DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Legacy Fans

I was born in 1954. My first memories of the Browns and their importance to the bonding experience of the men in my family occurs when I'm around 8 years old. You know the era. The fundamental understanding of that time was that the Browns were the best.

Through my adolesence, other adventures sidetracked my attention and I was somewhat out of the loop until the emergence of the Kardiac Kids. Obviously it is already a part of my DNA...of course we expect to win. As a foundation, we are the best. It's just a fact of history.

Then, another short transition and behold, the Dawgs arrive. This is when I'm raising my sons. My second son's first words were "Bernie Kosar" and "Bengals Stink!." Both are still diehards. I say that with seriously mixed emotions. I love those boys and my heart aches for them.

Which brings me to a question that entered my mind recently which I wish to pose to the roster here.

To what extent in this current era are there young Browns fans between, say, the ages of 10 and 18 and...why? And if you are their dad, how did you do it?

My son is 12. He slept with a Browns mini football in his Browns jammies from the time he was born. His room is a Browns, Buckeyes and Red Wings shrine. My proudest moment....he was two years old riding in the cart at Krogers and a guy and girlfriend sporting steelers gear walked by. Without any prompting from me, he yelled "Booooooo!" and held his nose. He was on my lap the first game of the return. He watches most games....we have a good time with infrequent cheering and frequent critique. I've taken him to a few games and had a good time. His first game, a preseason game against Detroit when he was 4 or 5, on the first series of downs he asked, "where's the yellow line?". He wants to go to a game this year, but I absolutely refuse to dump money into this disaster of a season. Lastly, it helps that he has friends that are also Brown fans.

I don't remember my dad, grandpa, uncles or older cousins encouraging me to be a Browns fan. It was just something that occurred on Sundays and that we did together. I remember watching maybe ten minutes of football and then going outside in 20-degree cold with my friends and pretending to be the Browns and playing football as long as we cound stand it. The best move was trying for the diving pass reception at the sideline. In a lot of ways it was similar to playing soldier and attempting to be gunned down as dramatically as possible. Back inside for 10 minutes more football on TV...and then outside to repeat the process. (I'm not ADHD for nothing). It was so good to be a kid in the early sixties.

I have a grandson whose dad is a Bengals fan. Geez! Talk about GRIEF.

I so appreciated the family aspect of this Ohio tradition.