Written by Cris Sykes

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Things couldn't be going any better for the Cavs. Things couldn't be going any worse for the Indians. And the Browns? Is indifference setting in with Cleveland sports fans? These were some of the hot topics this week in the message forums of The Cleveland Fan. Not surprisingly, Tribe fans were in full meltdown this week after the team's historically poor start to the season ... and in this week's Feel Of The Fan, Cris Sykes chronicles that angst.

Relevance? 

In the long history of Cleveland's Professional Sports Teams there has always been one thing to count on.  The Cleveland Browns are relevant.  They have always had the largest core group of fans.  The game of football, in Northeast Ohio has been ingrained in our being, mostly from the time we could first sit down next to Dad and watch a game with him.  Sure, the Indians have made some nice runs to distract us from the Lost Years.  Now the Cavs are giving us reason to pay attention to some basketball.  No matter what, even when the other teams tried to slide in and steal the spotlight, they never really became a part of us like the Browns.  There are some people that would be rolling over in their graves right now if they saw this: 

The Browns becoming 2nd fiddle? 

Read that again.  Call your Dad, or Uncles.  Ask them if they thought those words would ever be able to be spoken, and have any merit.   

Want to know why?  Here is Triple-S's list of Cleveland Brown memories: 

"-The Browns move 
-The Browns come back and get beat down by the Inbred on Nat'l TV 
-The Browns beat the Saints on a Hail Mary 
-The drafting of Tim Couch, Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren, Willy Green 
-Ty Detmer,Tim Couch, Spergon Wynn, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer,Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Bruce Gradkowski all have been starting QB's for us within in the span of ten years. 
-Bottlegate 
-"Run William Run" 
-Holcomb putting up a NFL record only to lose to the Inbred in the playoffs 
-Couch's last hurrah beating the Inbred 33-13 
-The Inbred drafting a Ohio Kid who is some hellish fairweather fat Elway. 
-Losing to the Inbred 9 straight times since '03. 
-The Steelers winning TWO super bowl titles 
-Drafting Joe Thomas and Brady Quinn 
-The 10-6 '07 season 
-Cribbs is a beast. 
-Braylon dropping TD passes. 
-Bizzaro Browns show up and Beat down the Giants on MNF 
-Staph, Staph and more staph 
-Phil: "F.U. got root for Buffalo" 
-Fans chanting "Cowher" after getting BEAT BY THE HOUSTON TEXANS. 
-Hiring another coach off of the Belichick coaching tree. 
-Trading our Pro Bowl tightend away" 

By my count, there are five and one half "good" memories in that list.  Is there more?  Probably, but you would have to work to remember them.

What does StewieG think?  First, that Delonte West is the coolest cat on the block, which I cannot argue with.  Second?  This:

"If the Browns can find a period of sustained success (which is to say, more than the 1 year flash-in-the-pan, or 3 year decent run)...but if they can start fielding competitive teams year-in, and year-out, then you'll see the trend start to reverse. But the Browns haven't been overly relevant since the late 80's. Since 1989, we've won double-digit games twice, and been to the playoffs twice. In 20 years. And yes, granted 3 of those years we didn't exist, and you can give the team a pass for 3 or 4 years since then due to being a poorly-run expansion team. But now we're just poorly run. We're the Arizona Cardinals. We don't draft well, we throw away money at free agents way too often, and we consistently get beat by division opponents. 
 
I'm still a Browns fan. I still root for success. But damn. Getting embarrassed every week is getting old." 

Bill the Butcher explains his view, being a youngster, about the Browns:

"I'm a young'n. I'm 22 years old and didn't really start following the Browns until I was in high school. That's not to say I didn't know what was going on... I remember Kosar, I remember the move, I remember them coming back, and I remember them being terrible ever since (am I being a snotty Cavalier fan? nope. I'm just stating the fact). 
 
Most of you older folks have it different than us younger generation. You actually watched them in the 80s when they were pretty damn good. You know that the team experienced great success. You know what it felt like. You remember that. So maybe in the back of your minds you're thinking you might... just might... be able to experience that again. 
 
My generation = totally different. As we were growing up, the team was (and still is) the definition of pathetic. We have almost nothing to hang on to. We don't know what Browns success feels like. We know that they DID experience it, but we didn't experience it ourselves. So, like some has mentioned before, we like and watch the Browns because our fathers did (my father really didn't, my parents were immigrants, I started watching the Browns because my friends did). But if your fan-ticity just comes from that, it's easier to just throw the team aside when they start letting you down." 

