No: Charlie Frye is the favorite to be the fifth different opening day starting QB in five years, and he’s just too raw to make a run at it all.
Yes: Frye will be 25 on opening day and gained valuable experience on the field in ’05. Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Troy Aikman, Joe Montana, Jim McMahon, and Joe Namath all won Super Bowls at or before age 26.
No: The Browns may be improving, but the climb from 6-10 is simply too steep for one year.
Yes: Forgotten about Belichick already? He took over the Pats in 2000, went 5-11, then won the Super Bowl the next season with a QB younger and less experienced than Frye is today. And our coach knows it too. He was their defensive coordinator.
No: The Browns were last in the league in scoring, last in sacks, 30th in rush defense, and 31st in rushing touchdowns. Who are you kidding?
Yes: There’s rare continuity on the coaching staff and a very positive attitude among the players. With a little luck and fewer injuries, anything can happen for this up-and-coming team.
No: These are the Browns we’re talking about. Winning the Super Bowl would be both an absurdity and a violation of our collective identity.
Yes: Two years ago, the champions had a logo on both sides of their helmets. This year, it’s just on one side. So logically, next year, the champion will have no logo at all, and that means the Browns.
She’s my daughter.
She’s my sister.
She’s my daughter…
Truth is, after a season in which two Jakes missed the Super Bowl by a nose, both statements can be true. It is rational to believe that the Browns could win the next Super Bowl, and that is just crazy talk akin to Carmen Policy’s spin, Gerard Warren’s resolve, and “Quincy Morgan football.”
But Morgan, though injured, will be sporting a Super Bowl ring, at least until it falls through his hands. So will former Browns punter Chris Gardocki, who by all rights should be made to wear it on the middle finger he once extended toward the Steelers.
So while we ought not be confirming reservations to Miami for Super Bowl XLI just yet, it’s in the nature of fanaticism to note that stranger things have happened, that not even presidents are above the law of averages, and that after the Browns have so clearly and repeatedly bottomed out, it’s just as clear that they are now fundamentally on the rise.
There’s the small matter of the talent gap between the Browns and teams like the Steelers, of course. But even that can be deceiving. Strategic acquisitions, good health, excellent coaching, solid teamwork, and a little taste of success and its ensuing confidence can make an average squad appear dominant. Call it a mirage. Call it magic, or mojo, or masterful management.
But whatever it is, it’s not out of the question. It’s not at the end of an endless rainbow. It’s just an outcome, one that starts on purpose, dares to assert itself, and by and by, man to man, play by play, is made manifest on the field.
It’s happened to Browns who have moved on. It’s happened elsewhere to those who are now Browns. It can happen here too. And it will. Soon.
Can there be any reason for a fan to expect less than a playoff appearance for the 2006 Browns? And once there, is there any reason to believe any game is already lost?
If it’s to save the heart from disappointment, it’s way, way too late for that. If it’s to play the contrarian, it’s surely not. If it’s to acknowledge “reality,” then behold it as it occurs and not before. Then it will appear all the more gloriously poetic as it proceeds, score by score, game by game, all in great time.
