11/15/2011

Where do I begin?

Do I begin by apologizing for not being around much this season? For not showing up and doing what I'm supposed to do... for not doing what I'm HERE to do? Because I probably should.
I admit it, I was more disciplined last season and I got my Water Dish Talks out more consistently. This season, not so much.

But then again - I'm just a mascot soap-boxing about my favorite professional sports team. It costs nothing to "tune into DDbubz" every so often and read my opinions. And reading my rambling's doesn't take up 3 hours of time in which you could be doing other - more productive - things. You don't have to bundle up to sit and read my opinions in minus 30 degree wind chills or spend $40+ on a ticket to sit in the elements and hear me go off about the way I see things.
And you certainly don't pay $8 for a beer to wet your whistle while you read what I have to say.

But most of all, I don't get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to show up every week and bring you Water Dish Talk.

Whether you're a regular DDubz supporter or you've just wandered in for the first time, my readers are smart, educated, football-loving souls.

And for that reason, I trust you all know where I'm headed with this.
If I'm going to own up, fess up and take responsibility for giving less than 110% to my duties here at DawgWARDens... then I think it's high time the Cleveland Browns... from the front office all the way down to the umpteenth-string back-up... owe us, the fans, the very same respect.

Own up.
Fess up.
Take responsibility.

Tell us you're sorry for once again being an embarrassment and an abomination in the sport of football.

For taking our money and giving us NOTHING in return.

For sitting so arrogant and smug in the knowledge that those of us who remain loyal and (dare I say) hopeful that one day.... ONE DAY... we might just be sitting in the right place at the right time and the stars might align in just the right sequence and Jupiter might be in retrograde with Mars or whatever... and we MIGHT just see a real contender take the field in Cleveland Browns Stadium... for all those maybe's, might be's and could be's... we still show up.

We still fork over our hard earned money. We still freeze in the cold, soak in the rain and bake in the sun to throw our best 12th Man effort behind our team.

We buy the tickets, we buy the shirts, the hats, the trinkets - you name it - we buy it.
But we're tired.

Like the bent, old farmer who's spent too many years working the back 80, breaking his back season after season, harvest after harvest - we're tired.

Heck, barring unforeseen natural disasters, at least the bent farmer has something to show for his efforts at the end of every season.
What do we have?

We have vintage film clips playing on the big screens - drawing more cheers than the present day on-field plays. Because those vintage clips show us men who cared, men who played hard and left it all on the field. They show us Jim Brown, we cheer. They show us Brian Sipe, we hoot and holler. They show us Bernie Kosar and we hit a fever pitch....... because we miss those faces.

We miss those days.
We miss the days when Cleveland had a football team.
A team worth cheering for.
A team worth sitting on the shores of Lake Erie in gale force winds with snow blowing in a vortex of white and wind chills hitting brutal lows for.

Now our most talked about highlight clips consist of disgruntled fans screaming at an empty Browns Stadium after yet another abysmal showing by a team that shows absolutely no promise at all.
And the saddest part of that clip?
That fan is a hero for filming it!

The video isn't even 48 hours old yet and it's gone viral... he's a hero for having the foot-stomping, fist-clenching, red-faced, meltdown-tantrum we are all on the verge of having!

Cleveland fans deserve better.
We deserve highlight clips that involve positive action ON the field.
We deserve memorable film highlights more recent than 1986.
We deserve a team that is fun to watch.
We deserve games good enough to actually earn mention during national post game analysis'.
We deserve an owner... a general manager... and a coach that care.
We deserve a real team consisting of players that tape up, suit up and shut up -- letting their talent do the talking and forcing their agents and the drama they bring with them to take a back seat to the job at hand.

We are Cleveland Browns fans and we deserve better.