Canton
Browns owner Al Lerner is finally getting a return on his investment
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
BY
Steve Doerschuk
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER
BEREA Randy Lerner never asked for this.
He has tried to honor his late father in the way he manages his unusual inheritance, an NFL franchise.
He has tried to have fun owning the Cleveland Browns. Often, it has been hard. That Sunday in Baltimore, when a last-second field goal try took an evil bounce, it was impossible.
"That game came the closest to sending me into a kind of assisted-living status," Lerner said from his winter owner's box, a second-floor office filled with paintings, pictures and helmets.
The Browns seemed to have lost their second straight road game to a division rival on a long, last-snap field goal when Phil Dawson's 51-yard ricochet was ruled no good.
"I thought that I was starting to descend into full insanity," Lerner said. "I looked at the scoreboard, with triple-zeroes, and the final score posted with us losing."
The franchise's expansion-era luck changed that day.
Cont...