Written by Thomas Moore

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As fans of the Cleveland Browns, we all have our favorite players and memories.

For those of us born after the team’s last NFL championship in 1964, it might be the Kardiac Kids of Brian Sipe, Dave Logan, Reggie Rucker and company. For many, it is the Bernie Kosar teams of the late 1980s that went to three AFC Championship games, but couldn’t bring home a title.

But one era you rarely hear anyone talk about is the six-year stretch of the 1990s that started with Bud Carson’s last year as coach in 1990 and ran through Bill Belichick’s run as head coach from 1991 through 1995.

In many ways, those are the forgotten Browns.

We were reminded of those teams when fellow Cleveland Fan writer River Burns posted a video clip of Eric Metcalf highlights. Watching Metcalf return kicks and dart through defenses at the old Stadium is always a treat, but it also made us realize how little we remember about those teams.

Part of it was because of changes in our personal life – we graduated college in 1992, moved to New Jersey (don’t ask) in 1993 and were married in 1994. Those events occupy memory space we could have otherwise devoted to the Browns.

The other factor was the inevitable turnover of the roster of an aging team.

The release of quarterback Bernie Kosar and the team moving after the 1995 season will always stand out, of course, but how much do you really remember about the years between the team’s last conference championship game appearance and the move?

Carson’s second, and last, year as coach in 1990 was a disaster as the Browns were 3-13. The team was still comfortably familiar, even though Kosar had a statistically poor season, throwing for just 2,562 yards and 10 touchdowns against 15 interceptions.

Kosar was still handing the ball off to Kevin Mack, who had his last productive season with a 4.4 yard per carry average and five touchdowns, and throwing to Webster Slaughter, Reggie Langhorne and Brian Brennan.

Belichick arrived in 1991 and the turnover began as the Browns went 6-10.

That was the final season in Orange and Brown for Slaughter, Langhorne and Brennan. It was also the final year of Kosar as a full-time starter, and he rebounded from a poor season by throwing for 3,487 yards and 18 touchdowns, while only tossing nine interceptions.

Belichick’s arrival also meant that the roster was now sprinkled with players we have no memory of playing in Cleveland. Running back Joe Morris spent the entire season with the team, while Richard Brown made 12 starts at middle linebacker, Harlon Barnett started 10 games at strong safety and James Jones was the full-time starter at one defensive end.

Who?

The 1992 season saw the Browns go 7-9 as Mike Tomczak, Todd Philcox (he we remember, and not in a good way) and Kosar shared the quarterbacking duties, with Kosar only appearing in seven games.

Somehow Mark Bavaro spent the entire year on the roster at tight end, catching 25 passes and two touchdowns, Vince Newsome was the full-time starter at free safety, Everson Walls played 10 games at cornerback and something named Pio Sagapolutele appeared in 14 games at left defensive end.

The Browns were 7-9 again in 1993 and, of course, that was the season it all came crashing down around Belichick with the release of Kosar mid-season.

The quarterback carousel continued to turn for the team as, in addition to Kosar, Vinny Testaverde and Philcox also saw time under center. (All told, six different quarterbacks started a game for the Browns under Belichick, a trend that sadly has continued through every regime in Berea since that time).

And while we certainly remember Michael Dean Perry, Rob Burnett, Anthony Pleasant and Jerry Ball, we’d forgotten those four – along with the mystery man, James Jones – combined for 34.5 of the team’s 48 sacks on the season.

The Browns earned their last playoff win following the 1994 season, but how did Mark Rypien appear in six games – three as a starter – at quarterback for that 11-5 team? And was linebacker Frank Stams really on the roster that season?

Things fell apart for the Browns in 1995 as the team finished off 5-11.

Lorenzo White appeared in 12 games at running back and Frank Hartley suited up for 15 games (13 as starter) at tight end.

In some ways, it should not be surprising that we don’t remember some of these guys. The team’s fall from legitimate Super Bowl contender to mediocre team was hard, and Belichick’s public relations problems and growing pains as a first-time head coach are well known.

Plus, there are plenty of players from the lost decade that opened the new millennium that we have already forgotten about.

And that’s one of the things that make it tough to be a Browns fan at times. It’s not just the continued losing (although that is a large part of it) but that, for many of us, the players and memories that we hold closest are ones that each year become more of a distant memory.

Hopefully the Browns power trio of Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Pat Shurmur can get the team turned in the right direction and soon.

Or else all Browns fans will be left with are memories – some vivid, some fuzzy – flickering across a computer screen.