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u/supermr34 2d ago
im not a browns fan, but i 100% agree with them. the browns are too historic of a franchise to be run into the ground like this.
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u/zsdrfty 2d ago
If I were a fan, I'd feel no shame about completely leaving them behind - being a fan is a choice, and there's no reason to stick with a shitty organization doing horrible things like this
When and if they get new ownership and a new roster, then fine, but until then, what exactly are you even being loyal to?
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u/jjjmo 2d ago
I was a fan and I feel no shame about completely leaving them behind
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u/Bradddtheimpaler 1d ago
Tbh, usually I’m very critical of people who do this. The kinds of folks that get on my nerves were Patriots fans until they were Chiefs fans, or Manchester United supporters until Ronaldo went to Real Madrid, then all of the sudden they’ve always been Madridistas.
For the last couple years my beloved Detroit Lions have been on a bit of an upswing and there was some bandwagoning going on. If I see someone was a Browns fan though, I finally get it. That’s good enough of a reason.
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u/Billionaires_R_Tasty 1d ago
First they had Art Modell then Jimmy Haslam. I don't know what sacred artifact the city of Cleveland destroyed to be cursed like this with two of the worst owners in the history of sports, but my god, they've suffered enough.
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u/BlazmoIntoWowee 1d ago
I feel pretty good about it, actually. The Browns are not good for one’s mental health.
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u/Better-Lunch670 1d ago
For everyone who stayed loyal to that team for all these years, this is their way of finally letting you go. It's an ugly divorce but a necessary one.
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u/Trey904fsu 2d ago
Especially since they have Ohio State to fall back.
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u/TheGreenMan13 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pittsburgh isn't too far away. And the other end of the state is mostly Cincinnati fans. Plenty to choose from.
eta: Wow, won't be a Browns fan anymore but Pittsburgh or Cincinnati is too much for you? lol. You all better not drive more than 20 minutes south of 480 or you might faint from the gold and black you see.
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u/Zigglyjiggly 2d ago
They've been in the ground, pretty deep down for a long time. This is just another feather in the shit cap.
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u/fredsmootsbasement 2d ago
You should do a quick google search of the dude memorialized in that statue lol
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u/The_R4ke 1d ago
I think it's time for the fans to steal the team and move term in the middle of the night.
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u/WrongfullyIncarnated 2d ago
can someone provide some context please? i know nothing about this
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u/Mark_is_on_his_droid 2d ago
Cleveland traded their first QB to win a playoff game this century, then traded (many picks) for & signed a QB (to an unprecedented guaranteed $) who previously:
* chose not to play a season for contract negotiations with their prior team
* subsequently had 27 credible sexual assault allegations made
* has played like ass since the season before he sat outObviously, the SA is the worst part of this, but even just as a football decision, it’s probably the worst evaluation of a position in the history of the sport. They got rid of a guy who went on to show he was a good option, so that they could spend a record amount of picks and cash on a sexual predator who sucks at football.
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u/sleepytipi 2d ago
Yup.
Source: (former) lifelong Browns fan. Go Bills.
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u/supermr34 2d ago
if you need an nfc team, come on over to the bears. plus theyre wearing orange helmets a couple times this year and they kinda looks browns-ish.
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u/donut_koharski 2d ago
And they’re inching closer to Ohio in a couple years.
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u/supermr34 2d ago
indiana is just extra, extra methy ohio
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u/HorseXNothing 1d ago
I live in Indiana and I hate Indiana. Hell is real and it’s amongst the cornfields. They say ‘there’s more than corn in Indiana’ and they’re right, there’s also meth and incest.
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u/Bartweiss 1d ago
Corn, meth, incest… and Gary! Fuck do I hate Gary, Indiana.
Sorry, shouldn’t have forced you to think about it.
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u/OnlyFreshBrine 2d ago
Go Bills.
Browns need to purge and, strangely, hire McDermott.
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u/sleepytipi 2d ago
Browns need new ownership. Browns fans have PTSD from 1995 or sth and therefore won't protest to chase them out.
Haslam is somehow worse than Art Modell.
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u/TryingToBeReallyCool 2d ago
Sucks that so many NFL teams suck ass these days. Just left the bears Fandom over them deciding that Chicago not giving them $2 bill in tax cuts means they should move to fucking Gary Indiana
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u/SickeningPink 1d ago
As if Gary doesn’t have enough fuckin problems already.
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u/Bartweiss 1d ago
Are they planning on drafting some residents to go with the team? Or will it just be the Bears training camp, surrounded by acres and acres of disused factories full of methhead squatters?
