Looks like I missed this important post while I was out of the country. Yikes! I subscribed to this blog specifically for the Browns Diary. If there's no longer going to be a Browns Diary, then I'm sorry... I'm going to have to cut you, Joe. You do a fantastic job of covering baseball as well, but I can get that coverage elsewhere and, again, that's not why I subscribed here. I have as much time invested in the Browns as you, and this whole fiasco is but a short blip on the whole grand scheme of Browns history and lore. I still think you should just take a deep breath and exhale, but if you're dead set on dumping the Browns then I'm out. KC makes the most sense, by the way, logistically and for household harmony... but the Browns as a symbol (not the current ownership) represent the city of Cleveland and its people. I'm not so sure how much the Chiefs or any one of those other teams really, truly do that. And I'm not really sure how authentic you could actually be writing about your new-found passion for this somewhat random team that you've been rooting for ever since way back in August 2022. Eh... your choice, though.
I grew up a Cowboy fan but quit them in 1986 mainly because of the media's never ending coverage of them. Since when someone ask me who I root for I reply whoever the Cowboy's are playing and that keeps me involved in the games.
If you'd like to continue with the frustration of rooting for a losing team that has doomed itself to at least a couple more years of losing thanks to the hiring of a out-of-touch GM and an embarrassing lack of understanding of how to manage the cap, can I offer you my New York (Football) Giants? We don't have the glorious legacy of losing that the Browns were able to offer you, but things are pretty bleak now and seem certain to remain that way for a little while longer. New blood in the GM's seat and in the coaching ranks, so this is a real buy-low opportunity!
Can he really root for the Bengals against the Browns twice a year + hope they lose every game to help "his team?" I don't think so - especially if Watson isn't even playing.Emotions aren't rational.
After 50 years of rooting for a heartbreak loser, the answer is obvious. The Bills and Bengals are fun to watch but will ultimately also be heartbreaking. The team with the best chance to win for the next few years is the Chiefs, and I think you know this. But you like polls (and lists) and wanted to write about a poll. So you did and got 133 comments so far, and I don't know how many poll votes. (I didn't vote.) Congrats.
I don't mean to sound cynical. I think you're a great writer but personally I am really bored by the polls and the lists. (Sorry.)
You should be a Chiefs fan all the way. Where else are you going to see a great football team slide into mediocrity? Don't get me wrong- I have been a Chiefs fan long before it was cool. It was actually very un-cool for the majority of my life. I am just saying, if your used to heart-break- I think Chiefs will start to feel like home very soon now. Not to worry, we won't be there forever. Real fans know there is always tomorrow (or the next decade anyway).
For my sake, I'd like you to be a Giants fan, so you would write more about them.
For your sake, you should be a Chiefs fan. You write so much about the Royals, and so much about the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame, that I thought you had been living in Kansas City all along.
Meh. I quit the Browns and the NFL when they moved to Baltimore. I’ve slowly come back, even attended a game last year.
I would never tell another person what to do when it comes to spending time, energy, and emotion with any sports team. It’s personal. And none of it really matters. You’re a fan.
But to pick a team and write a notebook about it will not be something I would ever read. I’ve enjoyed the Browns notebook because it was sincere and had history and emotion and was unique.
Another notebook about a random team you decided to pull for, because you dropped the team you spent your entire life attached to (no matter the reasons and there would be plenty when it comes to the Browns) will just be an exercise of content development for the sake of recreating something that made the notebook so enjoyable. It’s inauthentic in my mind.
It’s like pouring milk into a bowl before the cereal. Sure you can do it, no one will stop you, but it’s weird.
Good luck. Pour that milk and then cover it with cereal. Enjoy your stuff overall.
I think Joe is in a no win position. He clearly feels he can no longer write about the Browns because of the Watson deal, which is perfectly understandable. So be it. His life and all that.
If he decides that writing about misery is fun, then the Lions are the obvious choice. But then he attaches himself to their misery, it's no longer his and is unauthentic. If he chooses the Chiefs, because of family, then what misery can he write about? Is it fun to read about winning when you created a notebook all about the opposite?
To your point, it will be difficult not to read it, mostly because I would guess he will still refer to the Browns.
Also, I never even thought of pouring milk into a bowl before cereal? Who does this?
