Football Talk of the Town in Cleveland

The greatest comeback in NFL history is nearly complete.

The Cleveland Browns are just days from their rebirth following an excruciating three-year absence for their devoted fans, whose football passion helped return the team.

And when the expansion Browns take the field in their traditional, plain orange helmets and all-white uniforms for Monday night’s Hall of Fame Game against the Dallas Cowboys in Canton, Ohio, one of the league’s signature cities will officially have its beloved team back.

And its heart.

“Yeah, baby,” said cornerback Antonio Langham, one of the three new Browns who also played for the team taken to Baltimore by former owner Art Modell in February 1996. “It’s Cleveland football again. It’s time to start bleeding orange and brown again.”

While the rest of the world has been counting down the days until the new millennium, Cleveland has been ticking off the hours and seconds to the moment the new Browns kick off.

“This is what Cleveland has been waiting for,” Langham said. “Get ready everybody.”

Get ready, NFL. The Dawg Pound is about to be unleashed.

With the possible exception of Green Bay, nowhere is a city’s makeup more defined by football than in Cleveland. Football is more than a sport or passing interest.

“It’s who we are,” electrician Armand Monday said after wrapping up one of his final days working at the new, 72,000-seat, state-of-the-art Cleveland Browns Stadium, constructed on the shores of Lake Erie over the site of the old Municipal Stadium.

“Football has always been here, that’s what made it so tough when the Browns left,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t know how much you’ll miss something until it’s gone.”

Long before comedian Drew Carey was fitted for his first pair of black glasses in suburban Brooklyn, Ohio, and decades ahead of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame becoming the city’s top tourist attraction, the Browns owned Cleveland.

Browns Town, they called it.

Paul Brown’s teams of the 1940s dominated the old All-American Football Conference, winning four straight titles, and when the storied coach brought the Browns into the NFL in 1950, they promptly won the championship and redefined the game with a wide-open passing attack.

The Browns played in 10 straight championship games, and their success carried into the ‘60s when Jim Brown shredded defenses as perhaps the greatest running back in history.

Cleveland’s teams of the ‘70s and ‘80s never made it to the Super Bowl. But their close calls--”Red Right 88” (Brian Sipe’s end-zone interception against Oakland in 1981), The Drive (John Elway’s 98-yarder in 1987), and The Fumble (Ernest Byner’s at the goal line in Denver in 1988)--epitomized the struggling city, which became a national joke when its river caught fire.

Yet despite five losing seasons in six years to start the 90s, no one was prepared for Nov. 6, 1995. After failing to convince Cleveland officials to build him a new stadium, Modell announced he was leaving.

“It was devastating,” said Bob Wilson, a real-estate broker and season-ticket holder. “He ripped our hearts out.”

Grown men wept openly while watching Modell’s news conference from Baltimore a few days later. And all of Cleveland, which had undergone a remarkable downtown renaissance, felt crushed and betrayed.

Three thousand miles away, 49ers president Carmen Policy thought he knew how Browns fans felt. But Policy, an Ohio native who left his job in San Francisco to run the new Browns, said it wasn’t until he came to Cleveland that he began to understand the depth of the city’s pain.

“It was as though they’d been cheated,” Policy said. “People referred to it like a death in the family. Well, it wasn’t like it was just a death in the family. It was like a family member had been murdered. That’s the feeling. It wasn’t just a loss, it was a cruel and unfair loss.”

Sundays that once revolved around Browns games weren’t fun anymore.

“I didn’t watch football for three years,” Dale Gailbraith of Indianapolis said recently after driving six hours to see the new Browns hold their first summer training camp practice. “It was a long, long three years.”

Imagine New York without the Yankees. Montreal without the Canadiens. Notre Dame without the Fighting Irish.

“I remember saying to my father, those people have to be hurting,” Browns coach Chris Palmer said. “I grew up rooting for the New York Giants, and it took me a year to get over them moving across the river to play in Jersey.”

Once the shock wore off, Clevelanders wiped away their tears and began to fight. They overwhelmed NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s office with faxes and letters demanding a new franchise. Led by Mayor Michael R. White and with the help of former Browns players such as Bernie Kosar, Lou Groza and Paul Warfield, Cleveland mounted a “Save Our Browns” campaign.

The unprecedented movement convinced the NFL to make a deal with Cleveland, agreeing to allow the city to keep its nickname, colors and history, and promising a new team in 1999.

Al Lerner, a local billionaire and minority owner under Modell (it was on Lerner’s private jet that Modell signed the final papers to go to Baltimore), won an ownership bidding war and bought the new Browns for a then-record $530 million in September 1998.

And on Monday night, after 40 former Browns are introduced before the game and Hall of Famers Otto Graham, Leroy Kelly, Groza and Warfield participate in the coin toss, a new era of football will begin in Cleveland.

“We won,” said John Thompson, aka “Big Dawg”, the leader of the Browns’ rabid Dawg Pound. “It’s a big victory. We showed the rest of the country that Cleveland sticks together, that we aren’t the Mistake on the Lake.”

Just 12 days later, Browns fans will gather again on the lakefront, making the familiar walk across the foot bridge on West Third Street to their brand new stadium as the Browns play the Minnesota Vikings in Cleveland’s first home game since Dec. 17, 1995.

When fans enter the stadium, they’ll pass by a plaque honoring their commitment to bringing the Browns back.

