Is Baker Mayfield the nightmare of the last 20 years of the Browns?

The Cleveland Brown are the "it" team of the NFL this pre-season. They have a young dynamic quarterback at Baker Mayfield. They have a wide star receiver at Odell Beckham Jr. They have a new coach, a new plan and a renewed hope … and this time, that hope seems justified. So how did the Browns go from a league joke to a future model franchise? welcome to Trust the week of the Browns processwhen we go to explore how Believeland has reached this point and what will follow.

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September 16, 2007

Quarterback # 10

If you want to determine when the title "Quarterback for the Cleveland Browns" has shifted from singing to joking, it's best to start by talking to Tim Brokaw. One afternoon in September 2007, Brokaw, who runs an advertising agency in downtown Cleveland, borrowed a Brown jersey from a friend for Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Then, using only duct tape and a Sharpie, he created perhaps the most effective concept of his career.

At that time, the Browns had a 0-1 record, having lost their first game of the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This final 34-7 was not a shock, given that the Browns had been defeating the Steelers only once in the past seven years. Derek Anderson, a young quarterback, was to take over after the departure of the previous week's player, Charlie Frye, who played college football at Akron University, had been traded to Seattle for a sixth-round pick five days earlier. Anderson had lost the three games he had started with the Browns in 2006; against Tampa Bay, he scored 10 out of 27 with four interceptions.

In other words, the situation seemed particularly bleak in Cleveland, a city that has long channeled its inferiority complex through sports, especially its football team. The Browns returned to the NFL as an expansion franchise in 1999, and since then, the quarter-team losses have accumulated as Spinal Tap drummers. Anderson became the 10th starting quarterback of an organization that had known only one victorious season since its owner, Art Modell, had flown to Baltimore in 1995, leaving behind the wreckage. from a ruined stadium on Lake Erie (which had since been replaced) and deflated. what was left of the ego of the city. The Browns were already in their fourth head coach (Romeo Crennel) and their seventh offensive coordinator (Rob Chudzinski) since their rebirth.

Brokaw's jersey was supposed to reflect the anguish of this perpetual kitten. On it, he crossed out the original name on the back of no. Jersey 2 – that of Tim Couch, no. In the draft of 1999, he had chosen nine adhesive tapes. He wrote the family name of each Browns neighborhood that followed him. They dragged on the right side as a biblical verse:

Sofa
Detmer
Wynn
Pederson
Holcomb
Garcia
McCown
Dilfer
Frye
Anderson

All names were dropped, with the exception of Anderson, who racked up 328 passing yards with five touchdowns in the 51-45 win over the Bengals.

"I was wearing it at the tailgate and the attention I was attracting was almost a bit too much be careful, said Brokaw. "It was in the flip-phone era, and I take pictures with people while I go to the bathroom. That was early social media, so these images started circulating via email, mostly at the local level. It was just a quick glimpse of the suffering. "

According to Brokaw, at that time, Anderson seemed to be another temporary answer to the larger existential question: What does this team even try to be? The Browns finished the season with a 10-6 record, barely missing the playoffs. But the fans and writers who covered the team (and perhaps even the front office itself) feared that no permanent solution would be made. Anderson was not a quarter of franchise and everyone knew it. None of the other QBs that preceded him, including Couch, who had been beaten and fired several times until the Brown released him in 2004.

The feeling among the fans of the Browns was well known: their city was once again bewitched. It was the same type of curse that caused over 50 years of drought in the championship for their baseball team, which led Michael Jordan to bury his best chance of winning an NBA title in the 1980s, which had swept the Cavaliers. at the NBA Finals of the previous summer, which caused the grief of Red Right 88 and The Fumble for the Browns of the 1980s. And now, he had apparently focused his anger on the quarters of this new franchise .

Brokaw decided that he might have hit the nerve center of the city too close to literally carry the burden on his back. He could not stand the shirt anymore. He then covered her with a model in the window of her agency, assuming it would have become an outmoded curiosity when the Browns would eventually fall on their QB franchise a year or two later.

Instead, says Brokaw, "we had the impression marmot day for 20 years. Whenever the Browns signed or wrote a new quarter, the local media would flock to his window to film the new scribbled name on the jersey. People began to wonder if the shirt itself was responsible for the curse. A local sports radio host threatened to fight Brokaw. Someone threw a rock through the window.