Joe, I grew up in Cleveland as you did, so I consider you a kind of brother. I now live in Israel. I used to appreciate football as a chess game with live, breathing, hurting pieces. I was at the Jim Brown NFL title game in, I think, '64. There will never be another Jim Brown, and there will never be another Professor Frank Ryan. But after years of accumulated evidence of what the game does to destroy the players, who tend to be horrible people anyway, and how pro sports owners are venial carpetbaggers, I dropped it. So should you. The only good thing in the NFL is the ownership of the Green Bay Packers. The community collective madness of the fan base with their non-profit shares in the team simply nukes the big-market/small-market dichotomy. All pro sports should be run that way to prevent franchises from crapping on their fans and moving on to the next suckertown which ponies up for this year's throwaway stadium. God bless your soul, good Joe, and may you find relief.
Here me out, be a Titans fan. Like oh “I’ve lived here and I’ve lived here and my family members are fans here, etc”, doesn’t work for me, choose a team you actually like. For me, I don’t wanna be a fan of huge bandwagon teams. I like the Bengals and all the Cincinnati fans are cool, but when other random people start buying your teams jerseys it’s not fun. Titans have one of the smallest fan bases and could use some committed fans, and I think they are a likable team. Their symbol is cool, their jerseys are pretty cool, and Mike Vrabel (coach of the year) and J-Rob seem like good guys. They’re fun to watch and almost always outperform expectations (it was so awesome to the watch the Titans stomp the Rams week 8 right after Henry got injured; and it’s such a Titans thing to do. They are also not historically very good but have been alright recently. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to justify my new team with where I’ve lived, but just root for the best and most under appreciated team ever: the Tennessee Titans. TITANUP
Do not think Joe will ever rout for a team stolen from another town even if the original town gets a new team. Some of us still remember Earl Campbell and the Houston Oilers fondly, specially their even better uniforms. So Colts, Ravens, Raiders, Cardinals and Titans are out. I would assume Chargers are out as well. Not sure how he feels about the Rams and actually where they belong. Pre 1960s moves would probably be ok.
Before making a final decision , please take a look and consider the Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals. Once referred to as "The Futile Franchise", their fanbase is yearning for some recognition that only you can provide. In their only Super Bowl appearance, they lost in heartbreaking fashion when the Steelers scored with 37 seconds on the clock. You can certainly empathize with that, can you not? They are also a charter member of the NFL going back to 1920. Just think of the stories you can mine from that history. And talk about frustration? Their only NFL championship was 75 years ago, the longest active championship drought of North American sports franchises and in 2012, they became the first NFL franchise to lose 700 games since its inception. While in St. Louis, they played 27 seasons and never hosted a home playoff game. Please throw us a lifeline and select us as your new franchise.
You could just forego football altogether. Once the information about brain injuries emerged, that was the last straw for me. I could no longer watch people wreck their brains and lives into oblivion in good conscience. The other straw being the wholly incompetent and misogynistic way the league deals with cases of domestic abuse. Take your football fandom time and energy and sink it into the Premier League or the NWSL. That’s where I’ve transferred my allegiances, as a former Chiefs fan (who gave up right before the whole Mahomes renaissance.)
Joe, it can't be done. You became a fan when you were a kid, you lived and died with them and have gone this long. Forget it. You can quit intellectually on your team, but not in your heart. You'll be pretending. Just bear it and it will pass and you'll forgive them and then they'll make an exciting run and you'll go with them.
Exactly! I grew up in Ohio. I became a Stabler and Raiders fan in addition to the Browns. They were exciting and really good. I went to a Browns - Raiders game intending to root for the Raiders. A buddy said, "you can't do it." He was right.
I moved to South Florida and became a big Marino/Dolphins fan but couldn't root for them against the Browns.
Keep your powder dry and see what happens. If he's suspended for a year, he may never even play for them and it's just another dumb Browns' move and memory.
Looks like I missed this important post while I was out of the country. Yikes! I subscribed to this blog specifically for the Browns Diary. If there's no longer going to be a Browns Diary, then I'm sorry... I'm going to have to cut you, Joe. You do a fantastic job of covering baseball as well, but I can get that coverage elsewhere and, again, that's not why I subscribed here. I have as much time invested in the Browns as you, and this whole fiasco is but a short blip on the whole grand scheme of Browns history and lore. I still think you should just take a deep breath and exhale, but if you're dead set on dumping the Browns then I'm out. KC makes the most sense, by the way, logistically and for household harmony... but the Browns as a symbol (not the current ownership) represent the city of Cleveland and its people. I'm not so sure how much the Chiefs or any one of those other teams really, truly do that. And I'm not really sure how authentic you could actually be writing about your new-found passion for this somewhat random team that you've been rooting for ever since way back in August 2022. Eh... your choice, though.
