Browns fans cry out “Well, there’s always next year…” as magic runs out in Houston

(Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

If you are a Cleveland Browns fan you already know that being a fan is probably one of the hardest things to try and keep doing. It takes grit, patience, and a whole bunch of other stuff to keep cheering while all the while trying to maintain some sense of reality, so you don’t go stir-crazy. Yesterday’s devastating Browns loss to the Houston Texans has hit most of us like a brick wall. It’ll take a minute to get back up and when we do we unite in crying “Well there’s always next year!” 

We’ve already had a couple of those moments this season. Do you remember your feeling when your favorite running back Nick Chubb went down with a horrific knee injury in a Week 2 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers? Or how were you feeling after news broke of quarterback Deshaun Watson’s season-ending shoulder injury right after the dramatic win at the Baltimore Ravens.

To say this Browns season has been a roller coaster is the understatement of the year. There were countless injuries and this team kept pushing forward.

Then Cleveland found a 38-year-old former Super Bowl QB in Joe Flacco eating chips on his couch and invited him to start for their team in the wake of all the injuries to their quarterback room. Flacco immediately lit Cleveland and his team on fire throwing for 300 yards plus in every game and winning four games in a row to help propel the Browns to the playoffs.

Then this huge and menacing brick wall showed up in Texas and this team we loved looked lost and nothing like the team we fell in love with during the season. It’s a sad day if you are a Browns fan.

But it’s not like we aren’t used to this gut-wrenching feeling. We’ve never seen a Super Bowl since it started in 1967. The odds would seem to be in our favor but yet again here we are.

Some want to point to this extraordinary season and all that this Cleveland team had to overcome to get to Houston and the playoffs. While that’s the “feel good” talking point, we still are no closer to the ultimate goal of this franchise.

“Well, there’s always next year…” is truly the battle cry of this fan base. There’s nothing wrong with that but as you age, like this writer and true lover of the Browns, it becomes more of a reality that I will not see this team get to and win a Super Bowl.