Have New England Patriots Fans Become Cleveland Browns Fans?

About a month ago I texted a friend of mine who is a Cleveland Browns fan saying, “I think our roles as football fans has completely flipped.”

You see, the Browns sucked at football for a very long time. Whereas, the New England Patriots have only known success (and some “alleged” controversy…). Then a pandemic hit; Tom Brady left New England and Kevin Stepanski arrived in Cleveland and everything flipped (Note: If you Google “Kevin Stepanski” in the news section, the top article is from January. That’s a GOOD thing.).

Last season the Browns made the playoffs and then pounded the Pittsburgh Steelers before bowing out to the Kansas City Chiefs in a game that many Browns fans, after a few pints, might start to think they could have won.

The Pats, on the other hand went 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first times in 12 years.

The regular season success and failure of these respective teams is not really what inspired my text to Dean. No, instead it’s been our off-season experiences.

In the past, the Browns were consistently “Off-Season Champs.” They made splashy free agent signings and always had top draft picks that were going to shift the luck of an otherwise cursed franchise. Meanwhile, the Pats would have their parade or lick their wounds after another deeeeep playoff run while staying relatively quiet during free agency except for a few summer signings on the cheap that would manage to have some great impact the following season.

There were two certainties as a Pats fan - earning a playoff bye-week and trading backwards in the draft at 11:30pm.

2021 has seen the Browns taking it easy in free agency, locking up Jadaveon Clowney this week in Patriots fashion: quietly and efficiently. The Cleveland Browns website splashed this saucy headline to announce the signing:

“Jadeveon Clowney wanted to join a winning team, so he chose the Browns.” It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world folks.

Meanwhile, Bill Belichick used 2021 free agency to toss money around like Paul Pierce (too soon?). The Pats broke the NFL record for guaranteed contracts during a free agency period.

Like Cleveland Browns fans of the past, I have also found myself reading, and believing, every mock draft that tells me what I want to hear.

What do I want to hear, you ask?

I want Justin Fields in Foxboro.

This is another layer of my fandom that wouldn’t have existed a decade ago. I have been indoctrinated into the world of Ohio State football by my wife, a graduate of THE Ohio State. After watching Fields play quarterback for the last two seasons at OSU and it would be awesome to have been playing for the Pats.

As the hype and excitement builds, I looked-up the date of the draft. I honestly thought it was this week given all the articles and discussion around trades and quarterbacks. When I saw that it wasn’t until April 29, I was actually sad.

You see, draft day used to be Super Bowl Sunday for Browns fans. Now, I’m the one looking forward to a Thursday evening in April hoping my hometown team will select the next great quarterback while Browns fans wonder if they should even stay up until their team makes the 26th pick in the draft.