Cornerback Joe Haden and quarterback Robert Griffin III are envious.
The two popular members of the Browns have been watching LeBron James and the Cavaliers dominate in the NBA playoffs, and they aspire to generate the same type of palpable buzz for Cleveland.
“That’s not even a question,” Haden said Wednesday after organized team activities.
Actually, Haden subscribes to a theory popular among sports fans in Northeast Ohio: A championship Browns team would trump everything else.
“I talk to [Cavaliers forward] Tristan [Thompson] all the time,” Haden said. “He knows if the Browns were winning like the Cavs are, it’d be a whole different vibe. Not to knock it at all, but it just is what it is. So just being able to know how much love they show the Cavs and how much the fans are still supporting the Browns, even though we haven’t really gave them anything to be proud of, it just shows that when we do flip it around, it’s going to be special. We know that. We honestly, seriously do.”
It’s been nearly 52 years since the Browns delivered the city’s last title by a major professional sports franchise. They did it by defeating the Baltimore Colts 27-0 on Dec. 27, 1964, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
The longest title drought by a city with three or more major pro sports franchises famously belongs to Cleveland. ESPN recently featured the futility in the documentary Believeland, and Haden and Griffin watched the film.
The Cavaliers flirted last year with soothing the city’s painful memories of “Red Right 88,” “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” “The Shot,” “The Move, ” Jose Mesa’s meltdown and “The Decision.” However, James and Co. fell to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
Now the Cavaliers are charging toward the finals again. Winners of their first 10 postseason games, they defeated the visiting Toronto Raptors 108-89 on Thursday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“We understand how long it has been since this city has experienced dramatic success,” Griffin said. “It would be big for the Cavs to win it this year, so we are rooting them on, but we also know we have business to take care of.”
The Browns haven’t been competent enough to take care of much of anything since their rebirth in 1999. They have earned just one playoff berth and two winning seasons during the expansion era.
The arrival of a new coaching staff and front office, though, always gives the masses hope the latest regime will be different than the others. So coach Hue Jackson is a source of optimism, at least for the time being.
“Seeing how the fans are, seeing how much they really, really love and support the team and they just want a winner and they stay behind the Browns, even though we keep taking all these [losses],” Haden said, “I feel with the team we have now, with the coaching staff we have now, everybody has an opportunity to change that, to make this thing special.”
Haden has been a fan favorite and unabashed Cavaliers supporter since the Browns drafted him seventh overall in 2010.
“I embrace Cleveland,” Haden said. “I feel like I am a part of Cleveland.”
Nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas has said he feels the same way time and again. Thomas, the third overall pick in 2007, and Haden are the two most-tenured Browns players. Between them, they have experienced one winning season. Thomas was a rookie when the Browns went 10-6 but fell short of qualifying for the postseason. The Browns have gone 47-97 during his tenure and 28-68 during Haden’s. They went 3-13 last season, prompting owner Jimmy Haslam to clean house.
The misery of Haden and Thomas isn’t lost on Griffin, the Browns’ projected starting quarterback who joined them in March by signing a two-year, $15 million contract as a free agent.
“Those guys have experienced a lot in their time, and they have been great players and great leaders, but they want to win,” Griffin said. “They want to have a winning team and go to the playoffs and go far in the playoffs and hoist that trophy. That is part of the reason that Coach Jackson came here. It is the reason I came here.
“We feel like they deserve to be winners because they have worked for it. That is a motivator for us. Every day that we show up, we know that we have Joe Thomas, who is a first-ballot hall of famer, and Joe Haden, who might very well be a hall of famer, and we want to make sure we help those guys win football games, so that they can enjoy that, and not just for them, but for the city, for the community.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.