Cleveland Takes Dawg Pounding

By T.J. SIMERS

Sept. 13, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CLEVELAND —

They waited three years for this, and by the start of the fourth quarter they were headed to the parking lot, witnesses no more to the worst defeat at home in Browns’ history.

If the gun-toting, bayonet-fixed United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon had performed as sloppily in pregame festivities as the Browns did in the game, it might have been a blood-bath.

The Pittsburgh Steelers pounded the expansion Browns, 43-0, Sunday night, as happy as anyone that Cleveland is back in the NFL after recording their seventh victory in a row over them.

It was only the ninth time in franchise history the Browns had failed to score at home, the very first time in the new Cleveland Browns Stadium before 73,138.

“We learned about some of our individuals tonight,” Cleveland Coach Chris Palmer said.

They can’t play football very well.

The Steelers had more points than the Browns had offensive yards, 43-40, and if the city of Cleveland thought the return of football and a blimp flying overhead with a national TV audience watching would be a boost to its self-esteem--oops.

“I’m just sorry the fans of Cleveland had to go through that joke tonight,” fullback Marc Edwards said.

This was one for the dawgs, all right, the Browns running nine times for nine yards, a dead man falling flat on his face gaining more yardage on the average.

Ty Detmer and Tim Couch combined to average 1.6 yards a passing play. Couch, the No. 1 player selected in the 1999 draft, came on in relief in the fourth quarter and his first pass as a professional was intercepted. He’s still waiting for his first completion.

“The easiest way to take the crowd out of it is not to give them anything to cheer about,” Pittsburgh Coach Bill Cowher said. “I think all of it’s execution.”

Whose execution? This was cruel and inhumane punishment for a group of people who once cheered Jim Brown, Otto Graham and Marion Motley. All the anticipation, the hoopla, the fireworks. As bad as these people felt when Art Modell took his team to Baltimore, and as good as they felt three hours earlier in the evening, it just might never be the same.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue showed up before the game, the noted stadium serial killer returning to the scene of the crime, christening the Cleveland Browns’ new playpen and officially putting an end to the gritty history of down and dirty football.

Tagliabue had allowed Modell to abandon these people, and it appears he wants to knock off the Los Angeles Coliseum next, maybe as early as today after another set of expansion meetings in New York. History be damned, and the day is coming when the NFL will have a stadium built with only luxury boxes.

Here’s a place where atmosphere counted for something for so many years, the stirring voice of John Facenda seemingly whistling in the chilly winds with every grimy pileup, a place where the home-field advantage meant more than having every seat in the place painted orange.

Ballyhooed as the return of the tradition-rich Browns, this experience was more akin to a wine-tasting festival than a renewed rivalry with the Steelers.

This is not Cleveland as most fans remember it. The paying customers had to buy personal seat licenses, a personal blockade to the return of some of the diehard blue-collar locals, and what is this football world coming to when someone is handcuffed and removed from the Dawg Pound for being nothing more than unruly less than a quarter into the game?

The last line of defense for Cleveland has always been its Dawg Pound at the east end of the field, a threat of bodily harm to any opponent daring to cross the goal line face-first.

But now the dog-faced drunken customers are ejected for firing dog bones, batteries or other missiles onto the field. Ruff-ruff just doesn’t cut it as evidenced by the Steelers’ willingness to take up residence in the end zone.

The new stadium doesn’t even allow nasty signs to adorn the stadium walls. Who knows, beneath the stadium, the Welcome Wagon might have been there to greet the Steelers.

Baseball builds throwback fields of dreams, but come to Cleveland Browns Stadium and you could be sitting in Tampa Bay or Washington or Carolina, all pampered in comfort in one of the climate-controlled, spacious club lounges. It used to be a test of manhood to attend a Brown game.

But this is progress, the NFL way, orchestrated by Tagliabue who has had nine new stadiums open on his watch with new ones to come in Denver, Pittsburgh and Seattle in the next few years.

“This is one for the fans,” said Tagliabue, standing in the Browns’ new home on top of the very site that had been graced by Municipal Stadium for 60 years, a dump designed for the hardy soul instead of the area’s richest citizens.

But that’s what these people had to do to get the NFL back, contribute more than $200 million in public money toward the construction of a new $283-million stadium, and then act as if it the good old days could be recaptured.

The day might come when they get some athletes who can play the game. In fact it will serve the Browns’ best interests to remain pathetic, gaining seven additional picks in next year’s draft so long as they don’t make the playoffs.

“I’m sure the type of fans we have won’t give up on us,” said Detmer, who will undoubtedly come under pressure from those wanting Couch to develop on the job. “Realistically, you put a team together in six months and there are going to be some holes.”

This hole, however, looks like the Grand Canyon.

HEADLINES

Testaverde Is Lost for Season

Vinny Testaverde, who took the New York Jets within a game of the Super Bowl last season, won’t be taking them anywhere this season.

The quarterback was lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon in the second quarter of the Jets’ 30-28 loss to the New England Patriots. Page 9.

Other players who came out of games with injuries included:

* Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams of New Orleans (ankle);

* Seattle linebacker Chad Brown (neck);

* Detroit receiver Herman Moore (knee);

* Baltimore offensive lineman Jonathan Ogden (hip).

* Atlanta quarterback Chris Chandler (hamstring).

Dallas 41, Washington (OT) 35

Troy Aikman throws five touchdown passes, as Cowboys rally from 21-point deficit. Page 9

Green Bay 28, Oakland 24

Brett Favre ignores injured hand, leads Packers on 82-yard scoring drive in final 1:51. Page 10

Jacksonville 41, San Francisco 3

49ers are out of sync in their worst regular-season loss since 1980. Page 11