I grew up a Cowboy fan but quit them in 1986 mainly because of the media's never ending coverage of them. Since when someone ask me who I root for I reply whoever the Cowboy's are playing and that keeps me involved in the games.
If you'd like to continue with the frustration of rooting for a losing team that has doomed itself to at least a couple more years of losing thanks to the hiring of a out-of-touch GM and an embarrassing lack of understanding of how to manage the cap, can I offer you my New York (Football) Giants? We don't have the glorious legacy of losing that the Browns were able to offer you, but things are pretty bleak now and seem certain to remain that way for a little while longer. New blood in the GM's seat and in the coaching ranks, so this is a real buy-low opportunity!
I think you meant New Jersey Giants, didn't you? 😉
Ten teams have better Super Bowl odds than the Bengals despite making it last year, so I think you can still respectably jump on the bandwagon. Plus, how can you not love these guys https://bengalswire.usatoday.com/2022/06/28/bengals-joe-burrow-jamarr-chase-trade-jabs-social-media/
Can he really root for the Bengals against the Browns twice a year + hope they lose every game to help "his team?" I don't think so - especially if Watson isn't even playing.Emotions aren't rational.
After 50 years of rooting for a heartbreak loser, the answer is obvious. The Bills and Bengals are fun to watch but will ultimately also be heartbreaking. The team with the best chance to win for the next few years is the Chiefs, and I think you know this. But you like polls (and lists) and wanted to write about a poll. So you did and got 133 comments so far, and I don't know how many poll votes. (I didn't vote.) Congrats.
I don't mean to sound cynical. I think you're a great writer but personally I am really bored by the polls and the lists. (Sorry.)
Sounds like choosing by being a front runner.
I agree about the polls and lists. They're a waste of a good writer.
Have you considered the possibility that DeShaun Watson could redeem himself?
Wait, let me rephrase.
Is it possible for DeShaun Watson to redeem himself?
You should be a Chiefs fan all the way. Where else are you going to see a great football team slide into mediocrity? Don't get me wrong- I have been a Chiefs fan long before it was cool. It was actually very un-cool for the majority of my life. I am just saying, if your used to heart-break- I think Chiefs will start to feel like home very soon now. Not to worry, we won't be there forever. Real fans know there is always tomorrow (or the next decade anyway).
I'm a Giants fan. Because my father was one.
For my sake, I'd like you to be a Giants fan, so you would write more about them.
For your sake, you should be a Chiefs fan. You write so much about the Royals, and so much about the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame, that I thought you had been living in Kansas City all along.
Enough people talk about the Giants (and Jets) no matter how bad they are.
Meh. I quit the Browns and the NFL when they moved to Baltimore. I’ve slowly come back, even attended a game last year.
I would never tell another person what to do when it comes to spending time, energy, and emotion with any sports team. It’s personal. And none of it really matters. You’re a fan.
But to pick a team and write a notebook about it will not be something I would ever read. I’ve enjoyed the Browns notebook because it was sincere and had history and emotion and was unique.
Another notebook about a random team you decided to pull for, because you dropped the team you spent your entire life attached to (no matter the reasons and there would be plenty when it comes to the Browns) will just be an exercise of content development for the sake of recreating something that made the notebook so enjoyable. It’s inauthentic in my mind.
It’s like pouring milk into a bowl before the cereal. Sure you can do it, no one will stop you, but it’s weird.
Good luck. Pour that milk and then cover it with cereal. Enjoy your stuff overall.
That was really well said, and to pull in the milk analogy, wow. Personally, I find it hard to not read most of what Joe writes.
Thanks. I feel the same.
I think Joe is in a no win position. He clearly feels he can no longer write about the Browns because of the Watson deal, which is perfectly understandable. So be it. His life and all that.
If he decides that writing about misery is fun, then the Lions are the obvious choice. But then he attaches himself to their misery, it's no longer his and is unauthentic. If he chooses the Chiefs, because of family, then what misery can he write about? Is it fun to read about winning when you created a notebook all about the opposite?
