I grew up an hour and a half from Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up, I came from a huge sports family, where just about everyone in my family was a die-hard Cleveland sports fan. I grew up loving Cleveland sports just like everyone else in my family. Now, anyone who is a Cleveland sports fan can probably relate, but it is not easy being a fan a majority of the time. You love your Cleveland team, but at the same time, you hate them.
Don’t get me wrong, the Cleveland Cavaliers are killing it this season in the playoffs, with setting NBA history and sweeping the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Cleveland Indians are even playing great so far this season, with a great record so far. Now, the Cleveland Browns, that is a different story. I mean, some people have said that if you ask Siri “where’s the saddest place in the world?” Siri will reply with directions to the Cleveland Browns Stadium, but after the draft, they are looking hopeful for this upcoming season, and if you ask any true Cleveland fan, they may even say this is the year to win.
One of the worst parts about being a Cleveland fan is knowing they have the talent and still don’t win. There are many times Cleveland sports make a good trade or a good selection at the draft, and everyone gets extremely excited that they have good talent and will have a winning record the next upcoming season. For example, when the Browns drafted Johnny Manziel, everyone was stoked and thought for sure they would win, because we had drafted one of the best players in college football, but that next season, the Browns only won a couple games, and Manziel wasn’t even a first string to start the season.
Another struggle of being a Cleveland fan, as I would like to say, is that they “choke." Realistically, I don’t think you would specifically call it choking, but I cannot tell you how many times I have been watching a sporting game where Cleveland was winning by quite a bit, then came back in the room 10-15 minutes later, and they were losing by just as many as they were winning by. Being a fan, that’s hard, and you sit there and wonder what happened, how does this always happen? Maybe the teams know they are expected to lose because they are Cleveland teams.
But if you are anything like me, that is, a die-hard Cleveland fan, you know that just a couple years ago, no Cleveland team did very well in any sport. The four years LeBron wasn't in Cleveland, or when you knew the Indians were going to play the Detroit Tigers that the series would be an instant sweep... plus the Cleveland Indians had an extremely hard time filling seats at Progressive Field, and the Cleveland Browns just seem hopeless sometimes. You would have thought there was absolutely no hope to be a Cleveland fan, or even reason to believe in the teams.
Being a fan for any team is more than just winning. One thing I hate is getting asked the question, “Why do you like the any Cleveland sports team, if they don’t win?” which I get asked a lot. Well, the answer is simple; they are my home, my team, and win or lose, I’ll still love them. Yes, the teams may not win every World Series, Super Bowl, or National Championship, but being a Cleveland sports fan is more than being just an ordinary fan; it’s supporting your home state, it's being optimistic and hopeful, and it shows true loyalty. Even though Cleveland sports teams have hit a dry spell, it doesn’t mean that they are doomed for years to come, and something great can’t happen. When that time comes around that a Cleveland sports teams does win a championship and everything turns for the better, we won’t have to jump on the bandwagon like a lot of fans of Miami Heat or the Pittsburgh Steelers do, we will be saying we’ve been here all along because we believed.
To me, being a die-hard Cleveland sports fan is like a life lesson, in a way. In life, you don’t just give up when you lose or you are let down or when things get hard, you get back up and keep believing and hoping things will get better. When the day comes around that all Cleveland sports are on the winning side, we will still be by their side, supporting them just like we have been all along. So win or lose, year after year, me as well as many other Cleveland fans will still be behind our sports teams.
