Time To Embrace The Epic Failures....

Let's face it. Nobody can do it like the Cleveland Browns....I'd love to start a positive thread, but I got nuthin....

This never ending dumpster fire got me thinking. What actually are the top 5 horrific moments from the Browns since the 99 rebirth?

Off the cuff, here's mine in no particular order...

1. Dwayne Rudd's helmet toss...I was at that freakin game. One of the greatest seesaw affairs of unbelievable offense in "Opening Day" history...Unfortunately for Browns fans, the ending couldn't possibly have been more cruel...

2. The playoff meltdown in Pittsburgh...Sorry, but ya can't give up a post season 17 point second half lead in the arch rival's back yard, without it making my sad list of fails...

3. The day Kellen Winslow Jr decided he could handle a Ducati....no explanation needed.

4. I'm throwing 3 catastrophic draft fails here: The day we passed on Aaron Rodgers....The day we passed on Ladanian Tomlinson....and the day we passed on Carson Wentz. Due to his knack for getting caught up in rape investigations, I intentionally left out the Roethlisberger draft. Perfect villain. Screw him...it's my list.

5. The complete debacle of Johnny Manziel...No explanation needed, and I was one of the idiots that believed in him, and thought at the time that it was a great pick...

These are the fails that really stand out in my mind..No doubt others can chime in with fails I never thought of. So many to choose from...

It is The Factory of Sadness for a reason...

 

Somber... but nice post.

 

@TopDawg

I feel like there needs to be separate categories... players and games for sure need their own buckets. We could put together a Top 20 list of just bad overall draft picks.

Or maybe biggest fail of the season?

1999. Orlando "Zeus" Brown blinded by errant flag.



We should have known early on that the referees were never going to be on our side in games. I just never expected one to blind our right tackle.

Not-So-Fun-Fact!

The expansion Browns won two games in their first season and five games over their first two. The New Order Browns are on track to win one game out of 32.

This isn't just historically bad football. We've broken the laws of physics, science, probability, and the NFL model.

 

TBH... the biggest failure of the entire two decades was the death of Al Lerner.

The Browns were trending in the right direction. The made the change to Butch Davis prior to the 2001 season and went 7-9 and 9-7 in his first two years, earning a playoff spot. However, Lerner's death created a power vacuum that consumed Davis and so many others. He floundered as the all-football head of operations and the team suffered.

Worse still, the team passed to his son Randy who has zero interest in running that and/or zero idea how to.

I'll try to dig up the Bruce Arians quotes, but he said looking back on that time that the Browns were on "the cusp".

 

I gotta put this guy on the list...

Shurmurs Browns were the definition of lifeless...

 

Worse:



Mangini went 1-11 to start his career here, the lone win a 6-3 decision over Buffalo. He was outscored 309 to 145 during that time. Point differential of -164 in 12 games. In 2016, the 1-15 Browns had a point differential of -188.

Then, he enjoyed a lame duck season when we all knew he was gone because this guy, who was also worse:



#DontAskMe4PlayoffTix

And this ought to serve as a cautionary to the dotering sports writers and talking heads in Cleveland demanding we put "qualified football people" in the front office.

 

Yeah, Holmgren thought it was a good idea to bring in Jake Delhomme, even though the entire world knew it was stupid...

And what can ya say about Mangini...He loved his Jets.

 

The blinding of Zeus...That's amazing. If we only knew the repercussions...smh

 

FAIL. Given the amount of money he got paid to come here and play god awful football, he needs to be a part of this thread....

 

Hey now... Jeff Garcia and Andre Davis are in the record books for longest TD pass in NFL history. Tied with a few other folks at 99 yards.

 

Sounds like a story out of Greek mythology......and a Greek Tragedy at that

 

The Browns are a Greek tragedy.

 

lol! I was at that game! It was the battle of Ohio. We were sitting fairly close to that corner of the field where Garcia uncorked that beauty. He rolled to his right and fired a seed to Davis. Hit him in stride around mid field and he went untouched...

I was also at the game in the 80's where the Browns had their 2nd longest hook-up. Kosar to Webster Slaughter for 97 yard TD on MNF against the Bears....Ditka was unpleased with the defensive effort, to say the least. I can't remember which year it was, but that's when the Dawg Pound was a real thing. Our current team couldn't be further away from providing the sort of atmosphere those mid to late 80's Browns brought....Hard to believe it's been 30 years since we had a team that was even close to being AFC champs....I guess I still believe it can happen, but I've lost a lot of faith in the current regime. The proof is everywhere. This is not working...

 

Ah.... memories!
I will second the vote for worst, or perhaps most definitive moment, for Browns fans/franchise:

The gun sounds, game over we win. There's a flag, and magically we lose a game we'd already won.
One of our boys, assuming the game was over, removes his helmet, and the Refs, always sticklers for rule enforcement, flag it, because he wears the Brown and Orange, and obviously we cannot be granted a win, when a helmet is removed. Imagine the chaos that would ensue.

OK, so one more play. A FG, and the world is set right again, the Browns lose, and the earth keeps spinning.

What could possibly encapsulate the meaning of being a Browns fan? It has the stupid, and the always reliable officiating bias, that truly has been our trademark.

What does it mean to be a Browns fan...........?

To take that gut punch, and the Ravens fumble recovery for a touchdown with no time left, and somehow still care, still root for the NFLs most cursed franchise.

Sadly, perhaps, it is those kind of things that truly bond us together. Who else would still be here, bitching, cheering, and staying invested after so much misery? Browns fans. The numbers are thinning, as evidenced by the posters still standing, but among us there is a bond of pain, and the irrational hope that our time is coming.

Thank you TD for starting this thread. Sometimes we need to confront the pain, to get some perspective. What does that say about us? We're loyal, stubborn, stupid, or maybe just sick, but I embrace my fandom, with all of you, my brothers, and intend to keep barking, til we get there or I leave this earth.

Don't be cruel and point out those odds.

 

OMG kenibals, you just reminded me of one of the worst moments possible, and it was only a couple years ago. I must have subliminally blocked this one out...The kick 6:

 

Sorry about that

 

Goes to the 49ers for just a 2nd round pick? Seriously?

And what were the Browns doing? Trying to give away much more, for this guy:


And they couldn't even get that done....smh

 

We are now at the midway point of this season...Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson are tied for the NFL lead in TD passes, and we got DeCon Shizer, who throws one TD pass per month....

 

Oh, and we are paying Denver's QB $895,000.00 per week....

 

I'm glad the McCarron trade didn't go through. Idk why we'd even consider giving up that much.