The Browns Blues: Two Decades of Utter Frustration: Why Everything Kept Going Wrong for the Cleveland Browns

by Terry Pluto

Overview

Why did everything keep going wrong for the Cleveland Browns?

From their 1999 return to the NFL as an expansion team through their winless 2017 season, the Cleveland Browns had the worst record in the NFL. And their fans had ulcers.

Veteran sports columnist Terry Pluto explains why everything kept going wrong. This detailed report on two decades of disappointment takes a behind-the-scenes look at upheaval in the front office, frustration on the field, and headaches and heartache in the stands.

His earlier book False Start: How the New Browns Were Set Up to Fail told how the NFL hamstrung the new franchise. Who could have predicted the limping would last 19 years? This book picks up the story.

Season after season began with hope in spring for the NFL draft (“the Browns’ version of the Super Bowl,” a fan called it) … often a new coach or GM or quarterback (or all three) … then the losses … and back to rebuilding.

Pluto reviews all the major moves—draft choices and deals, hiring and firing and reshuffling—and the results. If you’re a Browns fan who wants to understand what went wrong with your team, this is the place to start.

Includes heartfelt and humorous opinions contributed by fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598511000
Publisher:	Gray & Company, Publishers
Publication date:	10/31/2018
Pages:	255
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Terry Pluto is a sports and faith columnist for Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer and the author of more than 30 books. He has twice been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the nation’s top sports columnist for medium-sized newspapers and has received more than 50 state and local writing awards. He was called “Perhaps the best American writer of sports books” by the Chicago Tribune in 1997.

Table of Contents

Contents Browns Key Front-Office Personnel by Season, x About Writing This Book, 1 Introduction, 3 It Started With Tim Couch, But Don’t Blame Him, 7 Spergon Wynn and Tom Brady , 20 Here Comes Butch Davis!, 27 There Goes Butch Davis, 34 Browns Jerseys, 43 Here Comes Phil Savage!, 51 Could It Have Been Different for Brady Quinn?, 60 The Halley’s Comet Season, 72 Why Josh Cribbs Was Special, 78 Browns Quarterbacks , 87 Randy Lerner’s Desperate Decision, 93 What Could Go Wrong?, 102 When the Big Show Came to Cleveland, 110 The 2012 Draft: How It Went Wrong, 123 Browns Coaches, 133 The Curtain Drops on the Big Show, 139 Josh Gordon: Talent, Suspensions, Frustration, 144 Ten Years Was Enough for Randy Lerner, 150 How Rob Chudzinski Ended Up Coaching the Browns, 157 It Should Have Been a Great Trade, 162 Mike Pettine’s Turn, 168 How Johnny Manziel Ended Up with the Browns, 176 When It All Fell Apart . . . Again, 188 The Awful, Terrible Browns Draft Pick Barely Mentioned, 194 The Accidental Owner: Randy Lerner, 200 Browns Loyalty, 209 The Browns and the Numbers Game, 215 Why Didn’t the Browns Pick Carson Wentz?, 227 The Tidal Wave of History and Frustration, 235 They Really Did Play Like a Brown, 245 Can They Finally Get It Right?, 253 Acknowledgments, 259