Cleveland Sports "Heroes": My Love for the Underdogs

After reading about Jody Gerut and reminiscing about him and other former Indians, I wanted to devote a column to some of my favorite, lesser-known athletes that have played for the Browns, Cavs and Indians over the years.

These are guys who weren’t stars – heck, most of them hardly even played – yet for whatever reason I really liked them and pulled for them. Of course, for those of you who know me, the biggest name of all on this list for me is a former Duke star who graced a Cavs uniform for several seasons and never got a fair shot to crack the rotation even though he was incredibly deserving and…

(OK, slow down buddy. Right. More on him later.)

Without further ado, here’s the list. It’d be great for you guys to share your memories of these or any other players I failed to mention as I’m sure there are numerous I forgot and left out.

Cleveland Browns

1. Eric Zeier, quarterback, 1995: Loved him because of the name. Plus, as everyone knows, the backup quarterback is always the most popular athlete in Cleveland. Did You Know: Zeier set 67 school records at the University of Georgia and 18 SEC records as well? He currently broadcasts UGA football games.

2. Darrin Chivarieni (’99-’00) and JaJuan Dawson (’00-’01), wide receivers:  Guys who probably shouldn’t have been in the NFL, thus fitting perfectly on those expansion-era Browns teams. Dawson had a huge game in the season-opener one year and wasn’t heard from again, and I vaguely remember Mike Trivisonno ranting on the day we traded Chivarieni to the Cowboys.

3. Ben Gay, running back, 2001: He might have received the most buzz and media attention for someone who never accomplished anything. I know he had a crazy backstory, like bouncing around several colleges and doing or dealing drugs or something like that.

4. Terry Kirby, running back, 1999: Kirby was one of the few “name” players the first Browns team had, in that he had actually played on real NFL teams before. Unfortunately, he was just as bad as the “non-name” players for the Browns that year. My mom and I went to training camp one day and he was laughing and joking and having a great time out there – it doesn’t hurt that he and Wayne Kirby are brothers too.

5. Travis Prentice, running back, 2000:

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