Has any city in the last 40 years been punched in the stomach more than...

You really went to college with a guy from college? That's crazy stuff right there.

 

Everyone always wants to play the replays of The Drive, The Fumble, Red Right 88, The Shot, etc.

And they think those are the most painful for us Cleveland fans. Not even close.

Nineten ninety-seven is the kind of pain about which you write a novel. Two outs away from a World Series. The champagne and plastic sheeting hanging in the locker room.

And worst of all, really believing that the nightmare was over. In all those other situations, there were still steps to go. In 1997, it was OVER. It was a done deal. No one had ever blown a World Series in the ninth. In 100 years, no one had ever done it.

There's the pain of lost opportunity, which is bad. But to lose a certain thing, where you had prepared yourself to let go of that frustration, was stunning.

 

Sorry, guy was from Cleveland.

 

Was it this guy?

 

Was not Bluto, no.
Good guy though. As freshmen, we lived on the same dorm floor, and he was part of the group of guys I shared a house with for the other three years.
He was a crazy Cleveland guy, too. All kinds of Cleveland sports shit all over the place.
We went with his brothers to a Browns game at the old stadium. It was an awful experience. They kept us up to the crack of dawn drinking, and then they woke us up to go tailgate six hours before the game.
In November. It was freezing, and I was sick as a dog with alcohol poisoning and drinking more. Terrible experience.
They made me sit in the Dawg Pound, and some stranger tried to pass me a can of Alpo with a spoon in it.
It was awful.

 

Buck, you have to respect their commitment to the team.

 

Why did the Flats die? It was rocking when I lived in NE Ohio.

 

So it's YOUR fault!

Re: the Kosar cut. Junkie's right. That move, right there, sealed Belichick's fate. Yes, Bernie was fading. Bench him. Whatever. But to cut the face of the franchise, the biggest connection fans had to that team, in the middle of the season like an afterthought showed NO understanding of the relationship between the Browns and their fans. None. And it was a dagger.

 

By the way, with regard to my friend in college.
He had boxes of those stupid Bernie Bar candy bars. Unopend boxes and packs in a foot locker. He was convinced they were going to be worth a lot of money some day.
He left for the weekend once and we broke open the foot locker and at all of the candy bars. He wouldn't speak to anybody for weeks.
It was great.

 

Not only that, but Belichick was already disliked by much of the Cleveland fanbase for, well, being the cockbag that he is.

As abrupt as it was, the Kosar move also came off as much as a massive "fuck you" from Belichick.

I'm not even a Browns fan, but living in NE Ohio during that period would've made ANYONE hate Belichick. He was a supreme dickhead from jump.

 

Jan. 13, 1991
I give him the credit for the Giants beating Chicago.

 

Oh, absolutely. By "sealed his fate" I just meant it proved he really didn't understand the role the team played. But yes, he was hateable from the get-go.