DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Man Moved to Cleveland b/c of Browns (Some of you older DTers know him)

what's the dark side, kingodawg?
as far as eric barr (not bahr as some cleveland.com poster say) he's crazy, but I give him credit for truly following his "dream" as delusional as it may be. his former job was safe and secure and he left that...he's got bigger balls that the station with all the balls--wtam 1100.

this is the type of story you hear about right after the guy does something crazy. I think security should keep a close eye on him during games, and around practice facility.

stalker much?

seriously this guy's story just seems waaaaaaay to creepy for me!

either he is running from a problem, or he is about to create one!

The crimefighter days.....I remember now, cripes I thought that trolls like that would always be forgotten.

I love the Browns and all but I couldn't do what he's doing. Just wouldn't work for me..

When I first read the article I thought it said "he had a family," as in wife, kids. I was going throughout the whole article. Went back and read it again and realized it said "he had family." Still pretty crazy, but if he wasn't leaving anyone behind to do it then I guess good for him for doing what makes him happy.

Jeez, is it that crazy?

The GF and I have talked before about spending a year in Cleveland and following the team for a whole season. I think it would be a helluva experience.

Even if you could afford it, why would you follow this team around? Jeez, talk about painful. Get the Directv NFL package and watch all the game at home. You can turn the channel when it gets ugly often.

I wouldn't mind taking 4-6 weeks off in summer while cruising the country on my bike so I can see assorted MLB stadiums. I think that would be a blast (I wouldn't be able to be away from my wife and kid that long though). Oh well, something to do in 15 years maybe.

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Even if you could afford it, why would you follow this team around?

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I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he enjoys it

Follow-up story in today's PD:

Browns fans make newcomer Eric Barr feel welcome

Friday, December 10, 2010, 3:38 PM

John Campanelli, The Plain Dealer

Just like his favorite team, things are looking up for Browns superfan Eric Barr. The Plain Dealer carried a story about Barr this football season after he quit his job in Connecticut and moved to Northeast Ohio to be closer to the team he's cheered on since he was a child. He came to Cleveland without job prospects, without family, without furniture and without any connection -- besides football -- to this area.

"People move to Florida because they like palm trees, they like sand, they like beaches," he said at the time. "I like being in the Muni Lot at 4:30 a.m."

Barr, 33, chose the suburb of Berea so he could be within walking distance of the Browns' training facility.

He rolled into town in September in his 1992 Nissan Sentra (odometer at 190,000 miles, no radio, no air conditioning) with only a few pieces of luggage. He left behind a job -- with benefits -- helping supervise a warehouse for a lighting company in Connecticut.

When he was profiled by The Plain Dealer in October, he was sleeping on an air mattress. In his refrigerator: mayonnaise, cheese and Hot Pockets.

His story was picked up by blogs nationwide and struck a chord with Browns fans. The morning the article was published, Barr says, "things started getting really weird."

People began calling with job leads and offers of free furniture. They stopped by his apartment to leave business cards, clothing, bedding, beer money and boxes of Browns memorabilia. A woman dropped by because she wanted Barr to meet her daughter. Another met him for coffee and told him how she just got out of a relationship and was on the hunt.

"I didn't bring much baggage with me, only two suitcases," he says. "I didn't want any more."

Rhea Tantlinger and her woodworking husband, Chuck, Cleveland natives living in Tennessee, made him an oak bed, then drove up to Berea to drop it off.

"I couldn't believe it," says Barr. "He said, 'Just make sure you do something nice for someone else.' "

Aside from the bed, Barr insists he kept only a coffee table. The rest of the furniture, he says, went to a nearby church. He did draw a line, however. "The only thing I wouldn't accept is used mattresses."

The feelings weren't all positive. He says some of the comments on blogs questioned his story, his intelligence and his sanity.

(The Plain Dealer conducted a criminal background check on Barr before running the article, and, aside from traffic tickets, he came back clean.)

"People think I have a few screws loose," he says. "It's funny how people can judge someone's life without knowing you. . . . I'm not going to lose any sleep about it. I lose sleep over the Browns, not over anyone's comments."

In all, Barr says he received 61 job offers or leads. Many were too far away or ended up being scams and "pyramid schemes." Others were sales jobs, and he says he doesn't feel like he's the right person for sales.

He did a few odd jobs, walking dogs and working a landscaping project, using the money to buy a couch and love seat ("brown leather, of course," he says).

"Now I can actually entertain people," he says. "When people came over, it was like one of those hibatchi or hitatchi . . . one of those restaurants that you sit Indian style and play Uno cards on the floor."

All those calls meant a cell phone bill of almost $300, a shock for a guy who's living on carefully mapped-out finances.

"My electric bill was pretty good, though," he says. "It was only $7.61. That's what happens when you have only one lamp."

He admits he's put on 11 pounds since the move, which he attributes to not working, not having a set schedule and not being able to say no.

"I go to these restaurants, and people notice me," he says. "And they buy me beer. They're like, 'You're that guy.'

"I never turn down a free beer. What starts out as a salad and water turns into three or four Guinnesses."

The fourth business card dropped off at his apartment came from Spitzer Autoworld in Parma, a 15-minute drive from Barr's apartment.

After taking -- and passing, he points out -- a drug test, Barr started full time this past Monday at the car dealership on Brookpark Road. He's a porter, running errands, cleaning cars and doing anything that needs to be done.

"I liked his story about how he became a Browns fan and why," says Jeremy Swartz, general manager of the dealership. "I think he's a great kid. I'm looking forward to getting to know him a little bit better and I think he's going to be with us as long as he wants, I hope."

When he gets his first paycheck, Barr says he'll get cable TV and a winter coat. His fridge is now stocked with real food.

He hasn't heard from the Browns, although his season ticket representative did give him passes to go on the field before the game against Carolina last month.

More long term, Barr hopes to enroll in graduate school at Cleveland State and become an elementary school teacher. Kids, he says, need male role models.

He's been back to Connecticut, too, for his mother's birthday. The trip turned out to be a defining moment.

"When I was on the flight, people were asking me where I was from," he remembers. "I was going to say 'Connecticut' but then I said, for the first time, 'I'm from Cleveland.' "

© 2010 cleveland.com

Hmmm

This is scary .....

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A woman dropped by because she wanted Barr to meet her daughter. Another met him for coffee and told him how she just got out of a relationship and was on the hunt.

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No job .... just moved to town ...... chasing a football team ......

And he has women chasing him? LOL

I still see Gordo fairly often.

He sat with me at a couple of games this year. I also talk to him regularly on a weight, fitness, nutrition website which we are both members.

A stop sign attatched to three quarter inch plywood makes not only a kitchen table, but a great conversation piece as well at 18 or 19.

Not that I would know anything about such a thing of course.



Yeah I've seen Cube post and met him. From what I gather from the article he sounds like a hopeless romantic and idealist as it pertains to the Browns.

As a poster? No comment.

Meeting him? No comment.

As some have mentioned, there's nothing wrong with following your dream and many never seem to actually do that. At times it makes you look back and wonder what might have been. So I do hope he finds a job and makes it okay. I have no ill will towards anyone.

The logic involved in his decision? Well, if we always use logic we would never follow our dreams. So I'm not going to get into the whole logic side of things on this issue.

jmho