Sunday night’s wild-card win in Pittsburgh over the Steelers will be one of those games fans will talk about decades from now with breathless smiles. It’s the kind of positive sports memory Clevelanders don’t get near often enough. It was a breathtaking display of postseason football from the Browns.
Deep breath.
If you don’t remember how to celebrate a Browns postseason victory, you’re not alone. Anyone born after about 1990 will have no memory of the last time it happened, back in the 1994 season. It’s been 27 long years and many Browns fans feel every dang minute of it.
Deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
This win exorcises a lot of demons. Doing it in Pittsburgh, where the team plays every year but has just six wins in the last 30 seasons, makes it even sweeter. Doing it after racing out to a 28-0 lead and then nervously nibbling away every last fingernail as the Steelers crept closer and closer, it’s an amazing and unforgettable experience.
Deep, deep breath.
Memories of playoff catastrophes of Cleveland sports past rushed back into prominent consciousness. How could they not? The Drive. Red Right 88. The Fumble. Those are indelible scars Browns fans wear both proudly and sadly, and until Sione Takitaki made his huge interception with just over three minutes to play, we were all wondering what fresh hell this epic collapse would be forever known by.
Let it out. Let me hear you scream!
The Browns won a playoff game. In Pittsburgh. Without the head coach. Without the NFL’s best left guard. Without a functional practice in two weeks. With every excuse in the book ready and valid, and they didn’t need any of them. The Browns won because they were the better team. Better players. Better coaching. Better decisions.
Breathe in the sweet smell of victory, Browns fans. Savor it. You’ve earned it.