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| That's me, second from the left. With the mustache. |
When a Cleveland team makes the playoffs, you can
always count on the network broadcasting the game to air a "misery montage" of the city's litany of crushing sports defeats. Cleveland fans utterly adore being reminded of the numerous times when their still-beating
hearts were torn from their chests, Mola
Ram style.
The NFL network is keeping up this
fine tradition with the latest installment of its series "A Football Life"
with an episode called “Cleveland ‘95." The one-hour program, airing
tonight at 8, will take a retrospective look at the fiery trainwreck of a
season that was the 1995 Bill Belichick-led Browns.
Curious viewers can get a peek at
the program's trailer (complete with a hideous sweater worn by noted Jon Bon Jovi confidante Belichick) on the NFL
Films website. The show doesn't examine the sordid details behind Art Modell's decision to move the team to Baltimore .
Rather, it focuses on Belichick's staff, a group that would one day become a
who's who of all-star football executives and coaches. Among them are Ozzie
Newsome, GM of the Baltimore Ravens; Thomas Dimitroff, GM of the Atlanta
Falcons; and Nick Saban, head coach at University of Alabama
Of course, there's also the mandatory footage
of The Move that took the team away from Cleveland .
I was at Municipal Stadium on a December day in 1995 when the Browns beat the
Bengals in what would be the last pro football game in Cleveland for four years.
The last thing anybody cared about
that strange day was the game. The atmosphere has been described as
"funereal," and that's as apt an adjective as any. Instead of cheers,
the banging of hammers and the harsh rasp of saws echoed through the stadium as
fans ripped seats from their moorings to throw out on the field or take home as
keepsakes. I still have a six-inch chunk of blue-painted wooden bleacher signed
by Cleveland offensive lineman Steve Everitt,
who gained fan adoration for eternity when he donned a Browns bandanna during
the franchise's first season in Baltimore .
The NFL Films special actually
seems measured, thoughtful chronicle of those dark days. Why anyone would want
to relive that pain is beyond reckoning. Newsome and others interviewed for the
documentary contend that, given time, that Browns' team would have won the
Super Bowl that went to the Ravens in 2000. Ooh, that's nice to hear, isn't it,
Cleveland ?
Well, it's a debatable point for
certain, but not one I want to ponder. Cleveland has a football team, sort of,
one that's set to lose 10-plus games for the 11th time since 1999. Every defeat is a larger reminder of what was
lost in 1995, so there's nothing for fans to do but look forward and leave the
past where it is.
However, "Cleveland '95"
should be appointment viewing for new owner Jimmy Haslam. If Haslam wants to
learn from Modell's mistakes and understand just what this football team means
to generations of Cleveland
fans, he must give the documentary a watch. He just shouldn't expect me to join
him.
**sarcasm