EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by offering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1.
Here is the favorite memory that exemplifies how @Mikelp_35 feels about the rival Browns.
“‘You don’t live in Cleveland’ by the late great Sam Wyche,” @Mikelp_35 tweeted to me Monday.
If you are a Bengals fan, you get it.
Wyche spoke to you that day in 1989, when snowballs from the crowd pelted officials and forced the Seahawks game at Riverfront Stadium to stop.
“Will the next person that sees anybody throw anything onto this field, point them out, and get them out of here!” sayeth the Bengals coach. “You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!”
The snowballs ended. While the final sentence lives on, the opening line of any Bengals Fan Magna Carta, Sam’s first sentence and the cause for all of this are too easily forgotten.
I bring this up because this is Browns Week, one that finally matters, and maybe nothing stirs your feelings and actions as a fan like a meaningful rivalry.
For better or worse.
The caffeinated emotions can fire you up and set you off, and not always the way you would like it. You already entered this week on edge.
After erupting in unison over a penalty-that-wasn’t, roasting the officials for securing a Jets upset, some of you turned on each other on social media. You either saw the sky falling or no evil, according to the other side, instead of just letting each other be. This, a week after an intoxicating win over Baltimore.
Can you take a minute to focus on Cleveland?
“I'm just excited you are actually talking about the Browns,” @DuderTha tweeted, “instead of the Ravens or Jets.”
Purge the emotion of the last two games, and maybe you can center yourself. You don’t need to ditch your phone and turn that OMG into an ohhhm, but a breath and reality check might help. Stay present in the moment of Bengals-Browns at the Jungle. You won’t need any extra adrenaline for this rivalry, this time. Or any intense rivalry, any time.
Here is why.
* * *
The more deeply you feel about your team, the more passionately you might abhor your rivals. They ooze evil. They are Spectre and the Borg on a Death Star.
At its best, this can be fun. At worst, this can be dangerous. We see the opponents and their fans as the villain, part of the collective instead of individuals. If it feels too personal, the rival too impersonal, we can lose ourselves. It can get ugly.
Even violent.
“For example, as fans’ perceptions of rivals become more negative, their consideration of acting aggressively toward them increases,” Daniel Wann and Jeffrey James wrote in the book, “Sports Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Fandom,” citing research by Wann and others.
Check out these study results summarized in the book. Fans were asked if they would consider harming an opponent, if guaranteed not to be caught or identified. The results:
-- About one-third would consider tripping a player or coach.
-- About half of that total would consider injuring a player or coach, even breaking a leg.
-- About 4 percent would consider murdering a player or coach.
Considering and doing are different, of course, but the point remains sobering.
Remember, you saw what Bengals fans powered by anonymity did back in 1989, dehumanizing their targets. Wyche did. The ending of his sideline sermon became a mantra, but it might help to remember what caused it, the pelting of officials, and his plea to single out anyone doing it. Wyche remembered Browns fans in the old Dawg Pound throwing objects at his Bengals players.
It might seem amusing if it happens to someone else. What if it happens to your team? Or you?
Is that how you want to show up Sunday?
* * *
I know. I know. Some of you might have lost that loathing feeling for the Browns when the beta version left for Baltimore and 2.0 turned into an annual also-ran until 2020.
“I can live with the Browns,” @TimPetersime tweeted. “The St**lers on the other hand…”
As for a favorite moment that shows how you feel about the Browns?
“All I’ve got is ‘You don’t live in Cleveland!’” @peppypatty64 tweeted. “My late brother would have good ones but I save all my vile & contempt for the Steelers ... except yesterday (against the Browns.) I have too many friends in Cleveland & all the bad years they suffered makes them more like us. My compassion>hatred. Sorry!”
No apologies necessary. We see through own eyes.
Still, can you remember the last time (without checking Google) you saw Bengals versus Browns when both had serious playoff hopes? Will that change anything once you start watching?
Geography can play a big part in rivalries, and this still is Cincinnati and Cleveland, the Battle of Ohio, and it was bound to be relevant this century. When you share a division, the potential is even greater.
You still like to needle each other. And if you are OK giving it and getting it, have at it.
“Well my in-laws are from Cleveland,” @DuderTha tweeted. “So yeah...they can't help but bring up (Joe) Burrow's knee every single time I see them,” Radio silence on Baker's (Mayfield) shoulder though. Apparently when you become a model org in one year you get to do that.”
“Who who who are we,” @ryzilla223 tweeted, “Browns basement AFC.”
So bust a rhyme. Enjoy the rivalry for what it is. Be as emotional as you want to be.
And if you start getting carried away, smile and remember what Sam Wyche told you. All of it.
Remember to email Bass at [email protected] or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.
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