Six Signs that Cleveland Sports Are Cursed

Growing up off of the shores of Lake Erie is hard enough without sports. Combine the weather: mostly cold, rainy, snowy, and cloudy, with the poverty: in 2004, Cleveland was diagnosed as the most impoverished city in the country, and you've got a tough place to live. Sprinkle in the "Curse of Cleveland Sports", and it should come as no surprise that Cleveland also has ranked seventh in the country in alcohol consumption according to Forbes Magazine. Cleveland sports teams lose in a way that no other sports franchises do. They save their biggest meltdowns and chokes for the biggest possible games, as you will soon see. Cleveland players go down with season-ending injuries constantly, and Cleveland's bad luck in trades and drafts is second to none. In Cleveland, the phrase, "There's always next year" is uttered more often than "hello" or "nice to see you again." Read on to learn about the seven examples that prove, without a doubt, that Cleveland is blessed with a sports curse unparalleled by any other city. Please leave your comments, citing any examples that I may have missed. You may try to argue that your own city has a bigger curse than Cleveland, but that is an argument you will lose.

#1) "The Fumble" 1987 AFC Championship Game - Browns at Broncos. One of the greatest comebacks in AFC Championship history was staged by the Browns at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The Broncos capitalized on mistakes and penalties made by the Browns to take a 21-3 halftime lead. Trailing 28-10 in the third quarter, Bernie Kosar (how you can throw!) hit Earnest Byner for a 32-yard touchdown to make it 28-17. Byner then scored again on a 4-yard TD run, making it 28-24 Denver. Later in the 4th quarter, Kosar hit Slaughter on a 4-yard TD pass, tying the game 31-31. After a 23-yard touchdown pass from Elway to Sammy Winder made the score 38-31 Denver, the Browns drove down to Denver's 8-yard line. With 1:12 seconds left, Byner ran off left tackle, and seemingly had a clear path towards the end zone, when he was stripped by Jeremiah Castille, who recovered the fumble. Game, set, and match...Denver.

#2) "The Cleveland Crunch". At first glance you may say, "Wait a minute, the Cleveland Crunch were a GOOD Cleveland sports team," and you'd be right. The Crunch dominated the NPSL (National Premiere Soccer League), with league championships in '94, '96, and '99. But the fact that a soccer team was winning championships in Cleveland is all part of the curse. Do you know how frustrating it is to be a fan of the Browns, Cavs, and Indians, only to watch them bungle year after year, while the SOCCER team, with literally hundreds of die-hard fans, racks up multiple titles? The very thought of some horribly misguided Crunch fan arguing with a Bulls/White Sox//Bears fan from Chicago over who has the better sports city, citing Cleveland's numerous "soccer titles" is downright embarrasing. It is almost as if the powers that be decided to give Cleveland a certain number of titles, and the Crunch got three. Side note, the aforementioned teams from Chicago have a combined ten major titles since 1950, while the Browns/Cavs/Indians have a combined four (all four being Browns' NFL Championships in the pre-Super Bowl era).

#3) "The Shot" - Eastern Conference Playoffs, First Round, Game Five - Cavs vs. Bulls. Granted it was only the first round of the playoffs, but Jordan's "shot" on Cleveland with time expiring remains one of the biggest daggers in Cleveland sports history. During this era, the Cavs and Bulls forged a rivalry that was one of the biggest in the NBA. Cavs fans HATED the Jordan-led Bulls, and Bulls fans felt likewise. To recap the end of the game, a Jordan jumper put the Bulls up by one, 99-98 with six seconds left. Craig Ehlo then put the Cavs back on top 100-99 on a layup with three seconds left. Then came a play that will simply go down as "The Shot." I'm sure you've seen it a million times, since the sports media in this country seems to show it about once a day, and if you don't watch sports television, you can see it on a Gatorade commercial on any channel. The inbounds pass went to Jordan, who sailed in the "air" as a helpless Ehlo tried his best to stop the inevitable. What followed was a series-winning jumper, numerous fist-pumps by Jordan, multiple championships by the Bulls, and a horrible era of mediocrity (I'm being nice here), by the Cavs. In the nine seasons following "The Shot", the Bulls won six NBA championships. During those same nine seasons, the Cavs, on the other hand, missed the playoffs twice, lost in the first round of the playoffs five times, and won no championships.