In 2016, after the Cavaliers won the NBA title and put an end to the city's 50-year-long drought, Brokaw felt he had reason to pull off the jersey. But the curse – or whatever – persisted, even though the jersey lay in a cardboard box in the Brokaw reserve: the Browns were 0 to 16 in 2017. Finally, in April 2018, the franchise was most unfortunate in the recent history of professional sports Baker Reagan Mayfield of the University of Oklahoma, the winning quarterback of the Heisman Trophy, who seemed to have the ability to turn the page and bring the Brown into the future . It took twenty years to get here. Brokaw always has the spirit in a boil.

"It's crazy," said Brokaw. "There is … you know … a feeling of … you know … uh … trust?"

September 19, 1999

Quarterback # 2

"My God," says Marla Ridenour, as we discuss Brokaw's jersey and the many imitations of T-shirts he inspired. "I can not believe I have experienced all of this."

In the 1980s, Ridenour started covering the Browns of the Dayton Daily News. Three decades later, she still covers the team, now as a chronicler for the Akron Beacon Journal. She watched the Browns barely miss Super Bowls in the 1980s; she watched them disappear in Baltimore in the 1990s; and she watched them gather and wade for two decades. The initial iteration of the Browns would break your heart at certain key moments, she says, but the recent ineptitude of the franchise is a development of the era of fulfillment.

Ridenour could feel that something was wrong in this version of the Browns from the beginning. They could not do anything about it, becoming the manifestation of the worst instincts of the NFL, a short-lived franchise full of demagogic characters that did not stop looking for ways to designate or save potential saviors. The answer to each unsuccessful season was to give up much of the alignment and start from scratch, fire assistants or head coaches or general managers, to bring in another quarter that could may be provide a semblance of stability to the position.

By the time Mayfield started his first game in 2018, the Browns had 29 more quarterbacks, making it perhaps the most prolific race to ignominy at a single position in a team. history of sport. "There are so many egomaniacs in the NFL who want to do it in their own way," said Ridenour. "That's part of the Browns problem. It's not just that they chose the wrong types – they did not know how to feed them or how to surround them with the right people. They did not commit the appropriate offense. It was all a group of failure. "

Full Disclosure: Marla and I worked together at the Tag Log In the late 1990s and in the fall of 1998, I traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, to watch and talk to the man who would likely become the Browns' number. I take the next spring. I thought Tim Couch was the real deal, as was Ridenour, who insists that Couch is still the best quarterback of the Browns of the expansion period (at least until Mayfield proves he's real ). I remember people telling me at the time that he was coming watched as a quarter-frank: tall, handsome, charismatic and prepared to work by his father since elementary school.

Couch reminded people Peyton Manning, who was gone no. 1 to the Colts earlier this year. So the Browns took him in 1999, and it looks like his freshman head coach, Chris Palmer, and his offensive spirit, as well as the brain trust that included the chief executive, Dwight Clark, and the president of the team, Carmen Policy (which had helped perpetuate the 49 dynasty in the 1980s and 1990s), Couch would bridge the gap between expansion and maturity.

"I mean, I was optimistic," says Jonathan Knight, a fan of the Browns and author of 10 books on sports in Cleveland. "I was as drunk as everyone else. It was less about reality than "We deserve it, because of what we went through." We sort of forgot that we were in Cleveland. "

The Browns originally planned to give Couch time to acclimatize to a complex NFL scheme after playing the Kentucky air offensive. They hired veteran Ty Detmer as a substitute, but after a 43-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first week, the Browns – for the first time in a myriad of times – threw their plans through the window. On September 19, 1999, Couch started against the Titans of Tennessee. The Browns lost 26-9. Couch suffered more than 100 bags in the next two seasons; it's broken an inch during practice; the Browns went 5-27 between 1999 and 2000; and Palmer was fired and replaced by Butch Davis. Couch changed his grip on the ball, then injured his shoulder. In 2002, fans had excited him, cheering his wounds and almost crying him.

At this point, the Browns were ready to try anything. In 2000, they made a sixth-round pick against a college quarterback named Spergon Wynn, who started a game and who is best known for being the last quarter chosen in that class before Tom Brady. But most of all, as Couch's body and psyche deteriorated, the Browns began to change their teambuilding philosophy.

"Maybe they were scared by the high selection of recruits and that they instead started taking it from the quarter veterans, instead," Ridenour said. "But then, I feel like a lot of these guys were beaten by the blow the Browns had made them.

January 5, 2003

Quarterback # 5

Sixteen years later, when he returns home after taking his daughter to Tennessee, Kelly Holcomb wonders how the situation would have been different if the third and 12th pass he had pitched to Dennis Northcutt did not bounced off the hands of his catcher. Maybe if the Browns had made a first try and were not victims of a furious Steelers' return during this great card game from the AFC, its trajectory and that of the franchise would have taken different paths.

