DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Does ESPN hate the Cleveland Browns?

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It's how I became a Browns fan and a Tigers fan. Living in NW Ohio that's who was on tv growing up. (pre cable)

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Same here. There a few Lions fans compared to Browns fans around here, even though we're closer to Detroit. I think this whole area became Tigers fans in '68 and never went back.

j/c

Almost every good point has already been covered in this thread (but you guys already know that won't stop me from adding my .02, right?)

Just to hammer a few points:

1. "Small" market: Despite the fact that the Browns have one of the biggest fan bases in pro sports (did you know that there is a Browns Backers chapter in Antarctica?), Cleveland is still considered a "small market" by The Nationals. This can't be disputed. So.... Cleve teams must do something extraordinary to get face time. When the Browns were perennial powerhouses, they got plenty of love... because they were- well, extraordinary. Until they return to those times, "The love you get is equal to the love you earn."

2. No superstars. When Josh Cribbs runs one back coast-to-coast, it gets face-time. When Willie "Sticky" Green put the dagger into Atanta's heart ("Run William, run!") in '02, we got to see that play at least 15-20 times over the next week. When Braylon double-clutched that pass against the Bengals, and caught it on his back in '07, they couldn't show it enough. Speaking of which, the '07 Browns got tons of press because the story was worth selling to the general public. They've actually TRIED to give the public a reason to follow us.... the Browns just haven't given them a reason to keep trying. Call me a hater, but I gots to call'em as I see's them.

3. Do something great, get publically slurped. When we de-pantsed the NYG on MNF, the coverage wasn't just about how the Giants imploded.... there was almost equal coverage about how we we were able to expose their tiny jocks with game-plan and execution. I still remember Chris Berman asking the rhetorical question: "Did the Browns just give the entire NFL the blueprint for taking down the vaunted New York Football Giants?" Granted, that attention only lasted as long as we were winning, but the formula for public media attention holds true for the ages: Win, and you're in.

(psssst- they loved us after we bamboozeled the Saints on national TV, too- I remember pundits on both ESP(i)N and NFLN laughing at Brees and his boys during that following week...)

4. String 3 consecutive wins together. This is the Twitter generation. Folks wanna know what's "trending" (Gawd, I HATE such 'trendy' terms....) and E-SP(i)N is no different. String a bunch of wins together, and they will get their research staff working overtime to do the homework all us Browns fans already have committed to memory. Then, they'll "drop it like it's hot" on all the rest of the nation like pennies from heaven.... and Dawgtalkers will immediately start dissin' their azzes for telling the World what we already know. It's just the nature of The Game. For National Media and Diehard fans alike.

We all gotta be who we are, and we all gotta do what we do.. We're all just hardwired that way, you know?

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I get better news, analysis, back-&-forth, and opinionated punditry on this and other similar sites than I can find ANYWHERE in the media. Why else would I be a regular here, if I could get my Jones fixed by ESP(i)N?

As a Browns fan, I say: "Let's all put on our O&B-colored glasses, and thank Prp for giving us a better, more factual, more interactive outlet than any of those National hacks could EVER provide. There's a reason that we're all here together... and ESP(i)N's [built-in] deficiencies is a HUGE contributing factor.

Bottom line:
We got US. Who needs ESP(i)N for anything?