Some folks get to choose their teams, while some are thrust upon them. Football, for me, is a sport where my teams were driven into my heart at an early age, and there's nothing I can do about it. For better or worse, I'm stuck with the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cleveland Browns. Being a Browns fan has been a tough road. Memories of John Fucking Elway and Ernest Fucking Byner still can drive me to distraction. And then there was Art Fucking Modell tearing out a city's heart when he moved the team to Baltimore. I was at Sports Illustrated at the time, and ended up working on the story, which would have been easier if I could have kept from crying.
The Browns have a new quarterback today, having signed Jeff Garcia, who was let go by the San Francisco 49ers. This means the Browns have officially given up on Tim Couch, who was supposed to be the franchise when he was the reborn Browns first pick in 1999.
Couch deserved better than he got from Cleveland fans -- the memory of some fans cheering when he got hurt sickens me as much as those memories of Elway and Byner. But I understand the frustration that they have expressed with Couch. Cleveland has lived and died with the Browns for so long, and had very little reward to show for it.
Garcia is a good QB, and he's got speed that Couch could only dream of. I think it's a good signing. If nothing else, it's enough to get me excited about Cleveland's chances in 2004, which I haven't been for a while.