But it is also possible that nothing has changed at all. Even in 2003, the Browns had succumbed so completely to their own impatience that their failure had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. "There was no stability at the quarterback position," Holcomb said. "Or in this organization whatsoever."

Holcomb arrived in Cleveland prior to the 2001 season, when he was 28 years old and is a Middle Tennessee State rider. He had 73 total passes in the NFL, all with the Colts in 1997, with one touchdown and eight interceptions. The assumption around Cleveland was that he would support Couch, which he did during his first season. But in 2003, the Browns' offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians, saw Something at Holcomb, and while Couch was in the midst of wounds and pressure, Holcomb intervened.

Despite Cleveland's dysfunction in the field, Holcomb loved the feeling within the organization: the way the players shined, the shoes shone, had access to a massage therapist and had someone who started their cars in winter. He also liked the fans who treated him as well as any other NFL player. At the same time Holcomb knew that Brown's internal policy was precarious. In October 2002, Al Lerner, the original owner of the team, died and passed the team to his son, Randy, whom some supporters considered as primarily interested in his European football club. And when Cleveland lost the playoff game despite Holcomb's 400-yard win, Butch Davis, who was both coach and general manager in 2002, decided to reshuffle the lineup again.

"After this game in Pittsburgh – which is still a bitter affair for me – a lot of staff moves were made, and I do not think the guys who went there were in agreement with some of those moves" said Holcomb. "It's a bit sad when you think about it. It's sad for me. We had parts in place and we did not hold them together. "

In the summer of 2003, Ridenour traveled to Tennessee to visit Holcomb at home. When she got there, she said it was almost as if Holcomb – who ended up getting ahead of Couch for the job during the pre-season – could not imagine that he was about to become a QB of the NFL. "I can not believe you're here," he repeated, and that's when Ridenour got the impression that this quarterback – as disarming as he was – might not last. Holcomb started eight games in 2003, Couch taking the other eight. The Browns went 5-11. In 2004, Holcomb started two games, Luke McCown had four, and mate Jeff Garcia, 34, started ten. The Browns scored 4-12 and Butch Davis resigned in mid-season.

Holcomb left for Buffalo this season, briefly traveled to Philadelphia and played a few matches in Minnesota. He retired in 2008 without participating in another playoff game. He is still friends with Couch, even after spending those years competing for the same job. This may be partly because they both acknowledge that they have received a bad hand.

"I do not know if they had our backs," Holcomb said of the franchise's makers. "I think it's easy for a head coach, when he has two guys who can play, I think they hold your head. Unconsciously, when you start to worry about it, you start thinking deep in your mind, "Hey, if I'm wrong, they'll get him in." And you can not play that way. "

May 8, 2014

Quarterback # 21

The scheme was as follows: the Browns tried, failed, started again, then tried again, failed again and started again. No quarter has started the 16 games of the season in Cleveland since Couch in 2001, but if all goes as planned this year, Mayfield should break this cycle. The Browns are their ninth coach and seventh general manager since Butch Davis, and their third owner of the era of expansion.

While all this was going on, Tim Brokaw's jersey was starting to follow the names almost to the ground. There is now a lost generation of Browns fans who grew up seeing and assuming the worst. In a rusty region long animated by his passion for football, the Browns have become a hopeless cause. And their Homeric Odyssey to find a franchise quarterback was the supreme symbol of this futility.

The low moment? Make your choice. Maybe Jake Delhomme will start four games of one more season lost in 2010; it may be the wilderness of Brandon Weeden's 2012 season, which began with the fact that he literally found himself trapped under the American flag. There was the three-game reign of Ken Dorsey, who completed 47% of his passes without any touchdown and seven interceptions in 2008; Jeff Garcia scored 8 of 27 times with three interceptions in a defeat against the Cowboys in 2004.

"Do you know when you're in the middle of shit right now and you do not even realize what that really is?" Said Jarid Watson, host of a sports podcast in Cleveland with Andy Billman, director of 30 ESPN for 30 documentaries Believeland. "You just kept going well, and then? Who next? Who is the fourth of the third string? Because this guy will start with week 15. "

"I hit the wall with Delhomme," says Billman. "I really had this feeling," We're screwed and we have nowhere to go. "

It's quite remarkable, however, whenever the Browns seemed to have lost their bottom, they found someone else that would provide a glimmer of hope to their fans. Ridenour literally groaned when the Browns chose the local Charlie Frye product in 2005, even though she realized her chances of becoming a quarterback were slim. Next are Brady Quinn (taken with the 22nd pick) in 2007, Colt McCoy (a third round pick) in 2010, Brandon Weeden (also the 22nd pick) in 2012, Cody Kessler (another third round) in 2016 and DeShone. Kizer (a second round) in 2017. These choices were the small rays of light that Brown fans needed to continue. They allowed fans to subsist on an irrational belief that things had to turn sometimes.

