Cleveland Browns, Their Fans Get Raw Deal As a Result of COVID-19
Perhaps a testament to the arrogance of attempting to have an NFL season during an ongoing pandemic, the team that brought so much joy and hope to a community, a fanbase that needed so much of both, the Cleveland Browns have been irreparably damaged by COVID-19 as they approach their first postseason game since 2002.
The Browns are currently down nine players and seven coaches as they try to prepare to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. They may get a few back, assuming they have no lingering effects from the virus, but they are going to be down enough of both to be unrecognizable from the team that fought so valiantly much of this season.
There's no fixing this situation just as there's no reversing the terrible effects that so many have had to suffer as a result of this virus. If the NFL were to delay a day or few, it won't change the issue. The NFL would need to put the playoffs on hold for a couple weeks to get the Browns whole again, assuming they don't endure more positive tests in that time.
Even when the NFL bent over backwards to accommodate the Baltimore Ravens, they were still a shell of themselves the next game, coincidentally against these same Steelers the Browns are set to face this week. It wasn't until the following game where the benefit was felt for the Ravens and the Browns have to win to see another week.
There will undoubtedly be fans and players who believe this team can rally and will their way to a victory against virtually impossible odds. Maybe there's a scenario where they can, but when Cam Heyward is lining up against a rookie or a player who has never played an NFL snap in his life, reality will quickly set in and the concern will likely no longer be about victory or defeat, but getting out of the game with Baker Mayfield and Nick Chubb alive.
That concern for the safety of the Browns players brings up a question of whether it's a good idea for this game to happen at all. If this was a bowl game, they wouldn't play it. The Browns would opt out and simply move on to next season. If the situation gets worse, they probably should err on the side of caution and forfeit the game.
It's an incredibly helpless feeling knowing the Browns are being marched into almost certain defeat that has nothing to do with talent or tactics, but a disease. All the grit and tenacity the Browns can muster likely won't matter.
It sucks.
There's no getting around the fact that this situation is as unfair as it is irreparable. It's genuinely awful to think that a player like Joel Bitonio, the longest tenured player on this team, will be unable to play in what would be his first playoff game.
It's even worse for someone like Olivier Vernon, who played so great the second half of the year, suffering a ruptured Achilles' in week 17 that now almost seems in vain. He gave everything for this team to get an opportunity to get to the postseason and neither he nor the team can compete the way they want.
Kevin Stefanski, who seems the obvious choice to win Coach of the Year, won't be in the stadium when the Browns take the field in the playoffs.
The Browns have had a great season, enduring all kinds of challenges as they were able to win 11 games for the first time since 1994. They have proven they were a legitimate team with an incredibly bright future, a great coach and one of the best young quarterbacks in the league. Getting to the playoffs was one of the goals of this season and even when the NFL expanded the field to seven teams, fate required the Browns to collect 11 victories to qualify.
This playoff game was to be a celebration of this team as much as anything, recognizing all they had achieved this season while getting a good sense of just how far they were from being able to contend for the Super Bowl. The experience of this playoff atmosphere was to help this team understand the level of intensity necessary to win their first Lombardi trophy. Sadly, the game has been cheapened by this situation and it's now difficult to see much, if any benefit from playing it.
It just sucks.
