Even if you are not a football fan, you should understand how the Cleveland Browns win today was an historical one. It may just be a football team, but for the amount of disrespect that team receives due to popular dissension, and for the amount of negative energy surrounding the team and the city of Cleveland, I think to me it spoke volumes. Then, when they go on a winning streak, all of a sudden they will start to appear in prime time on Monday Night Football.

I guess what irks me the most is how people latch on to some popular idea and run away with it, without providing much of their own thought. I guess it’s simple that way, to be ignorant.

People will also talk about the Cuyahoga River and how it caught on fire. What they don’t tell you is that most all waterways were polluted at that time in cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York. The only one you hear about now is Cleveland. Maybe it’s because the football team has been terrible, and it’s fun to poke fun at the city for why this might be. Maybe it’s because it’s an old rust belt city, and the economy pales in comparison to what it was in the past. Or maybe- maybe it’s because people just feel the need for whatever reason to take some mainstream opinion and make it their own. Some of these people live in old rust belt cities that are not in their prime. I know, because I live in one.

Yet the people of Pittsburgh don’t smile and say hello like the people of Cleveland. The people of Pittsburgh wait on the other person to do that, or don’t say it at all. You aren’t greeted as warmly in the self-dubbed “city of champions.” Now that their sports team is on the decline, people are offering up tickets more than ever before. However, there is rarely a Browns game that is blacked out from television, because they are generally always sold out. Even when the Browns are terrible- with seasons like 4-12, and 6-10, the stadium still draws a crowd.

Who wants to spend a dime and sit and watch a team lose for 3 hours so badly? Maybe people of Cleveland understand that this sports team is symbolic of the weak being strong. Maybe it’s because they find a bit of hero in the Browns, and it sparks the hero inside of them.

I think for me, it just silences the wrong kind of people if just for a minute when they win like this. This team hasn’t won like this in a very long time. I guess if you keep the faith in something, like this football team, you eventually see victory. If you shut out all the voices and all the negativity, it helps your momentum.

Here’s to the Browns. More than just a football team.