No. 54: ART MODELL & BROWNS FANS / A Cautionary Tale from Cleveland: "Don't mail in the scene-setter." To the agony of defeat, I add the agony of indignity.

When I went downtown to write about the Browns' farewell, the search for man-on-the-street anecdotes paid off in an unexpected way. The piece that showed up in print didn't tell the whole story.

The Cleveland Browns’ 2022 season ended yesterday well short of the playoffs. Again. In tribute to lovelorn NFL fans in that fading burgh, I offer up a chapter from my Audible Original, also titled How to Succeed in Sportswriting (without Really Trying). Here’s a link to this complete catalogue of my miseries on the Canadian Audible site, also available in Cleveland and elsewhere in the U.S. through audible.com.

The storyline takes a couple of big left turns that you don’t see coming, the last of them below the paywall. Also at the foot of this entry: The piece that I filed when the original iteration of the Browns left town back in ‘95.

From the Audible Original:

DON’T MAIL IN THE SCENE-…