30 things being a Browns fan has taught me
1. Just because your team has a lead and there is no time left on the fourth quarter clock, you still may lose.

2. Loyalty means little, but it means enough to keep it.

3. Brown and orange are beautiful together.

4. Bernie Kosar was meant for Cleveland Stadium.

5. Don't be fooled: John Elway is a villan.

6. Cheering for the Steelers in Cleveland is kind of like being a communist in the 1950s.

7. Cleveland is a football town, and things have to be beyond hopeless for fans to stop coming.

8. The 2009 Browns are beyond hopeless.

9. Just because someone can talk a good game doesn't mean the game they know about is football.

10. At the end of the day, you appreciate being on the doorstep of greatness after you've been kicked to the curb of mediocrity and forced to stay there for 20 years.

11. Being a Browns fan isn't a tragedy. But being a Browns fan can teach you about tragedy. Don Rogers, Eric Turner, Eddie Johnson and Lyle Alzado are reminders of real tragedy.

12. It's wrong to hate an owner for moving a football team.

13. It's wrong not to forgive an owner for moving a football team.

14. It's wrong to forget that a greedy owner moved your football team.

15. Even mentioning the name "Mike Phipps" makes my father cringe.

16. No matter its classy look and expensive price tag, Cleveland Browns Stadium is a cheap imitation.

17. Writing about the past often is a tool to keep you from writing about the present.

18. Bill Belichick really is a great coach.

19. I only root for him when his team plays Pittsburgh.

20. A Browns win brightens a whole Sunday.

21. A loss can ruin a whole week.

22. Romeo Crennel wasn't a great head coach.

23. But boy does Mangini make him look good.

24. I'd love it if I could get Martin Mull, Drew Carey, Kenny Chesney, Condoleezza Rice and maybe Hank Aaron together to watch a Browns game, and talk (or sing) about nothing but football.

25. Al Lerner was a good man.

26. Randy Lerner probably also is a good man.

27. But I'm starting to think we'd be better off if anyone else had won the team.

28. I will always remember the Browns of my youth: Kosar, Slaughter, Mike Johnson, Matthews, Metcalf, Mack, Byner, Perry, Langhorne -- as the real Browns.

29. Joe Thomas, Josh Cribbs and Phil Dawson are real Browns.

30. I still hope real Browns will emerge out of this mess, but that hope is fading like a Cleveland fall.