Something very unusual happened going into this past weekend – Emily and I both had some free time. This is unusual for us because she is in medical school and I am a graduate student…odds are one of us has a project or a test that just can not wait. Not this weekend; this weekend we referred to ourselves as ‘normal people’. We could actually do typical normal people stuff over the weekend – run a few errands, clean up a little, and, of course, watch the Browns.
So what errands were we running exactly? Well, in short – the fun kind. Here is a little history for you:
I had an idea last year to dress up in a Cleveland Browns Santa outfit for some of the games late last season. I quickly found out that one could not buy an orange Santa Claus outfit – they simply did not exist. If I wanted to be the Browns Santa I was going to have to make it myself…
So we planned on going out and buying the material to make a Santa outfit. As we were talking about it Emily wondered how she would dress up – then it came to us…the Browns Brownie.
We stopped in Jo-Ann Fabrics at Warrensville Center and got most of the things we needed – bright orange felt for the shoes, black and white felt for the belt, and of course, some flesh color felt for the elf ears! We then dropped by Target and picked up a stripped undershirt and also an orange top to finish out the outfit…or so we thought. My mom called us from the stadium (where she was dropping off some tickets for will call); she had bought Emily the perfect striped Browns hat.
When we got home Emily and my mom worked hard on making the outfit look amazing while I got things ready for our Sunday tailgating. This was only our second attempt at tailgating, but we were better prepared this time – I bought a 15 dollar char coal grill and a big container of lighter fluid. We bought some burgers and hot dogs to cook up as well. Emily’s friends were bringing some chips and such – it was a team effort.
The last time we tailgated I got a whole bunch crap for not having Bud or Bud Light available by some fellow tailgaters. I would not make this mistake again, so in addition to my Heineken Light, I bought a case of Bud Light.
On Sunday morning we got up extra early and Emily put on her costume – she looked just like the Browns Brownie…it was crazy! On our way over to pick up Emily’s friends we realized we didn’t have a lighter for the grill – we had to stop in Dave’s. Let me tell you: whether you are dressed like an elf, or walking next to someone dressed like an elf you command…attention. Everyone looked at Emily and would give one of a few responses: confusion (non Browns fans), approval (die hards), or laughter (somewhere in between).
Tailgating this time really was a whole new experience for us. It was a lot of fun to just hang out and throw around a football for a few hours. I was nervous at first because we really were just winging it – my parents never really tailgated, so I didn’t have any personal experience to work off of. I was just trying to imitate what I would see as we walked by the Munni Lot to the stadium.
As we walked by my parents would say things like, “that is where the crazy fans are before the game…getting ready.” I remember as a child I always wanted to be one of those crazy fans, which is funny if you know me because it is completely against my nature. It wasn’t until I got much older that I understood ‘getting ready’ meant drinking like crazy…
That being said, I think we did a great job. We had our grill, a fold out table, a table cloth, a football, beer, char coal, and lighter fluid. I had no idea how popular we would become because of our lighter fluid. There were at least a couple people that came by begging for some. Oh course, we were happy to share. There was also another fellow who came by in need of buns. He insisted on paying, but I told him I couldn’t take money from a Browns fan. He finally agreed and just took the buns…only to return a couple minutes later with two bud lights as payment. Great…I started with 12 bud lights on the day and now I had 14. I had no idea that bud light is an accepted currency while tailgating – I guess I did learn something on Sunday.
The game itself was typical DA…inconsistent. We came out flat…down 10-0 before we even knew the game started. People were falling asleep – we had all seen this show before…we knew how it ended. Cribbs, though, was not so fast to concede the lose. Following a Raven’s touchdown he returned the kickoff 90 some yards for a touchdown. Let me tell you – that woke us all up.
The Browns were alive again. They began to move the ball well and started to stop this rookie Joe Flacco. We managed to get a 14 point lead heading into the forth quarter. It was at this point a guy on the field started to point at us. I was initially thinking we were in trouble…
I had gotten into a little verbal altercation with the people behind us during the third quarter. I was saying something to Emily and he said, “Hey Kosar, your wrong!” (Ok, so I am paraphrasing it a little to keep things clean). I immediately turned to him and told him he could say whatever he wanted to about ‘Rob’, but do not bring Kosar into this – he is, after all, King. I don’t like fighting with our Browns fans, but I will defend Kosar at all costs. I quickly won the battle (even his friends admitted it)…
The guy kept pointing. Then, he picked up his camera. I got it. I picked up my sign and was waiving it all around. Emily and I looked over at the big screen and saw in big bright letters, “THIS YEAR.” It was amazing.
The sad thing is that none of this mattered. In the forth quarter we blew the lead. The loss was solidified by a late pick-6 thrown by DA. The crowd instantly starting chanting for Brady. I felt horrible for DA. Emily and I didn’t cheer. (More on DA/Quinn in my next post). It wasn’t DA’s fault – it was a team loss. BE had a dropped pass that would have been a 50 yard gain, the defense missed a lot of tackles, a lot of things went wrong before that interception.
I am putting this last part in here out of order because of its importance, so bear with me…
After packing up the car we began our walk to the stadium. Emily was doing her best impression of a ‘mascot walk’ and I was holding our sign high and proud. Again people would look at Emily, but since most of them were ‘now ready’ instead of smiling they would shout things like “Hey its the Brownie!” or “Come over here!”. What struck me the most though is when other couples looked at us. I could see a sense of jealousy in the eyes of the other men and a look of disbelief in most of the woman’s. I overheard one guy say “That is awesome” only to have his girlfriend reply, “That is intense.” At this point I felt such a sense of pride for Emily. At this time a couple years ago she was not a Browns fan. Heck, she wasn’t even a football fan. But now, she had spent her entire weekend preparing for a game, tailgating for the game, watching the game. She became a Brownie, she became Brown.
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