O-fer Pete's sake: Blue Jackets, Browns among teams on outside looking in | Rob Oller
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The NFL championship game is on our doorstep, and with it a suspicious package that a handful of disappointed fans want removed ASAP. The contents are more depressing than dangerous, because the box is empty.
As in no Super Bowl delivery again this year.
For unfortunate fans of four NFL franchises, including Cleveland, Sunday marks another reminder that a trip to the Super Bowl is a dot on the horizon that never draws closer, no matter how much it appears their team is moving toward it.
With a title game invitation seemingly always lost in the mail, fans of the Browns, Lions, Jaguars and Texans must be content to live vicariously through others, in this case, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chiefs seek their third Super Bowl win in five trips; the Eagles their second in four. But winning is not the issue, at least not for fans who have yet to experience the satisfaction of reaching the summit. For them, just getting there would be enough of a sweet reward.
Quick aside: It is at this time every year that my Buffalo friend boohoos about it hurting worse to lose the Super Bowl – four consecutive years, in the case of the Bills – than to fail to qualify in the first place. Rubbish. Sure, the pain of losing is both intense and lasting, but the experience is worth it.
Back to the mountaintop analogy: Would you rather be Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who in 1953 took the second step onto the summit of Mount Everest, behind Sir Edmund Hillary, during the first successful ascent of the world’s tallest peak? Or would you prefer to remain at base camp, squinting longingly at the high-risk, high-reward adventure playing out high above?
Most Browns fans would accept second place in a heartbeat. As would fans of the Lions, Jaguars and Texans.
As would Blue Jackets season ticket holders. It’s not just NFL fans who agonize over always missing out on the current version of their sport’s title game. The Blue Jackets are one of five NHL teams never to have reached the Stanley Cup Finals, joining the Arizona Coyotes, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken.
Over two decades the CBJ have not come within sniffing distance of a Stanley Cup Final – we will address the Jackets’ woeful ways in an upcoming column; hint: it’s bad – but in the long run of legacy, the difference between almost making the Cup finals and never coming close is like almost striking oil.
NBA fans are not immune to similar sadness. The NBA has more teams (seven) forever on the outside looking in than any of the Big Four sports. Begin with the poor Los Angeles (nee San Diego) Clippers, who have disappointed two different fan bases – three if you include their beginnings in Buffalo – with their 45-year drought of never having made the Finals. It doesn’t help that the Clippers share the City of Angels with the Lakers, whose 12 titles in Hollywood are one more than the combined haul of Detroit (3) Houston (2), Milwaukee (2), Cleveland (1), Portland (1), Dallas (1) and Toronto (1).
Joining the Clippers in Finals qualifying futility are the Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings, who in a previous life won the 1951 NBA title as the Rochester Royals, which puts no bounce in the step of Sacramentans.
But let’s return to the NFL, since the Super Bowl is nigh, and because one of Ohio’s two pro teams is the Moses of pro football, having been stopped just short of entering the Promised Land.
It may be hard for younger Browns fans to believe, but once upon a time – 1987 for those old enough to have watched it live – the Charlies came within an eyelash of making the Super Bowl. If only John Elway played quarterback the way he runs Denver’s football operations, Cleveland would have gone on to face the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI in the Rose Bowl. Instead, well, you know. A year later, on Jan. 17, 1988, Cleveland had another excellent chance to beat the Broncos and advance to Super Bowl XXII in San Diego, but, well, you know. Thirty-five seasons and one Art Modell atrocity later, well, you know.
So Browns fans are left with this: Philly or K.C.? The Iggles wear the color of envy. Appropriate. The Chiefs’ red and yellow, when mixed, make orange. Hmm. Sadly for Cleveland fans, that’s the closest their team will come to playing in the Super Bowl. But there is always next year. Again.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cleveland Browns Columbus Blue Jackets strangers to NFL NHL titles