"I did it with Kizer," says Watson. "I did it with Quinn. I did it with McCoy. I did it with Charlie rub Frye. "

"But I'll tell you the best facial plant," Billman said, and even before he says the name, I already know where he's going. I know it because literally, all the people I talked to mentioned the name. May 8, 2014. Cleveland has once again the 22nd unfortunate choice of the first round. And the Browns chose Johnny Manziel, a misplaced spirit who was not ready to look like a franchise quarterback, who reportedly drunk for the practice and who could or could not have been caught in part because of the fact. a homeless man in Cleveland had suggested The owner of the Browns, Jimmy Haslam, who bought the team to the Lerner family in 2012.

"Manziel was the low point," says Ridenour. "It was a disaster from the start. You can find that [alleged] The patriotic screening report that was leaked about it and all was true. The Browns were not doing their homework. All this was there. What attracts me is the complete failure to recognize it.

Perhaps, says Knight, if the Browns had chosen to cultivate Brian Hoyer – himself from Cleveland – rather than being dazzled by Manziel's short-lived potential, they would at least have been OK, you know. That's what the franchise had reached in mid-2010: the bar was so low that a quarterback slightly above average, capable of producing a season 8-8 or 9-7, felt like this. that Cleveland could ask for more.

"You are so used to misery and total incompetence that if you see something worth repairing, you say," OK, we can work with that, "says Knight." You know What to say about how in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king? This phrase has never been applied anywhere better than the Cleveland Brown caucus.

September 20, 2018

Quarterback # 30

You can forgive the Browns fans if they are not sure what they are supposed to feel now. The team has a really dynamic quarterback, a colorful and (seemingly) competent head coach, and a general manager who seems to know exactly what he's doing. It's like a strange dream. Some of the people I've talked to, like Andy Billman, are optimistic all the time. "It's going to be a fucking faceplant if it does not work," he says. "But I think 11 or 12 wins are at stake. I'm in it. I am totally addicted. "

Others are naturally cautious, not knowing if they can trust their own buoyancy. "I think that we [in the media] Look at their weaknesses and think that this could be the fatal flaw, "says Ridenour. "We are jaded. You do not want to take this train to the Super Bowl before the time is up. "

Do not get me wrong: all the people I've talked to are convinced that Baker Mayfield is a totally different breed of quarter than the 29 that had preceded it since 1999. That became evident last September when, from his first professional appearance, he led the Browns to a bragging victory over the Jets, ended the franchise's 19-game losing streak and even allowed for a quick scrapping in the process. Mayfield exuded some kind of juvenile fanfaron that Brown fans had waited for decades to kiss; it was as if, with a win, he was helping his fans get rid of years of self-sacrifice. And that feeling only grew during the second half of the season and until the end of the season, when Mayfield, a mustache, bit into a can of beer and pulled it out at a match against the Indians, which is perhaps the most key thing of all the quarterbacks.

But there are still things like luck to consider, and the Browns have not really prospered in this region in their history. "A lot of things can go wrong," says Knight. "It's good, I'm happy for everyone, last year was a really fun year, but we've been here before."

Nevertheless, Cleveland is not in the same place as it was 20 years ago, whether economically (although deep problems remain) or emotionally. The Cavaliers who won a title relieved the sisyphe burden that the city seemed to impose. It's still a football town first and foremost, but maybe it's more willing believe that in the past. And Mayfield's presence is an important part of it.

The manikin in Brokaw's advertising storefront now wears a Mayfield jersey. Brokaw says that he has no idea if Mayfield is even aware of his predecessor, who is now in this reserve, in a container called "Box of Sadness." If the jersey never goes out of the box, it becomes the Cleveland equivalent of the Ark of the Covenant – Brokaw is totally cool with that. Maybe, he thinks, the professional football Hall of Fame will want one day. Or maybe Mayfield will want to burn him if he continues to lead Cleveland to a Super Bowl victory.

Last Christmas, Brokaw sent greeting cards from the company. On the front, a message recognized the horrible and heartbreaking year she had known in America. But, he said, there is one thing we can all agree on. Inside were the before and after pictures of the model: the old jersey with family names next to his replacement, who wore only one.

The legend: We do not need tape anymore.

Michael Weinreb is an independent writer and author of four books.