A little sniffle, but no Browns Fever

01/05/03

John Horton
Plain Dealer Reporter

The reborn Browns make their first visit to the playoffs this afternoon, rumbling with the hated Pittsburgh Steelers in a win-or-go-home matchup. It's the first step of what could become an improbable Super Bowl journey.

All the symptoms are there for a blistering case of Browns Fever in Northeast Ohio.

  So why is this town's football thermometer stuck at 98.6 degrees?

The city seems oddly subdued about today's 1 p.m. game in Pittsburgh, especially considering its infatuations with past playoff runs.

It's as if everybody's still waiting to see if this team is a bona fide contender before making an emotional connection.

Even Big Dawg, the biggest fan of them all, senses the apprehension.

"I don't know if you'd say it's a fever yet," admits John Thompson, the Dawg Pound's longtime bone-waving leader in the Cleveland Browns Stadium bleachers. "But it's bubbling underneath the surface. It's getting there."

Getting there? This from the town that put a face - albeit, a dawg face - next to the definition of football fan?

It all makes perfect sense to Dr. Richard Lustberg, whose Internet shingle hangs at www.psychologyofsports.com. Lustberg says after years of heartbreaking sports finishes, Cleveland fans are in dire need of a couch - and he doesn't mean Tim the broken-legged quarterback.

"There are a lot of emotional scars there, and a lot of fans don't want to go through that again and again and again," Lustberg said.

"What you're seeing is a self-protection mechanism. People don't want to set themselves up for disappointment."

Many fans, like Browns season-ticket holder Jerry Silvestro of Painesville, say they just aren't believers yet. Silvestro said doubts linger about today's game and the team, which slipped into the playoffs with a 9-7 record, the worst of any contender.

These Browns also lost two close games to the Steelers this year and have dropped five in a row to their archrival.

That doesn't exactly inspire stick-out-the-chest confidence.

"It just seems like this team hasn't really caught on in the community like in the past," said Silvestro, 50, a restaurateur who's known as one of the primo tailgaters at Browns games.

Silvestro said he didn't even seek tickets to today's game in Pittsburgh, which he will watch while vacationing in Tampa, Fla.

Similar stories come from other fans. They're all pulling for the team, but - diehards excluded here - they're not ready to unconditionally surrender their hearts to these Browns.

Heck, they aren't even ready to surrender their backs.

Browns gear is moving slower than Tim Couch on his crutches, according to managers at various Dick's Sporting Goods stores.

Team shirts and jerseys are running a distant second in sales to Ohio State merchandise, which flew off the shelf in the days before Friday's national championship game.

And at the Dick's in Elyria, demand actually seemed higher for - get ready for a blind-side hit - Steelers wear, said Mary Ann Huffman, the store's apparel manager.

"There just doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in the Browns right now," Huffman said.

Unless, oddly enough, you're a Browns fan living near Pittsburgh.

The 150 brave souls in the Pittsburgh Browns Backers whipped themselves into a frenzy last week despite living in the toughest place around to wear orange and brown.

Game Day craziness for the group begins at 10 this morning with a pregame tailgate party at the Oregon Bar & Grill, a Browns oasis a few miles from Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

"Everyone is pumped up, and the whole town's buzzing," said Jeff Ptak, who moved to Pittsburgh from North Olmsted five years ago and helped found the Browns Backers chapter in enemy territory. "Browns-Steelers in the playoffs . . . this is the ultimate."

Or to put it in the words of Kevin Gierlach, a Pittsburgh-area resident who oversees an anti-Steelers Web site:

"This is the bread-and-butter of life."

So why does it seem more like dry toast in Cleveland?

Now this isn't to say Browns spirit is dead here. It's just a tad dormant. But there are signs of an awakening.

Fans rocked Browns Stadium during last week's wild win over the Atlanta Falcons, making it sound like the old days at the lakefront Municipal Stadium.

The crowd brought a different attitude to that game, too. Big Dawg said he noticed it.

So did Greg Brinda, a sports talk show host at WKNR AM/850.

A win today, and many believe the Dawgs will be howling.

"The town's just waiting to go crazy again," Brinda said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jhorton@plaind.com, 1-800-962-1167

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.