To your point, it will be difficult not to read it, mostly because I would guess he will still refer to the Browns.
Also, I never even thought of pouring milk into a bowl before cereal? Who does this?
Joe, I grew up in Cleveland as you did, so I consider you a kind of brother. I now live in Israel. I used to appreciate football as a chess game with live, breathing, hurting pieces. I was at the Jim Brown NFL title game in, I think, '64. There will never be another Jim Brown, and there will never be another Professor Frank Ryan. But after years of accumulated evidence of what the game does to destroy the players, who tend to be horrible people anyway, and how pro sports owners are venial carpetbaggers, I dropped it. So should you. The only good thing in the NFL is the ownership of the Green Bay Packers. The community collective madness of the fan base with their non-profit shares in the team simply nukes the big-market/small-market dichotomy. All pro sports should be run that way to prevent franchises from crapping on their fans and moving on to the next suckertown which ponies up for this year's throwaway stadium. God bless your soul, good Joe, and may you find relief.
I knew it was Brooks
Here me out, be a Titans fan. Like oh “I’ve lived here and I’ve lived here and my family members are fans here, etc”, doesn’t work for me, choose a team you actually like. For me, I don’t wanna be a fan of huge bandwagon teams. I like the Bengals and all the Cincinnati fans are cool, but when other random people start buying your teams jerseys it’s not fun. Titans have one of the smallest fan bases and could use some committed fans, and I think they are a likable team. Their symbol is cool, their jerseys are pretty cool, and Mike Vrabel (coach of the year) and J-Rob seem like good guys. They’re fun to watch and almost always outperform expectations (it was so awesome to the watch the Titans stomp the Rams week 8 right after Henry got injured; and it’s such a Titans thing to do. They are also not historically very good but have been alright recently. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to justify my new team with where I’ve lived, but just root for the best and most under appreciated team ever: the Tennessee Titans. TITANUP
Do not think Joe will ever rout for a team stolen from another town even if the original town gets a new team. Some of us still remember Earl Campbell and the Houston Oilers fondly, specially their even better uniforms. So Colts, Ravens, Raiders, Cardinals and Titans are out. I would assume Chargers are out as well. Not sure how he feels about the Rams and actually where they belong. Pre 1960s moves would probably be ok.
Before making a final decision , please take a look and consider the Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals. Once referred to as "The Futile Franchise", their fanbase is yearning for some recognition that only you can provide. In their only Super Bowl appearance, they lost in heartbreaking fashion when the Steelers scored with 37 seconds on the clock. You can certainly empathize with that, can you not? They are also a charter member of the NFL going back to 1920. Just think of the stories you can mine from that history. And talk about frustration? Their only NFL championship was 75 years ago, the longest active championship drought of North American sports franchises and in 2012, they became the first NFL franchise to lose 700 games since its inception. While in St. Louis, they played 27 seasons and never hosted a home playoff game. Please throw us a lifeline and select us as your new franchise.
One word Joe: NASCAR! Sunday, you live in NASCAR country, the drivers are almost all good guys.
You could just forego football altogether. Once the information about brain injuries emerged, that was the last straw for me. I could no longer watch people wreck their brains and lives into oblivion in good conscience. The other straw being the wholly incompetent and misogynistic way the league deals with cases of domestic abuse. Take your football fandom time and energy and sink it into the Premier League or the NWSL. That’s where I’ve transferred my allegiances, as a former Chiefs fan (who gave up right before the whole Mahomes renaissance.)
Joe, it can't be done. You became a fan when you were a kid, you lived and died with them and have gone this long. Forget it. You can quit intellectually on your team, but not in your heart. You'll be pretending. Just bear it and it will pass and you'll forgive them and then they'll make an exciting run and you'll go with them.
Exactly! I grew up in Ohio. I became a Stabler and Raiders fan in addition to the Browns. They were exciting and really good. I went to a Browns - Raiders game intending to root for the Raiders. A buddy said, "you can't do it." He was right.
I moved to South Florida and became a big Marino/Dolphins fan but couldn't root for them against the Browns.
Keep your powder dry and see what happens. If he's suspended for a year, he may never even play for them and it's just another dumb Browns' move and memory.
When the games start, the heart wins in sports.