So The Philadelphia Eagles lost three straight NFC title games. Long suffering Cleveland Browns fan Vince Guerrieri isn't impressed. But he can empathize as the people of Cleveland know how they feel in the city of Brotherly Love.
By Vince Guerrieri
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On Sept. 16, 1950, the defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Cleveland Browns, who had just joined the league after the All-American Conference had folded.
The Browns had won all four of the conference’s championships, but were treated lightly by potential NFL opponents. Fans and players in the City of Brotherly Love expected the game to be a pasting.
It was, but not like they expected. The Browns won 35-10.
The two reams played regularly until the Browns moved to the American Football Conference in 1970, but their fates continued to be intertwined. They’ve both faced lean years. The Browns are still on relatively hard times (I fear that last year’s playoff appearance was a fluke), but the Eagles have been heartbroken.
For the third straight year in a row, the Eagles have lost the conference championship. They’ve become the first team to lose back-to-back conference championships at home. Some people are already comparing them to the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s, the team that lost four straight Super Bowls, and considered changing their area code to 044 (that’s a joke, son, I say, a joke).
But that’s not fair. The Bills at least made it to the Super Bowl. Some are comparing them to the Dallas Cowboys of the early 1980s, who lost three straight conference championships (one to the Eagles). But glory has come before and since for “America’s Team.” A more apt comparison would be to the Browns of the late 1980s.
Not only did both teams break the hearts of their fans, but they did so in championship-starved cities.
The Eagles went to the Super Bowl in 1980 and lost to the Oakland Raiders. That same year, the Phillies won the World Series, the only one they’ve won so far. They went back to the World Series in 1983 and 1993. Haven’t come close since. The 76ers won an NBA title in the 1982-83 season.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the last time the Indians won a World Series, Harry Truman was president. The Tribe made trips to the Fall Classic in 1995 and 1997, but both times fell short. The 1997 World Series was the worst. Victory was so close, I could taste it. I was ready to blow off classes and go to the parade. But it was not to be.
The Browns won the NFL in 1964, and haven’t won it all since. The Cavaliers were good in the late 1980s, but that coincided with the ascendance of Michael Jordan. A similar case could be brought for the Browns, who had the lousy fortune to appear in the playoffs five years in a row (1985-1989), and lose three AFC championship games to the same goddamn team.
I’m speaking, of course, of the Denver Fucking Broncos, quarterbacked by John Fucking Elway. I gained a little consolation, though, from the fact that in the three Super Bowls the Broncos went to after beating the Browns, they lost by an average of 32 points.
But now, baseball season beckons. Well, at least in Philly. They’ve got a new ballpark and a nucleus that could get them into the playoffs.
In Cleveland, on the other hand, it’s only six months until training camp starts…for Ohio State.