At least the fan who got slammed put up a fight
Kevin Kleps
[email protected] 12/25/2005
One Browns fan had finally had enough.
Enough to drink (more than enough, it seemed).
Enough losing.
Enough seeing his team get beat up by the Steelers.
So he decided to do something about it with 9 minutes, 9 seconds left in Saturday's 41-0 debacle of a loss to Pittsburgh at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Out the drunken fan ran onto the field. And he, too, got beat up by the Steelers.
OK, it was just one Steeler. A suplex by linebacker James Harrison did the trick.
After tossing the fan onto the ground, Harrison made sure the drunken fool stayed there until the police took him off the field in handcuffs.
As he was leaving, the fan was yelling and trying to wave his restrained arms. It was by far the most inspired effort of anyone wearing orange all day.
"It's disappointing and surprising," Browns guard Cosey Coleman said after his team was outgained, 457-178, and allowed eight sacks. "For it to be a home game in front of our friends, it's embarrassing."
The drunken fool is probably no friend of Coleman's, but he was one of the few people on the Browns' side Saturday.
The Steelers spent their Christmas Eve in Cleveland surrounded by tens of thousands of Terrible Towel-waving fans. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the difference between black and gold and orange and brown in the stands was as significant as the numbers on the scoreboard.
There were the Browns' first five possessions, all of which were three-and-outs.
There were the first-half statistics. The Browns were outgained, 251-22, averaged 0.8 yards per play and had six rushing attempts for minus-1 yard.
There was the Browns' final drive of the game, which concluded with the Steelers preserving the shutout - fittingly on a huge hit by linebacker Larry Foote on Browns tight end Aaron Shea - as the remaining fans in attendance roared their approval.
"We didn't give the fans a reason to stay," Shea said.
They didn't give them a reason to do anything. But leave. Or run onto the field.
"It's embarrassing for them to come out and watch us play like that today," Browns cornerback Daylon McCutcheon said. "We got knocked out today. If it was a boxing match, we got knocked out."
That's just it.
The Browns didn't even compete.
The hits were as vicious as the final score. Rookie quarterback Charlie Frye was as frenetic as a 9-year-old on his way to the tree this morning and the Browns more overmatched than the genius who got slammed to the ground.
"I felt like they were guessing our plays," said Browns receiver Antonio Bryant, who had four catches for 50 yards six weeks after saying no one on the Steelers could cover him.
"This is one game," Shea said. "This is about as bad as it can get, but it's one game out of 16."
But is it?
Is it when your biggest rival now has won 11 of the last 12 and 18 of the last 21 games against you?
Is it when you're 0-5 in the division, you didn't have one of your seven first-round picks since 1999 on the field in Week 16 and you've reached double figures in losses for the fifth time in seven seasons?
"We have a ways to go, and that's obvious," said Coach Romeo Crennel.
The drunken fool would certainly agree.
"We didn't show up," said tight end Steve Heiden. "Nobody showed up today."
Well, one guy did.
And he got treated like the rest.
KKlepsNews-Herald.com