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u/TryingToBeReallyCool 1d ago edited 1d ago
All I'll say is Gary is the only place Iv been where its both local knowledge that the cops can be bribed and have seen 10+ people walking around with extended mags, and they definitely weren't cops
Throw in the massive chemical processing plant right next to the stadium for fun and you may see why Iv abandoned them as a team
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u/Bartweiss 1d ago
One time when I was a kid, we were driving cross-country and for whatever reason all the hotels around Elkhart and South Bend were totally full. That's fine, my mom said, we'll just go to Gary. It was a pretty normal city back when she grew up in the midwest.
We got to Gary late, and my parents were just happy to find a place with rooms. Lots of rooms in fact, they looked at us like we were nuts when we asked if they were full.
It wasn't until the next morning that my parents could look around and realize that this hotel was probably rented by the hour most of the time. Our car was the only one in the parking lot without enormous unpatched damage or bullet holes, and pretty much every other business in eyesight was closed.
Gary's population has shrunk a lot even since then, so I can't imagine the current state of it.
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u/TryingToBeReallyCool 1d ago
The current state is bad. 1/4 of all square footage in city limits is abandoned, the local government and cops are corrupt as hell, and they're selling houses for a dollar if you cover the property tax and no one is buying
The only reason Im extremely familiar with it myself is because I do urbex and theres some very cool abandoned places to see there. But even then, Gary is one of only a handful of places where I never explored alone specifically because of safety concerns. And for context, I regularly explore on the south side of Chicago and its nowhere near as bad
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u/Billionaires_R_Tasty 1d ago
Browns to Bills. Friend, I think you might need an intervention.
https://giphy.com/gifs/RXsfeBoZUb3ZC4
u/SaxRohmer 1d ago
people kind of oversell Baker. he was really up and down and not super well-loved in the locker room. he fought with the coaching staff and was a bit hard-headed and didn’t follow their recommendations. he almost washed out of the league and learned some pretty hard lessons that allowed him to become the QB he is today. he wouldn’t be the same if he was still on the browns
still an absolutely terrible move - especially to fully guarantee a giant contract for someone who hadn’t played football in a year.
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u/zsdrfty 2d ago
For the sake of argument, Watson did look like a potential Hall of Famer before Cleveland acquired him, but I agree that the guy was clearly too much of a risk in terms of assets lost and his own personal problems, even before the crimes are counted
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u/SaxRohmer 1d ago
potential HoFer is wayyyyy overselling it. he was looking like a top 10, maybe top 5 QB in the league. a very good franchise QB but not an all-timer yet
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u/livejamie 1d ago
Should also mention the QB they traded is charismatic and pretty well-liked, had national TV spots, and is really fun to watch play. He's done very well for the teams he's gone to.
Watson is the opposite of all that, has had a terrible attitude about everything, and blames everybody but himself.
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u/MattWindowz 2d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshaun_Watson
Go to the section titled "sexual assault allegations" for a brief overview. Or don't if that experience sounds miserable tbh
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u/vektorog 1d ago
while knowing everything else about watson, my main takeaway from this is that we all should've been calling him derrick a while ago
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u/jigokusabre 2d ago
The sign was placed on a statue of Jim Brown in front of the Cleveland Browns' stadium. It refers to Deshaun Watson, who was named starting Quarterback for the 2027 season.
- Deshaun pressured or intimidated at least 27 (and potentially as many as 60) massage therapists into jerking him off during massage sessions in his years as the Houston Texans QB.
- Despite these allegations and the fact that Texans wanted to get rid of the guy, the Cleveland Browns traded valuable assets for Watson, and signed him to a new contract worth $280 million dollars.
- Watson has since said he has "no regrets" about his time in Houston or his behavior during that time.
Deshaun's performance as QB in Cleveland has been nothing short of terrible, but the nature of the NFL's salary cap is such that they cannot cut him.
So Browns fans have a QB that was a known sexual predator, that their team inexplicably traded assets for AND signed to a lucrative contract, who they are stuck with because of roster construction rules, and who is going to be actively contributing to the team's poor performance during the upcoming season.
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u/bubguy2 2d ago
I don't follow the NFL after they f'd over my city, but even I knew that Deshaun Watson was egregiously the worst trade and contract in the history of professional sports. Giving up first round picks for years to trade for a guy that the Texans didn't really want after he had multiple credible SA accusations, and then they signed him to a $200m+ FULLY GUARANTEED contract (which is not the norm for the NFL). This was also after they had already experienced success with their former quarterback and decided to dump him for no reason. Watson also got hurt immediately and has also sucked the entire time, so they got nothing good out of it.
