Even a Cleveland Browns win comes with depressing reality check

The Cleveland Browns have started off the 2022 NFL season 1-0, which is, sadly, a historic start for Cleveland in the modern age. 

The hopes for the Cleveland Browns’ season, and the verdict on Baker Mayfield’s revenge game versus his former team, hung on Cade York’s 58-yard field goal in the final seconds of the game.

York shot the ball through the uprights, Cleveland roared in celebration, and the Browns took home their first win of the season.

It was monumental to see the Browns kick off the season with a 1-0 record, but sadly, it’s a bigger deal than many football fans may realize.

A Reddit post by a New Orleans Saints fan on r/nfl illustrates just how dire the past decade has been in Cleveland.

“The Cleveland Browns Have Tweeted “1-0″ Which Is Significant…” the post began.

“…as it’s the first “1-0″ tweet in the franchise’s history. Twitter began in 2006.”

Cleveland Browns celebrate not being awful in the Twitter era

If the Browns haven’t won a season opener since Twitter was invented, when was the last time they did win their first game?

It was all the way back in 2004, when the Browns exacted revenge by walloping the Baltimore Ravens in a 20-3 rout.

Their win streak was short-lived, and the Browns finished with a 4-12 overall record under then-head coach Butch Davis.

By November 30 of that season, Coach Davis resigned. “As Browns Plummet, Davis Quits as Coach,” read a New York Times headline the following day.

Coach Davis resigned after “a nearly four-year tenure filled with bizarre on-field incidents, lingering quarterback controversies and unmet expectations,” wrote NYT’s Damon Hack.

It only went downhill from there, as the Browns are on their eleventh head coach since Davis’ resignation.

Another marker of just how miserable the franchise has been over the past two decades is that the Browns saw a winless season back in 2017 before seeing a win in the season opener.

Perhaps playing against Baker Mayfield gave Cleveland the extra motivation they needed to pull out a win, as they did only win by a mere two points on a last-minute field goal.

Still, a win is a win, and in Cleveland, they haven’t been all that easy to come by. Since the Browns returned to the NFL back in 1999 after a four-year hiatus, the team has now won only two season openers, giving them a record of 2-20-1 in that first week back.

What may make Mayfield fans bristle a little more is that during his four seasons in Cleveland, he was never able to break that inglorious streak.