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| Photo Credi:Cleveland Plain Dealer |
I think had it been portrayed as more of a protest of the Haslam family's awful ownership record ( and awful is being very lenient on my part), it might have been taken better by casual observers (Read non-Cleveland media/fans) and might not have been taken for the clown show that it became.
I understand the frustration.
I suffer plenty of it myself, but instead of it coming off as an angry fan base with an Howard Beale style "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore " harangue, it came across more as a fan base that found the whole thing funny- which was the last thing that anyone found amusing, but if you didn't know Browns fans, that's what you would think.
Here's an example- I was at work on parade day and they were mentioning on CNN and two of my least favorite people on the network were laughing at the Browns and the town.
Dave Briggs, a special type who has been so good at his job that he has been employed by all three cable news networks, offered that the Browns have no hope no matter what they do so they might as well celebrate something, even 0-16.
Coy Wire, a former player that generally annoys did raise one good point in mentioning that the fan base draws nice crowds in Cleveland to such events to show they care before then ruining it by saying that it's nice to see Browns taking things well with good humor etc.
That's not the message that should have been sent and not the message that I hope was intended.
The fanbase seemed pretty split on the parade.
Some seemed to think it was harmless enough, others thought it needed to be harder on the Haslams and still, others thought it made the city a punch line yet again to the national media.
On social media, a few of the Browns players weren't very happy as Emanuel Ogbah, Christian Kirksey and Danny Shelton all offered tweets criticizing the parade.
I didn't really blame those players for having such a reaction.
They tried hard all season and I don't think the fans really blamed the players for this mess, well except for the departed Kenny Britt, his lack of effort was received about as well by Browns supporters as Britt received many of DeShone Kizer's passes.
The ire of the fan base is aimed at the Haslams, the front office and at Hue Jackson, not the players, although the players should have been far more understanding of what Browns fans have been through,
The Cleveland Food Bank profited and that's always a good thing, so something good came out of this mess, but it didn't reflect well on the fanbase and the city on the overall.
It did show passion, but it also seemed a bit goofy and more than a bit of a vanity project for its organizer, who seemed to be originally well intended and then became a parody of itself and overwhelmed its original intent.
In the end, I wasn't really a fan, but it could have been far worse..
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