If I Were a True Browns Fan

Browns fans, are you "type A" or "type B"?  Are you realistic or are you delusional?  Do you respect great players or hate them because they happen to be on a team you don't like?

Living in NE Ohio and being a Steeler fan I obviously see plenty of animated Browns fans and the vast majority of them fall into one of two categories which, for the purpose of this article, I will call "type A" and "type B"

The "type A" Browns fan is the fan who says "yeah, I know the Browns stink, and I know they are likely to continue to stink until we can get a solid organization in here, but they are my team and I love them".  You have to give this fan all the respect in the world.

The "type B" Browns fan is the one who slings insults at you as a fan of an opposing team before they ever take the time to listen to you,  They think up queer words to substitute for the names of elite players simply because they play for a certain team.  This fan deserves no respect.

The "type A" fan will sit and chat over a beer about what it will take for the Browns to get better.  They will openly long for the days when the Browns were the best of the best.  They long for the dead and buried rivalry between the Browns and Steelers.  They will talk about the srengths and weaknesses of not only the Browns but other teams as well.

The "type B' fan is incapable of admitting that the Browns are bad.  They are unwilling to admit that the Steelers have quite possibly the greatest franchise in all of sports.  They will talk about how the Browns are going to kick the Ratbirds butt this year, or how they will kill the Squealers this year.

The "type A" fan would sadly admit that the Browns and the Lions are very similar organizations, once great and very bad for a very long time.  But you don't want to talk about this with this fan.

The "type B" fan knows without question that the Browns are nowhere near a lowly team like the Lions and if you produce the statistical proof, they will fight that the stats are wrong or everyone is just reading them wrong or they will simply call the Steelers cheaters or the Ravens murderers.

The "type A" fan knows he is outnumbered by the "type B' fan and says "hey, they're still my team and I love em".

Many Browns fans boast about being the loyalest fans in the NFL.  I for one simply don't buy it!  There is a fine line between loyalty and gullibility because the "type A" fan never boasts of this loyalty, only his own!   If you spew a string of ignorant names of elite players, yell over everybody else that the Browns are going to kill so-and-so this year, and then loudly brag about the loyalty of Browns fans I say you fall in to the gullible category, you're not a fan.

If I were a true Browns fan, I would politely ask the "type B" fans to watch, listen, and learn!  Watch "football" and not just the Browns, listen to the masses, and learn what being a fan is all about.....accepting your team for what they are and loving them unconditionally.