Anybody going to the Browns parade?

I know there are a few fellow Browns fans on here.  Anybody planning on attending the 0-16 parade?  Im thinking of making the trek back west to see it myself.  It should be a once in a lifetime chance.*

*He says foolishly optimistically.

I was really hoping they could pull out a win against Pittsburgh today, just to make them regret sitting Big Ben. 

This Lions fan says welcome to the club!  

This thread is full of awesome.

My Browns parade was pretty low key. iPhone, two rolls of TP, exhaust fan in the background.

I'm pooping after the game where my teams second strong won.  Does this count?

I want that T shirt!

I'm reminded of growing up in the 80s, when the Browns were good and the Pats were not.  I don't remember any winless years, but I was at a Browns-Pats game that approached that level of misery.

I'm sitting in the bar yesterday afternoon and wondering out loud to the only other guy there, "What is it with the Browns?  They haven't had a serious team since Jim Brown fer crissakes...  Is it the owner?  The front office?  The owner can't hire a front office?  What?"  

I keep threatening to make a $10 bet in Las Vegas every year for a Superbowl between the Browns and the Lions.   It'll never pay off, but if it DID...

As a Lion's fan, I say welcome to the club.  I believe this officially makes Cleveland and Detroit some sort of "sister cities".

Since we're talking about 0-16, let me again extend my deepest apologies on behalf of the Ford family for not trading Barry Sanders to a team with an offensive line . . . and a coach . . . and a defense . . .

Yes, I'm aware he retired before the 0-16 season, but I'm pretty sure he saw it coming.  I distinctly remember watching the last or second to last game (yes, I was still watching, partly because I'm an idiot and partly out of morbid curiosity).  The stands were pretty much empty.  Then the camera zooms in on this one fan, sitting there in the middle of an empty section with a brown paper bag over his head.  He was holding a sign which reads, "Barry, now we understand."  They've only recently clawed back up to being competitive.  The good news for you Browns fans is that they might be worth watching in, say, 2032.

BTW- I think the NFL should institute a rule that an 0-16 team automatically picks the first two players in the draft, just so no good players have to go to a sucky team alone. 

During my time living in Michigan, I found my brothers in futility with the Lions fans.  Must be something about the Great Lakes.  Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, all bring their fanbase misery.  Green Bay is the only one bucking the trend.

In reply to kazoospec :

Barry Sanders retired in 99. The 0-16 season was 08 wasn't it? Sanders entered the league in 89 and played 10 years before retiring There's no way he would've still been playing long enough to have been able to accurately see the winless season coming. That winless season did get the Lion's a nice draft the following year, and the Browns are in an even better position, having 2 of the top 5 picks in rd1 so maybe the Browns fans have something less terrible coming?

Life long Raiders fan here (and I'm 62, so that's saying something). We know each other's history, so I won't go into it here. Just wanted to add I've always had a real admiration for Browns fans because if you can stay that loyal through tough years like these then you are a truly exceptional group. I have to believe they'll turn the corner some time soon. Hue has a gift for getting the most out of his players, one way or another. Best wishes going forward.

In reply to STM317 :

They have had opportunities for good picks for 18 years. Theyve accomplished nothing with them. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that 2018 will be any different. I was a browns fan growing up. Before they left they were always good enough to keep me interested. They didnt need to win the super bowl, they just needed to be good enough that i felt like they had a chance to win on sunday. Its called being competitive. Thats all i ask. But they havent done that in about 10 years. 

STM317 said:

In reply to kazoospec :

Barry Sanders retired in 99. The 0-16 season was 08 wasn't it? Sanders entered the league in 89 and played 10 years before retiring There's no way he would've still been playing long enough to have been able to accurately see the winless season coming. That winless season did get the Lion's a nice draft the following year, and the Browns are in an even better position, having 2 of the top 5 picks in rd1 so maybe the Browns fans have something less terrible coming?

Yeah, it's more than a stretch to say that Barry saw 0-16 coming, but he did retire in large part because he was tired of the losing.  Which is pretty ironic, since his era was one of the most successful in team history, though the team was certainly declining toward the end of it.  Which, also ironically, led to the hiring of Matt Millen, the architect of 0-16.  

But the Lions just fired a moderately successful coach, so maybe there is hope that things will actually change.  When WCF Sr. owned the team, mediocrity seemed to be the end goal, and was rewarded handsomely.

gearheadmb said:

In reply to STM317 :

They have had opportunities for good picks for 18 years. Theyve accomplished nothing with them. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that 2018 will be any different. I was a browns fan growing up. Before they left they were always good enough to keep me interested. They didnt need to win the super bowl, they just needed to be good enough that i felt like they had a chance to win on sunday. Its called being competitive. Thats all i ask. But they havent done that in about 10 years. 

I just said less terrible. There's no way I'm predicting anything more than that.

Tom_Spangler said:

STM317 said:

In reply to kazoospec :

Barry Sanders retired in 99. The 0-16 season was 08 wasn't it? Sanders entered the league in 89 and played 10 years before retiring There's no way he would've still been playing long enough to have been able to accurately see the winless season coming. That winless season did get the Lion's a nice draft the following year, and the Browns are in an even better position, having 2 of the top 5 picks in rd1 so maybe the Browns fans have something less terrible coming?

Yeah, it's more than a stretch to say that Barry saw 0-16 coming, but he did retire in large part because he was tired of the losing.  Which is pretty ironic, since his era was one of the most successful in team history, though the team was certainly declining toward the end of it.  Which, also ironically, led to the hiring of Matt Millen, the architect of 0-16.  

But the Lions just fired a moderately successful coach, so maybe there is hope that things will actually change.  When WCF Sr. owned the team, mediocrity seemed to be the end goal, and was rewarded handsomely.

I'm not saying he specifically saw 0-16 coming, he's just said he didn't see the losing culture changing anytime soon.  He was right.  It got worse, way worse, before it got better.  

EDIT:  One good thing is it seems he's finally made some sort of peace with the team and has started attending team events again.  

To update:

I did end up going to the parade today.

7 degrees with windchill made it -6. 

I bundled up and went there. Picked up my sister and we hung out and made an afternoon of it.  

It was a fun fun time.  The mood was fun and there was a lot to laugh at in terms of signage and parade floats and t shirts.  Crowd was actually not bad at all, no one got too out of hand.  Truthfully it was fun

But just think, Cleveland gets #1 and #4 draft picks. Hue is staying on. Hope it turns around.

'69 Steelers were 1-13, they beat Detroit for their only win. Chuck Noll was in his first year as coach and some new guy named Bradshaw was introduced. 

Best of luck moving forward.

You want my honest opinion as a former long time season ticket holder?  berkeley everyone that went except Carkid and his sister

I heard a lot of very strong opinions for and against the parade.

For us it was just something interesting to do on a Saturday.  I am not a big sports guy Cleveland or otherwise at all but it was kinda a once in a lifetime thing and free and interesting

Patrick said:

You want my honest opinion as a former long time season ticket holder?  berkeley everyone that went except Carkid and his sister

 

So i didn't miss anything by driving south to partake in volvo misadventures?

For me, the organizer was trying to find a way to be famous for 15 minutes.  He’s a troll twitter account.  His partner in crime is from cincinnati and not even a browns fan.  The entire thing was a reason for drunk tailgating before noon for one more week.  Unfortunately I believe it’s just one more black eye for the espn crew to put in the sad sack red right 88/drive/fumble/modell browns montage they LOVE to play before any story about the team or city