It reads, in part: “Cleveland Browns Stadium is dedicated to the invincible spirit of Browns fans who, through their perseverance and tenacity, refused to say goodbye. OUR TEAM ... OUR NAME ... OUR COLORS.”

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Cleveland History

Significant dates in the history of the Cleveland Browns:

* 1946--Founded by owner Arthur “Mickey” McBride as member of the All-America Football Conference. Head coach-general manager Paul Brown makes quarterback Otto Graham first player signed. Team goes 12-2 and defeats New York Yankees 14-9 in championship.

* 1947-49--Browns dominate AAFC, winning three consecutive titles.

* 1950--Following merger of AAFC and National Football League, Browns beat defend’ing NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles in first game and go on to win title with 30-28 win over Los Angeles.

* 1951-53--Win three straight East division titles but lose in NFL title game each year.

* 1954-55--Led by Graham, Browns win two straight NFL titles, defeating Detroit and Los Angeles.

* 1956--Suffer first losing season, going 5-7.

* 1957--Select Syracuse running back Jim Brown with sixth pick in draft. Brown leads league in rushing and touchdowns as Cleveland wins Eastern Conference title.

* 1961--Arthur B. Modell, a former television and advertising executive, buys team for $4 million.

* 1963--Paul Brown fired, Blanton Collier named second head coach in team history. Jim Brown sets single-season rushing record with 1,863 yards.

* 1964--Led by QB Frank Ryan, Browns beat Baltimore Colts 27-0 in NFL title game. Last Browns championship.

* 1965--Jim Brown leads the NFL in rushing and wins league MVP honors in final season. Cleveland loses title game to Green Bay, 23-12.

* 1966--Leroy Kelly, an eighth-round draft pick in ‘64, replaces Brown and rushes for 1,141 yards.

* 1968--Cleveland wins division and defeats Dallas in playoffs before losing to Baltimore 34-0 in title game.

* 1969--Browns defeat Dallas in playoffs, but miss shot at Super Bowl with 27-7 loss at Minnesota in NFL title game.

* 1970--NFL-AFL merger lands Browns in AFC Central. Defeat New York Jets 31-21 in first Monday night game.

* 1971--Nick Skorich named head coach. Browns lose playoff game 20-3 at Baltimore.

* 1972--Browns win eight of last nine regular-season games, but lose 20-14 in playoffs at Miami to Dolphins, who go on to 17-0 season.

* 1975-77--Forrest Gregg named head coach. Greg Pruitt rushes for 1,000 yards three straight years. Gregg fired before final game of ’77 season.

* 1978--Sam Rutigliano named head coach.

* 1979--Quarterback Brian Sipe develops knack for winning games in final minutes, as team earns “Kardiac Kids” nickname.

* 1980--Browns win AFC Central. Sipe wins NFL MVP honors, but throws interception in final seconds against Oakland in playoffs.

* 1982--Despite 4-5 record, make playoffs in strike-shortened season before losing to Los Angeles Raiders.

* 1984--Rutigliano is fired after 1-7 start and replaced by defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer.

* 1985--Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner both rush for more than 1,000 yards, only third set of teammates to accomplish feat. Browns win division title but lose 24-21 at Miami in playoffs.

* 1986--Led by quarterback Bernie Kosar, Browns go 12-4 to win AFC Central. Rally from 10 points down in final two minutes of regulation and defeat Jets in double overtime in playoffs. However, they lose to Denver in title game when John Elway engineers “The Drive” at end of regulation in Broncos’ 23-20 win.

* 1987--Another season ends in heartbreak, this time with “The Fumble.” Trailing 21-3 at halftime of AFC title game at Denver, Browns rally but fall short when Byner’s late fumble at goal line gives Broncos 38-33 win.

* 1988--Earn playoff wild card with 10-6 mark. Lose to Houston 24-23. Schottenheimer resigns three days later.

* 1989--Bud Carson named head coach. Win fourth division title in five years and defeat Buffalo 34-30 in first round of playoffs. Lose third title game to Denver in four years, 38-21.

* 1990--Carson fired following 42-0 home loss to Buffalo in Week 9. Jim Shofner named interim coach as team finishes with worst record--3-13--in franchise history.

* 1991--Giants assistant Bill Belichick named head coach. Team moves into new training facility and headquarters in Berea, Ohio.

* 1994--Post 11-5 record to earn first playoff appearance of ‘90s. Defeat New England 20-13 in wild-card game before losing 29-9 at Pittsburgh in divisional playoff.

* 1995--Modell, upset city will not build him a new stadium, announces he’s moving the team to Baltimore.

* 1996--NFL owners approve deal whereby Modell can move his team to Maryland but the nickname “Browns” and the team colors stay in Cleveland. The NFL also agrees to put another team in Cleveland by 1999 and contribute to building of new stadium for new Browns.

* May 1997--Groundbreaking for new Browns stadium.

* 1998--NFL owners agree in March that new Browns will be an expansion franchise. In September, former minority owner Alfred Lerner is selected as owner of new franchise.

* Jan. 21, 1999--Hire Jacksonville offensive coordinator Chris Palmer as head coach.

* Feb. 9--Select 37 players in expansion draft in Canton, Ohio. Detroit center Jim Pyne is first player picked.

* April 17--Take Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch with No. 1 pick in college draft.

* Aug. 9--Return to NFL with Monday night exhibition game against Dallas Cowboys at Hall of Fame in Canton.