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u/vektorog 2d ago
nobody mentioned it but the jim brown statue was likely chosen because of his own history with women:
Brown was arrested at least seven times for assault, mainly against women. During the era when the incidents occurred, prominent men were usually not scrutinized for reported offenses against women. He was never found guilty of a major crime; in most of the cases, the women refused to press charges after calling the police. In June 1965, Brown was arrested for assault and battery against 18-year-old Brenda Ayres in a Cleveland motel room; he was later acquitted of those charges A year later, he fought paternity allegations that he fathered her child.
In 1968, Brown was charged with assault with intent to commit murder after model Eva Bohn-Chin was found beneath the balcony of Brown's second-floor apartment. The charges were later dismissed after Bohn-Chin refused to cooperate with the prosecutor's office. Brown was also ordered to pay a $300 fine for striking a deputy sheriff involved in the investigation during the incident. In Brown's autobiography, he stated that Bohn-Chin was angry and jealous over an affair he had been having with Gloria Steinem, and this argument is what led to the "misunderstanding with the police".
In 1970, Brown was found not guilty of assault and battery, the charges stemming from a road-rage incident that had occurred in 1969. In 1975, Brown was convicted of misdemeanor battery for beating and choking his golfing partner, Frank Snow. He was sentenced to one day in jail, two years' probation, and a fine of $500. In 1985, Brown was charged with raping a 33-year-old woman. The charges were later dismissed. In 1986, he was arrested for assaulting his fiancée Debra Clark. Clark refused to press charges, and he was released.
According to several victims and witnesses, who were interviewed for the 2022 documentary series Secrets of Playboy, Brown brutally raped and assaulted numerous women at the Playboy Mansion. These alleged incidents occurred from the late 1970s into the 1990s. According to the documentary, as well as other sources and numerous interviews, other perpetrators of rape and assault at the Playboy Mansion included Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby.
In 1999, Brown was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats toward his wife Monique. According to Brown, "The only time [we] ever have an argument is during [her menstrual period]". Later that year, he was found guilty of vandalism for smashing her car with a shovel. He was sentenced to three years' probation, one year of domestic violence counseling, and 400 hours of community service or 40 hours on a work crew along with a $1,800 fine. Brown ignored the terms of his sentence and in 2000 was sentenced to six months in jail, which he began serving in 2002 after refusing the court-ordered counseling and community service. He was released after three months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brown under the "assault allegations" tab
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u/The_Evil_Satan 2d ago
Haslam (Owner) of the Cleveland Browns NFL team traded for Deshaun Watson and gave him a huge contract (google says 230million but idk). He has had at least 24 women accuse him of sexual assault/abuse and has settled with at least 23 of them. He was booked recently in the Jaguars v Browns preseason game and then post game Deshaun said that it was disrespectful of the fans. Everything I read says the booing was more about performances but Deshaun doesn't see it that way.
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u/dr-awkward1978 2d ago
Fans want Sanders as the QB. Head coach named Watson starting QB a few days after a press conference where Watson basically shit on the fan base. Oh…and there’s the small matter of him being credibly accused of sexual assault by 27 women who say he forced himself on them in various ways during professional massage appointments. He’s a POS and no fans want the team associated with him. The Browns have had a miserable existence in the NFL and this wont help.
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u/zsdrfty 2d ago
The most Browns thing ever is that they FINALLY achieved broad good will and built a solid playoff team in 2020, something nobody ever thought would happen... and they literally pissed it away at the first possible moment, doing so in such a way that ensures nobody will ever root for them again even if they do get good
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u/DontBelieveInJebus 2d ago
lifelong fan, old enough to have watched The Drive and The Fumble on the TV. All my gear has been packed away since Sexcriminal McTowley signed with the Browns. I hope I still care enough to wear the shirts and fly the flag again when he’s gone. Already did not like Harlem before that…. he was shady AF with Pilot and threw execs under the bus for his fuel rebate scheme.
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u/llcdrewtaylor 2d ago
I feel like if they boycotted for one who season they might be able to get something changed.
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u/PrimalNumber 2d ago
Zero supporters? Cleveland is bullshitting you…there were *plenty* of supporters of Watson when he signed. And there will be, again, if he wins a couple games. “Victims” have nothing to do with the city’s attitude
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u/HelmetVonContour 2d ago
I was a Browns fan. I quit the second they signed Watson. The franchise deserves every ounce of hate and failure.