Well, thanks to Timbo, I attended my first game at the not so new Cleveland Browns Stadium last night. I had awesome seats, Row 1 (which is really the third row??) in the South End Zone. So, here’s my thoughts:
Browns will be much improved this year - they appear more diciplined, better tacklers, more determined. They have improved much over the last three games - but you have to be thankful that Vince Young played like — well, like Vince Young since he got to the NFL
Interesting that row 1 isn’t really the first row, it’s behind rows A and B. Makes you wonder why they have just didn’t call it row 3, could it be about money?
It’s an impressive building, though a little sterile, I must admit. All the pretty orange seats look impressive from row 1 - might have looked nicer if there were actually people sitting in them, after the third quarter it was really empty up there
Seems like every time I go to a game in C-Town - no matter what the sport - I end up sitting by fans from the opposing team. Last night, me and my good friend John were sitting next to three Titans fans. I knew that cause the teenage kid was in full uniform — that’s correct, jersey, pants (yes, actual Titan’s football pants) socks, hat, keychain and towel (I’m sure he had to have a helmet somewhere, but it wasn’t visible). His brother was wearing a Vikings jersey (?) while the father figure was in jersey format as well, but it was some old school jersey, maybe the old Houston Oilers (who became the Tenesee Titans, I think). They deserved all the harassment they received.
Kid Titan acted as if he was in the game, continually bumping into my buddy, during plays — as if he was running or tackling. Very annoying. Of course, after the Titans ran a successful play - especially when they scored - they would stand and raise their hands in the referee TD pose - and rotate in a circle so everyone would see how proud they were of their team. Fortunately, they had very little to say as the game progressed - till they snuck away into the night as the game marched toward closure.
Brady is definitely the fan favorite — and after last night — I think he has earned the #1 spot. We’ll see what happens now, but I’m sure Alpha Dog won’t make it official until an hour before game time against the Vikings.
James Davis will be a factor with the Browns this year — he is explosive
Man - football players are big dudes
Alex Hall will play significant minutes for the Browns
Braylon Edwards will have a good year — but, he’ll still drop passes. He has been doing that since his U of M days, he always has, he always will
If you ride the RTA to the game, make the walk from Tower City, don’t wait for the Water Front line train to West 4th, it takes way too long. (unless it’s very cold or raining very hard).
Beer is $6.75 for a small cup, peanuts are a good choice
They sell a lot of Browns jerseys, in all colors (including a little girl with a pink jersey with the #10 on it) and all shapes and sizes (mostly XL and bigger). Saw Kosar, Turner, Quinn, Edwards (at church), etc. Didn’t notice any Anderson jersey, though - imagine that
Being a high school umpire, I can tell you that there is no such thing as a make-up-call. However, after the sideline ref threw a penalty flag on Anderson because he wasn’t within the sideline boundries — he threw the flag as he was falling down after running into DA — the very next play was a holding penalty against the Titans thrown by the umpire — the head man on the crew - which pretty much negated the personal foul on DA. Hmmmm, I wonder???
All in all, it was a great night going back to a Browns game for the first time since I took Mikey when he was about 8 or 10 — it’s been a long time. Props to Alpha Dog so far, looks like we are off on the right foot, anyway.
Stay tuned as we take you through another exciting season.
Holla — Woof woof
Dad
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