#4) Injuries. When an athlete puts on a Cleveland jersey for the first time, it should come with an insurance policy in the lining. Cleveland players go down with injuries fast and furiously, especially the players that Cleveland fans place the most faith in. As a microcosm of Cleveland sports injuries, one need not look any further than the "new-era" Browns. ("New-era" meaning the Browns from 1999 on, after they were on extended hiatus thanks to Art Modell). The Browns' number one pick, and number one overall pick in 2000 - Courtney Brown - played six NFL seasons. During that time, he missed 51 games while playing in only 45 because of injuries. This past season, he was cut by Denver because he could not pass a physical. During his time with Cleveland, he suffered from ankle, knee, and biceps injuries, undergoing four major surgeries. In 2004, the Browns selected Kellen Winslow Jr. with their number one pick. Two games into his rookie season, Winslow broke his leg and missed the remainder of the year. Before he could make a comeback in 2005, Winslow was in an off season motorcycle accident that sidelined him for the entire 2005 season. He came back in 2006, but was hampered by soreness in his knee all year and was listed as "questionable" on the injury report for almost every game. The Browns' second round pick in 2004, Sean Jones, suffered a knee injury in training camp and didn't see the field at all in 2004. If you're counting, that means that the Browns' got a combined total of two games out of their first two draft picks in 2004. The trend continued in the 2005 draft, when the Browns selected Braylon Edwards with their first pick. In week ten, Edwards suffered a season-ending knee injury that also continued to hamper him in 2006. The Browns then picked Brodney Poole with their second round pick, who missed three games his rookie year. Just like the Browns recent draft picks, their recent free agent signings have gone down with injuries at a terrifying pace. LeCharles Bentley, the Browns' biggest free agent signee in 2006, went down with a knee injury ON THE FIRST DRILL IN TRAINING CAMP! He, subsequently, missed the entire 2006 season, and Bentley's status for next year remains cloudy with question marks. In the 2005 off season, the Browns signed Gary Baxter to a multi-year deal, a solid corner from Baltimore who had not suffered a major injury in high school, college, or the pros. Baxter ended up missing eleven games in 2005 with a torn pectoral muscle, and in 2006, he tore his patella tendons in both knees, which may result in the end of his career. All this, from the last seven years of just ONE Cleveland Sports team. If I were to go on and on about the history of these types of injuries in all Cleveland sports over the last fifty years, you'd be here all day.

#5) "The Drive" - 1986 AFC Championship Game - Broncos at Browns. I space this entry far from "The Fumble" for the sole reason that, as a Cleveland fan, they are too painful to type about back to back. The Browns, led by Marty Schottenhiemer (who we'll take back any time now), and owning the best record in the AFC at 12-4, were up 20-13 on the Broncos, at home, with 5:32 left to play. After a muffed kickoff by Denver gave them the ball at their own two-yard-line, Elway staged one of the most historic drives in NFL history, taking the Broncos ninety eight yards and tying the game on a five yard touchdown pass to Mark Jackson. At one point in the drive, the Browns sacked Elway on second down for an eight yard loss. On the next play, Elway hit Mark Jackson for a twenty yard completion and a first down. This would be the first loss in a three-part series of monumental meltdowns in Cleveland over the next four years. In a four year span, Cleveland suffered "The Drive", "The Fumble", and "The Shot". Any time a game is given an actual name with "the" in front of it, it is a game of historical significance for it's level of excitement. Cleveland was on the OTHER SIDE of that historic excitement three times in four years. That is not even to mention the 1989 AFC Championship Game, in which the Browns trailed 21-3, came roaring back in the 3rd quarter to make the score 24-21 Denver, then let the game (and another Super Bowl opportunity) slip through their fingers in the fourth quarter. That is also not to mention that the 1987 Cleveland Indians were picked by Sports Illustrated to be the best team in the American League. When The Cleveland Curse combined with the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx, the result was a solid 101-loss season for the Tribe, finishing with the worst record in baseball. Put all of this together and I would venture to say that Cleveland fans suffered more from 1986 to 1989 than any city has ever suffered in a four year span.

#6) 1997 World Series - Indians vs. Marlins. A decade after the Browns ripped out Clevelanders' hearts everywhere, it was the Indians turn to take a pull. After making it to the World Series in 1995 and coming up short (imagine that) to the Atlanta Braves and their amazing pitching staff, the 1997 Indians looked ready to take the series after disposing of the Yankees and the Orioles in the ALDS and ALCS, respectively. The Indians lineup was one that featured future Hall of Famers Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Orel Hershiser, and (maybe) Omar Vizquel. The Tribe was also loaded with names like David Justice, Sandy Alomar Jr, Matt Williams, Bip Roberts, Marquis Grissom, Tony Fernandez, - all multiple All-Star selections at some point in their career. Most Tribe fans thought this HAD to be the time to erase the 49-year championship drought for the Indians. The Tribe jumped up on Florida 2-0 in the third inning on a two-run single by Tony Fernandez. Then, the inevitable happened. The Marlins scored one in the seventh, making the score 2-1, on a Bobby Bonilla HR off Jarret Wright. In the bottom of the ninth, in game seven of the World Series, the Indians were two outs away from their first World Series title since 1948. But, the Marlins tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Craig Counsel, then won the game in the bottom of the eleventh when Edgar Renteria lined a single off Charles Nagy's glove into center field, scoring Craig Counsel for the Series-winning run. It wouldn't be in typical Cleveland fashion however, unless they had a shot to score in the tenth inning, which they did, but Alomar Jr. was thrown out at home trying to score from third on a Grissom ground ball with one out. I still have no clue what he was thinking.

Honorable Mentions include the Ron Harper trade, Rocky Calavito, the 1989 AFC Championship Game, Art Modell, Don Rogers, and Red Right 88. So there you have it, six factual examples of how Cleveland and all it's major sports teams are undoubtedly cursed for some unknown reason. Since the inception of the Super Bowl in 1966, Cleveland has not won a professional sports title. The Browns have never won a Super Bowl, the Cavs have never won an NBA Championship, and the Indians have won only two World Series in 105 seasons of play. There are too many other examples of the curse to go on.....Please post your comments and any I may have missed (there are many).