I actually have no geographic ties to Cleveland. My ties to the Browns revolve around my grandpa. He took me to me first Browns game when I was six years old in 1964. The two of us were very close. I had my Browns hat, my Browns shirt along with a Browns jacket. All things my grandpa had bought for me. He had a massive heart attack on New Years Eve that year and passed away the morning after on New Years Day of 1965. He was 49 years old.
I am much older than my younger brothers. Growing up in the greater Dayton area the Browns were always the home team until the Bengals came along in 1968. My dad was more of a Paul Brown fan than a Browns fan so he quickly followed the Bengals. My siblings were so young that they never remembered a time when the Browns were the home team and my grandpa died before any of them were born. But NFL players didn't really make that much money back then. They were more of the lunch pail variety than the mansion and car collection kind we see today. So with that in mind and in honor of my grandpa, I always remained a Browns fan. Through the good times and the bad it didn't matter. As most everyone who reads this board knows, I'm having a much tougher time with that right now. As such it makes me reflect and wonder what my grandpa would have thought about all of this.
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