Two minutes remained in the Browns-Bills game on Sunday when an interception was thrown. Most of the fans cheered, raised their arms in the air and pumped their fists.
A common scene in NFL stadiums.
But there was something disturbing about this one. The fans were from Buffalo. The game was in Cleveland. Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson was conducting a celebration to the dismay of the few Browns fans who already hadn't shuffled out of the stadium.
The pick put the
Browns at 0-3 and extended the team's losing streak to nine, the longest in the NFL. With games at Baltimore and the New York Giants looming, they are seemingly doomed to another lost season. In the silent locker room afterward, veteran middle linebacker
D'Qwell Jackson spoke in hushed tones about watching helplessly on his home field as Johnson directed the red-and-blue cheerfest.
?I don't like it whatsoever," he said. "I've been here a long time, and I've never experienced that, and it's embarrassing. It's a shame we weren't able to put out a better effort.?
But that may be the problem. The effort appears to be there. It's the talent that's missing. In the third year of the latest rebuild, the Browns have shown no evidence of improvement and provided little reason for optimism. Team president Mike Holmgren hailed a new era when he arrived in Cleveland to rescue the failing franchise. He had a plan. He would build a championship team through the draft. He said it would take time.
But even Holmgren can't justify the lack of progress, which was painfully clear in the defeat Sunday. Dependence solely on the draft can be risky when a franchise is in a total rebuild. It requires hitting on late-round selections. It often results in unworthy sixth- and seventh-round picks starting. It results in undrafted free agents receiving significant playing time. It results not just in youth and inexperience but players being put on the field before they are ready.
