The Cleveland Browns turned a tie game, with a chance to kick a game winning field goal, as time expired into a loss in regulation. The kick was blocked and returned for a touchdown.

“Ugh, poor Browns fans!” Right? Wrong.

Every year they manage to do things that “only the Browns” can do. For instance, look at the 2014 NFL Draft. They hired an independent firm to find out who was the best quarterback prospect coming out that year.

The four major targets: Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, Fresno State’s Derek Carr, UCF’s Blake Bortles and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. They spent $100,000 to discover that the firm found Bridgewater was the best option. So, being the Browns, they went and traded up to draft Johnny Manziel. How on Earth can fans justify rooting for these people?

More recently, this season specifically, they’re almost daring people to stop rooting for them. They have their “franchise quarterback,” they have flashy new uniforms and then they start 36-year-old Josh McCown.

Didn’t they completely disregard that independent study and trade some other draft picks to pick this guy? Why don’t they play him?

Then, the geriatric McCown makes his first exciting play of his career and scores, but then he gets hurt and Manziel finally gets to play. This is the apex of the season.

Manziel is in. He isn’t great. He isn’t even particularly good. But, he is a reason to watch, something the team was seriously lacking up until then. For a game and a half, the Browns most popular player was allowed to play. It’s clear the Browns build off of this excitement. They have to, don’t they?

Maybe not. McCown was the starter again the next week. After another week McCown got hurt again, and Manziel was back again. He played against the Bengals and Steelers and they lost both games.

After Manziel spent 10 weeks in rehab, he’s told his team over and over again that he will not drink anymore. Then he goes on to lie to the Browns about the video that showed him with bottles of champagne at a club. Consequently, that cost him his recently named starting position and he was demoted to third string in Monday’s game against the Ravens.

I don’t feel bad for Browns fans. They see what happens every year and they somehow expect something different from this team. From Courtney Brown to Brandon Weeden to Johnny Football, bad decision after bad decision leaves me callus to the people who choose to expect something other than what they get.

Jacob Ruffo is an opinion writer for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].