The following story was published in the ‘Cleveland Plain Dealer \/ cleevland.com’ on January 28, 2024. We hope you enjoy it ….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario — My story starts with these seven crayon drawings. I created them on the floor of our Oakville, Ontario, home just before my 6th birthday. I was watching the 1964 NFL Championship game with my Mom, Dad, Uncles Pat and Colin, and my younger sister Mary Ellen. I remember Dad\u2019s complete joy that day \u2013 his beloved Browns blowing out Baltimore and Johnny Unitas 27-0, and beers all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Dad had always loved football. After high school, he spent one season as an undersized Oakville Black Knights corner linebacker in the semi-pro Ontario Rugby Football Union. Dad told hilarious, self-deprecating tales of trying to tackle legendary Sarnia Imperials\u2019 fullback Cookie Gilchrist, a fast, furious 250-pound battering ram and future Buffalo Bills\u2019 AFL star. \u201cI was a mere speed bump,\u201d said Dad, \u201cCookie inspired dread in everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Browns had been Dad\u2019s team since 1948, the year when he emigrated with his family from London, England, to Oakville. In those All-American Football Conference days, Browns games were sometimes available through Buffalo television, its beams reaching across Niagara into Ontario\u2019s \u201cGolden Horseshoe.\u201d No Cleveland logo, a tough, smart cadre of World War II vets led by \u201cAutomatic\u201d Otto Graham, and late autumn Lake Erie football weather \u2013 three reasons why my Dad loved those early Browns teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the 1964 title game, the Browns were our family\u2019s passion through thick and thin. From the mid-1960s onward, the team\u2019s success sometimes paralleled the ups and downs of our father-son relationship. Dad and I celebrated some great wins together over those 30 years. We roared and cursed when the Browns lost, especially when everything was seemingly trending upwards \u2013 Sipe, Ozzie, Gamblin\u2019 Sam, and \u201cRed Right 88,\u201d \u201cThe Drive,\u201d \u201cThe Fumble\u201d \u2013 every Browns fan knows this three-act tragedy by heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years ago, lifelong Browns backer Condoleezza Rice (whom I have always admired) was asked at the Firestone Country Club, where she was being honored during the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, to reflect on her favorite Browns moment since the franchise returned to Cleveland in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She picked the Browns\u2019 2021 American Football Conference wild-card victory at Pittsburgh, but there was a postscript: \u201cI said to someone,\u201d Rice said, as quoted by the Akron Beacon Journal: \u201c\u2018The problem is when you\u2019re a Browns fan and you go up by 28 points, you start to worry. I remember a friend of mine was going to come over and watch the game and we were already up 21-0 when she showed up. I said, \u2018Let me be very clear, if something goes wrong, you go home right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For my family, annual Cleveland Municipal Stadium trips gave us great stories that became embedded deep into our family lore. Art Modell\u2019s 1995 perfidy (as we saw it) was a simple, unspeakable, and unforgivable treason — we weren\u2019t alone on that one. The Browns\u2019 three-year hiatus had its own uncomfortable irony for Dad and me \u2013 we were not on the best of terms right then. The Browns\u2019 1999 return was soon followed by Dad\u2019s sudden death, much too young at age 64 \u2013 his passing left our personal repair job half-finished. We never got to see a \u201cnew\u201d Browns game together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is funny how time can simultaneously soften and brighten our life histories and how we recall the past. For Mom, it is easy. Whenever the Browns are playing, she gets out an old Brian Sipe trading card and \u201cCuddles,\u201d her stuffed toy mascot purchased at the 1985 home opener. The Boardman High School marching band played at halftime that day \u2013 it was Bernie Kosar\u2019s first NFL game. Dad and I loved how Bernie and the Browns had engineered a supplemental draft pick heist with Buffalo to outsmart every other team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mom emailed me before the Jets game last month to tell me everything was falling into place that Thursday night – \u201cCuddles had a great meal and now she has her game face on,\u201d she wrote. Behavioral experts call this phenomenon \u201canthropomorphizing\u201d — humans projecting their emotions through inanimate objects. Mom laughs \u2013 at 87, these Cleveland relics simply help her keep the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Browns memories are poignant and powerful, old exhilarations mixed with regret. And yet? The sublime December 1964 spirit remains irresistible almost 60 years later \u2013 and my Dad never seems very far away on game day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n