What does the NFL teach us about faith? Answer: if thou shalt be steadfast in thy belief in the Browns, then ye shalt inherit the earth. Yeah!

I have been a Browns fan since the glory days of Jim Brown, Frank Ryan, Paul Brown, and muddy playing fields. I mourned the stealing of the team years ago and suffered through the recent years of watching a team find itself. And, now, they are back! Ya just gotta believe.

I was born and raised in Cleveland from 1944 until 1971 when I moved to Arizona. But I was a local boy during the 60s when that team was loved. There has never been a more exciting or entertaining team in pro sports. Yes, they have always been one of the Great Holding Teams in the NFL. But they are also the team that has strange plays that work, come from behind victories, and over-time thrillers. A sports writer yesterday made the comment that the Browns may yet self-destruct at the end of this season, but they have given us a lot of fun so far. He failed to mention heartbreak as well as fun but you can't really love if you don't also open yourself to pain. Maybe that is the enduring charm of being a Browns fan. You take the same emotional journey with them that you do in a long and successful marriage. I guess I ought to be grateful that only the marriage could have produced children. I cannot even imagine my kids in the Dawg Pound.

Ah, yes; I can remember Jim Brown dragging tacklers ten years or more as bulled his way to the goal line. How many times did he scare us by rising so slowly from a pile and seemingly dragging himself back to the huddle only to burst out the next play. Nobody ever ran a sweep better than Jim Brown. I remember that, in middle of the 1965 season, Frank Ryan (No. 13) got his Ph.D. in math. How often does that happen with an NFL quarterback? And how could I forget wide receiver Gary Collins who stunned so many defenses with his goal post pattern?

I look back fondly upon the Great Mud Games. In those good old days games were played on natural turf regardless of the weather and the field conditions. There were some great games played against Green Bay when there was so much mud that I could not make out the team membership of some of the players. Their uniforms all looked like they were the same mud monster club members. Sure, those were the days; of course I was sitting all warm and dry in front of my black and white TV set.

I can look at the long row of NFL helmets with team logos on the sides and gaze with pride upon the plain orange helmet of the Browns. Ha! They have never put a logo on their head gear. Actually, I have no idea why that seems to be so cool to me, but it does.

OK, so what did I do last Sunday when I watched the Brown's field goal apparently fall short at the end of the Baltimore game? Like any true Browns fan that lives with disappointment, I turned off the TV and put it out of my mind for a week. Oh, No! I missed the strangest moment in this season of oddities. It was decided that the attempt was actually a good field goal, the teams had to be recalled from the tunnels, and the OT game was played which the Browns won. How could I have missed that? Sure, we had a house full of family for dinner, but they would not have missed me for a while. I blew it. But, you know... that's part of the charm of being a Browns Fan. Now I have a sad story to tell that ought to be worth some sympathy and a free beer somewhere. Call it the perks of fandom.