Ouch.  Hope you are listening Randy. 

Other than that, we have our normal banter about who the Browns are going to draft in a couple of weeks: 

KFFL Mock Draft

Who the Browns have brought in so far

Poll: Who you want at #5? 

There is also the some talk about the possibility that Cleveland State Viking Power Forward J'Nathan Bullock is bouncing around getting some looks from the NFL.  It has switched over to more why cant Josh Cribbs be the Head Coach talk (or something like that), but Bullock could be a project the Browns may want to take on.  No way will they draft him, but odds are nobody else will either, so maybe they get him to come aboard as an undrafted free agent and his skills transfer to the tight end position in a couple years. 

Getting Closer

I cannot wait for Monday.  Finally, the Indians will begin the 2009 regular season.  Real baseball is back.  What?  Really?  No way.  It has to still be exhibition play.  Haven't you noticed all the starting pitchers only working a few innings each start.  Oh.  That isn't good. 

I have to be honest.  This is not a fun article to write at times like this.  As low of a blow as the opening to this section may be, it has NOTHING on the Tribe forum.  I am not taking the time to re-read through all of these.  The title of the article is The Feel of "The Fan", and I am guessing you can get a feel for what the vocal minority who have taken over the boards are feeling, just by linking the names of the threads.  I swear, all of these area actual titles of threads five games into the season.  No writer's hyperbole.   

Well... (Missing out on the Bartolo Colon "Sweepstakes")

Who de we trade at the deadline?

Instead of being a fan of the Cleveland Indians...

Does Carl Willis need canned?  (Back-to-back Cy Young winners be damned) 

Those don't even mention the fourteen gajillion^23 posts in the game threads, one of which actually called off the season in the second inning.  Of the first game.  Yikes. 

It is a long season ladies and gentlemen.  No promises.  But if this stretch of games happened in June, I don't think the reaction would be quite the same.  Besides, we are as close to first place as either the Tampa Rays or the Boston Red Sox.  So we got that going for us, which is nice.

Down to the Wire

Three games to go.  The first one today at Quicken Loans Arena against the Boston Celtics.  Win that one, and we are down to only needing a Laker loss in one of their final two games, or one more Cavalier victory to secure the best record in the entire National.  Basketball.  Association.   

The news that the NBA finally signed off on Eric Snow's injury settlement came this week, saving Dan Gilbert about ELEVEN MILLION BONES in luxury tax payments.   

Of course, that means it is time to reflect on the Eric Snow Era.  As only Cleveland Fan can. 

Aoxo1: "Snow caught a lot of shit, but we didn't give him the contract, he was damn sure better than Kevin Ollie, and he always gave his best.  What series was it that he came in a year or two ago and immediately made a few steals after not playing at all? That was a great moment." 

BritishPharaoh: "I always liked the SNOWman. I remember the time when he was taking our first shot of every game for a period made em more often than not as well" 

Davemanddd: "when the cavs first signed eric "yellow" snow, i applauded the move simply as a "depth" signing as he gave the cavs a decent back-up point guard, but as a starter, not so much. given starters minutes, snow was exposed way too much, both offensively and defensively. while he certainly held his own defensively against bigger guards, he was an outright liability against the younger, smaller, quicker point guards and on offense, he was a complete black hole, especially on those weakside dump-offs by lebron that often ended with a brick by snow and a fast break going the other direction. i for one haven't missed him at all and simply wish him well as a tv analyst. maybe someday he might become a coach??? best of luck e-snow. we hardly loved you." 

Which led to a pretty fun battle.  Highly recommend you check that stretch out. 

Anyway.  Best of luck Eric.  Heard you do a pretty decent job on NBA TV.   

Say It Ain't So 

Is Gary Watters leaving CSU?  There have been rumors circulated that Coach Watters have interest in the Xavier job.  As bad as it would suck for the Viking program, it is the exact type of job I could see him taking.  It has the bigger pond feel to it.  However it is small enough that he could still go recruit the hard-nosed kids that have become his trademark, without the troubles of competing within a Power Conference.   

WarAdmiral sums it up best:

"I would hate to see Gary leave CSU. He has put them back on the map, and is recruiting very well. It would be a sad day for me, if he goes. I just love watching his teams play." 

Stu brings up a great question, which has yet to be answered:

            "is Waters interested in Xavier or is Xavier interested in Waters?" 

Congratulations to DrPoove on winning the Second Annual Cleveland Fan Bracket Contest.