"It was a typical game of the 2015 season. Optimism curbed by uncertainty, bridled by disappointment, and finally left with a head scratching WTF, as our ongoing question.
With the game fifteen minutes ahead, there were many of the mainstays, the regulars, from freshly turned 85 Jim Leusch, who's Browns fandom encompasses all the success, and Jim, can share stories from the last 70 years that most can only read about, to the newest of fans Tygh Wade not yet one year, yet so full of life, and bringing a new optimism to his parents, Mike and Shelley Wade.
The fans who brave the roads, like Stan Arms making his trek from Woodburn, to others who come from all over the NW to watch the Browns. Now we get the ridicule of fans of every team, and on this day it even crossed over from fans of a local team, but of a different sport.
As the number of Browns fans grew, it appeared a solid but not spectacular crowd upward to 60 fans came to the Blitz Ladd to see the newest addition on the QB carousel, since our return was getting his chance. I for one, expected solid play and favorable results from Austin Davis, yet one by one his receiving options were sent to the locker room, from Barnidge and Benjamin injured and out, so it leaves us with unknowns in smallest of the small WR Darius Jennings to make plays, against perhaps the AFCs best and deepest team, interstate rival the Cincinnati Bengals.
This season also has seen a new situation arise. The appearance of fans each week, fans of other teams showing up, sitting amongst the Browns Backers, and root for their team. So just as any other week a few Bengals fans found their way in between the Browns fans to root on their team.
However this day is not just about the Browns, but a misunderstood fan base. So it was that about 11am they began appearing. Finding their way into a world, very foreign to many of them. Their awkwardness was not only evident in their puzzling looks around the bar, but also the appearance of many in their Alaska Airlines green jerseys.
So I decided to not only buffer the impact of the Timbers invasion, but also make sure that proper respect was given to the Browns Backers members.
It was at that time I decided to stay for the Timber game and see how this group dealt with the end result.
So here on one hand, this storied NFL franchise, fans so craving success, owed by a man who was a minority owner in our biggest rival.
Then on the other hand, a newer franchise in a growing sport, that many still don't share the same enthusiasm for that sport, own
ed by the son of former US Secretary of Treasury. Both men, have ties to making money, one by fueling peoples travel, the other actually printing it.
So here I sit, wishing and praying that one day to experience what I just saw, a Championship for the only team for me that matters, The Cleveland Browns, and celebrate not just for a couple of days, but for the rest of all our lives.
If anything, the Timbers may have shown us how to start a celebration, we'll show them how big it can be".
Go Browns!!!
Kevin Herbst
With the game fifteen minutes ahead, there were many of the mainstays, the regulars, from freshly turned 85 Jim Leusch, who's Browns fandom encompasses all the success, and Jim, can share stories from the last 70 years that most can only read about, to the newest of fans Tygh Wade not yet one year, yet so full of life, and bringing a new optimism to his parents, Mike and Shelley Wade.
The fans who brave the roads, like Stan Arms making his trek from Woodburn, to others who come from all over the NW to watch the Browns. Now we get the ridicule of fans of every team, and on this day it even crossed over from fans of a local team, but of a different sport.
As the number of Browns fans grew, it appeared a solid but not spectacular crowd upward to 60 fans came to the Blitz Ladd to see the newest addition on the QB carousel, since our return was getting his chance. I for one, expected solid play and favorable results from Austin Davis, yet one by one his receiving options were sent to the locker room, from Barnidge and Benjamin injured and out, so it leaves us with unknowns in smallest of the small WR Darius Jennings to make plays, against perhaps the AFCs best and deepest team, interstate rival the Cincinnati Bengals.
This season also has seen a new situation arise. The appearance of fans each week, fans of other teams showing up, sitting amongst the Browns Backers, and root for their team. So just as any other week a few Bengals fans found their way in between the Browns fans to root on their team.
However this day is not just about the Browns, but a misunderstood fan base. So it was that about 11am they began appearing. Finding their way into a world, very foreign to many of them. Their awkwardness was not only evident in their puzzling looks around the bar, but also the appearance of many in their Alaska Airlines green jerseys.
So I decided to not only buffer the impact of the Timbers invasion, but also make sure that proper respect was given to the Browns Backers members.
It was at that time I decided to stay for the Timber game and see how this group dealt with the end result.
So here on one hand, this storied NFL franchise, fans so craving success, owed by a man who was a minority owner in our biggest rival.
Then on the other hand, a newer franchise in a growing sport, that many still don't share the same enthusiasm for that sport, own
ed by the son of former US Secretary of Treasury. Both men, have ties to making money, one by fueling peoples travel, the other actually printing it.
So here I sit, wishing and praying that one day to experience what I just saw, a Championship for the only team for me that matters, The Cleveland Browns, and celebrate not just for a couple of days, but for the rest of all our lives.
If anything, the Timbers may have shown us how to start a celebration, we'll show them how big it can be".
Go Browns!!!
Kevin Herbst