The Cleveland Browns have not always sucked

You can be the most naive of NFL fan to realize one thing. The Cleveland Browns suck.

Not only do they suck, they achieve new plateaus of ineptitude from week to week with ease. The latest episode of the Browns “Browning” comes this past Sunday as they were up 20-2 on the rival Baltimore Ravens when I had this haunting yet, correct vision of a Browns collapse.

Ever since the Browns returned to the NFL since 1999, they have been possibly the worst run franchise in all of American sports. They’ve finished in 3rd place or better only four times since 1999 and have only been to the playoffs once and that ended with an overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

However, the Browns have never been this terrible.

The Cleveland Browns classic and prestigious history has been tarnished over the past 20 years, ever since Art Modell decided move the Franchise to Baltimore. There was a time when the Cleveland Browns were one of the bedrock franchises in all of sports.

Their first foray into the NFL was one of the most shocking results in league history to this day.

The Browns upset the Eagles in 1950 

After the All-American Football Conference dissolved in early 1950, the NFL decided to bring in three teams from the now-defunct league they were the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts and San Fransisco 49ers. The Browns were champions of the league but the NFL establishment didn’t think the upstarts could compete with the lordly NFL.

Redskins owner George Preston Marshall even went as far as to say the worst team in the NFL could beat the Browns. Philadelphia Eagles owner and NFL Commissioner Bert Bell bought into the hype and decided to schedule his Eagles against the Browns in the seasons first game of the season. In the Browns first game as an NFL Franchise, they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in one of the most stunning, yet dominating win in NFL history.

The Browns ended up winning the NFL Championship that season which set of a decade of dominance.

The cradle of coaches 

The Cleveland Browns have a long lineage of coaches wether they be assistants or head coaches in the franchise history. Along with that, a few legendary coaches got their start as players for the browns. Here are some noteworthy assistants that roamed the sidelines line Cleveland.

Paul Brown: Blanton Collier, Weeb Ewbank, Lou Saban

Blanton Collier: Howard Schnellenberger

Sam Rutigliano: Dick MacPherson, Rich Kotite, Marty Schottenheimer

Marty Schottenheimer: Bill Cowher, Lindy Infante, Marc Tressman,

Bill Belichick: Nick Saban, Kirk Ferentz, Pat Hill, Eric Mangini

You would think that back in 1999 the Browns would use their long lineage of successful coaches and pick one off of the many available coaching trees, nope. They decided to go with Chris….Palmer. Yuck.

That hire set the tone for an almost two decade long string of hiring coaches who struggled to toe the line of mediocrity. My hope for the Browns in the next hiring process is to hire someone with some football pedigree, someone who actually understands what it takes to win at the pro level. Look, I love Hue Jackson and all but are we sure this is actually going to last 4-5 seasons? I sure as hell don’t.

They were built to compete

Say what you want about Art Modell but as long as he and Paul Brown were in charge of the franchise, they were competitive and not an outright joke.

During the run of Paul Brown, the Browns won seven conference championships along with three NFL Titles. Art Modell was just as successful, following the much publicized departure of Paul Brown in January of 1963 the Browns went on to win their last NFL Title and the city would encounter a long championship drought before that LeBron fellow won something recently.

Despite the rift that Brown and Modell had, it was clear they both wanted one thing, and that was to win. That mentality and attitude has been non-existent when it comes to the pro football team located in northeast Ohio.

Next: 2016 NFL season: Record predictions for all 32 teams

Now, I’m not saying that coach Hue Jackson and general manager Sashi Brown don’t want to compete in their first season but some of their moves have indicated otherwise. One of the biggest mistakes is not getting rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, something that came back to bite them in the butt in Week 1. 

It’s not like running a pro football franchise got difficult to run while the Browns were not in existence. We’ve seen some of the most inept franchises become successful over time and even the newest franchises have found themselves with good fortune.

It’s time the Cleveland Browns join the rest of the NFL in 2016 and act like they give a damn about football and start winning games again.