I watched "Believeland" last night.
While I am obviously honor bound to root against the Browns whenever they square off against the Steelers, one can't help but feel for the fans of the franchise. Even the baseball team has found painful ways to lose horrifically at the end. One has to wonder how does a city go so long without winning a championship in any sport while coming so close so often?
And the horrifically painful cherry on top of the agonizing sundae is Lebron James. Born just down the road in Akron Ohio, he was essentially a home-town kid who knew of the heartache and suffering of the community, who knew how hard it was on the fans year after year, and he left them. That was bad enough but "The Decision"? That horrible, media ****, "All about me" show where he made the fans wait until literally the last minute in a shades of Modell move that tore the already broken hearts out of a listless and reeling city.
No, I had no love for Cleveland, but I won't deny I pitied them. I felt for those fans. I felt as though they deserved something. Like the Steeler fans well before my time, they've suffered long enough already. Give them SOMETHING. Lebron James leaving was just too much. It was just the final betrayal in a long line of horrifying slaps in the face for the fans that just couldn't be born any longer. Sure Modell may have had his business reasons that could have even been justified. Maybe he'd given millions and millions to the city and backed the baseball guys in getting a new stadium while the planners sat back and watched the football stadium literally fall apart. Maybe Modell just couldn't take the **** anymore while the city truly believed "Modell won't "REALLY" go.
But in the end, it was the fans who got shafted. It was the fans who lost their team to Baltimore, who had to watch the Ravens lift a trophy just a short while later as THEY got Modell's renovated stadium and a ****** expansion team of rejects from other teams in the league. Sure there was "football" back in Cleveland a few years later, but it was **** ball and everyone knew it. And it's never recovered.
But the fans STILL come. They still show up and back that ****** disfunctional mess. God love em. Johnny ******* Manziel. That kid who had all the pictures taken of he and his friends hitting each other in the dick. You couldn't even NAME half the quarterbacks the Browns have rolled out in the last 5 years. It's a train wreck of "WhatTheFuckery". A Middle School Football coach with serious OCD problems could probably do better. Truly.
But I was ranting about Lebron "The Truth" James. Because he IS the Truth. He's truly all about the Truth of what's wrong with the psyche of Cleveland. I want to pity them. I can say with complete honesty that if The Steelers were by some horrific circumstance injured or otherwise out of the running early for the AFC, there's no other team I'd like to see "Cinderella" than Cleveland. I'd be ECSTATIC for a Cleveland Browns dream season if the Steelers couldn't have it instead. It isn't about mixed loyalties. Of course, I'd prefer the Steelers win every day. But for the Love of God, let the Browns have a chance if the Steelers can't.
Now "The Truth" on the other hand... He ******* left. He not only left, he left you cruel. He left you like an asshat on parade. He wasn't classy, polite and professional about it. He put together a dream-team of athletes who accepted lower contracts at the time so they could compete in sunny Miami and win a championship together. Once that was accomplished they bumped their pay raise. The Chosen One chose himself and he left Cleveland in his rear-view mirror just as surely as Art Modell and the moving vans did a decade or so earlier.
And Cleveland wept. They wailed and gnashed their teeth and they complained that the Gods hated them. (As it surely seemed). Cleveland I suppose had a right to feel some self pity. Things haven't gone so badly for a city ever. Sure cities have had droughts, but no city has come close to winning as Cleveland has only to find new and weird ways to come away the bridesmaid over and over again.
But in their desperation, in their weakened and deplorable state, Cleveland did something I cannot forgive. They welcomed Brutus back into the fold. They brought "The Chosen One" right back to Cleveland. Welcomed Lebron home as though he'd never snuck out in the middle of the night himself. And now, Lebron stands at the brink of a potential second NBA championship loss. Cleveland fans prepare themselves for the inevitable. I suspect they can't even imagine the possibility that the Cavs could win. They certainly don't deserve to. You don't sleep with the enemy and hope for the best. Generally you assume you'll end up with illegitimacy.
It's hard to judge Cleveland fans. Pittsburgh and their fans have so much. I will still be a happy camper the day the Browns lift a Lombardy. I can say that with complete honesty and no shame. (Particularly if they beat the P*triots on the way).
