Want to rile up Browns fans, outside of the usual sticking points like talking about backup quarterbacks and the draft? Bring up the uniforms or cheerleaders. No fan base is more passionate about the clothing giant men wear or the women on the sidelines who wear very little. Both topics will be the subject of plenty of debate in the next few years.
As owner Jimmy Haslam and team president Alec Scheiner have previously said, the Browns will be wearing new uniforms, redesigned by Nike, in 2015.
And, according to a source in the organization, the team has also started moving toward adding cheerleaders for the 2015 season. The team has had meetings and started preparations to introduce a squad and is currently in the consultation phase of the process. Reached by Scene this week, the Browns declined to comment through a team spokesman.
As renovations at FirstEnergy Stadium march on toward completion before the start of the 2015 season, so do the Browns’ efforts to modernize not only the stadium but also the game-day experience. With the fancy scoreboards also come the wiener dog races, for example.
Some may say that tradition is still important for a team that hasn’t won anything of significance since Lyndon Johnson was in office. Others say the Browns have fallen behind and need to relate to a younger, more progressive audience. Bernie Kosar says a whole bunch of things, but none of them will be for the Browns’ preseason broadcasts (speaking of the team moving on from traditions).
The Browns are currently one of six NFL teams without cheerleaders, but contrary to popular belief, the Browns did once in fact employ cheerleaders back in the team’s earlier days.
In 2010, Bill Lubinger of the Plain Dealer wrote a piece explaining that the Browns did have cheerleaders multiple times. The most recent was in 1971 when high school girls in orange turtleneck sweaters performed on the sidelines (they were not paid, incidentally). He quoted Pat Modell, wife of former owner Art Modell, as saying, “We had them one year. They looked crazy. It was ridiculous.”
And so they will have them again. Hopefully, less ridiculous. But we’ll wait for Dee Haslam’s reaction.
Remember, the team’s vice president of fan experience and marketing is Kevin Griffin who came from Seattle, where he helped engineer one of the more engaging game-day experiences in the league and built goodwill with the Seahawks’ fans for open communication.
Will cheerleaders completely fix their recent image problem? No, of course not, but they wont hurt it either. The more your team’s name is out in front of children, the stronger their bond to that team will be.
Fans need to stop seeing the Browns through a pair of rose-colored shutter shade glasses. This is not the 1980s anymore and the Browns need to build a new legacy.
And other recent moves prove the Browns aren’t beholden to vestiges of their heritage as they try to stake out a new brand for themselves.
The team announced this week that they would be replacing native son Bernie Kosar on the preseason broadcasts.
Kosar claimed it was because of his slurred speech caused by years of concussions. While that could be part of the issue, it’s much more likely to be the fact that he berated an opposing third-string quarterback and was arrested for suspicion of a DUI last season.
While the alcohol related charges for this case were dropped on Monday, the PR damage was already done.
The truth is that Bernie’s issues have gone far past what transpired last season. It was just about 18 months ago that Kosar called into do an interview with Bruce Hooley on ESPN 850 WKNR and sounded, well, hammered.
I worked for WKNR at the time and can tell you that it was a huge ordeal behind the scenes and ended with Kosar “taking some time off” from our shows.
This is not a good look for the Browns organization that is desperately trying to shake the stigma of being bumbling fools.
So maybe it is time to move on from Bernie on our broadcasts. Maybe it is time to embrace a change in uniforms. Maybe it is time for cheerleaders to walk the sidelines at FirstEnergy Stadium.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2014.
My mom was a Brownie in ’57. Still have the programs! She is still a Brownie living here in California. Go Browns!
My favorite aspect of the Kosar drunk call to Hooley was the aftermath. Rizzo sounded like such a boob trying to make excuses for Kosar’s actions the following day. Pure gold.
I personally don’t need them. I guess if you gotta, you gotta… I represent in Seattle, so I love listening on the comp, live, then w/ NFLRewind, I watch it the next day. I really do like listening on the computer/radio. Reminds me of when I was a little guy. But I would never really see the cheerleaders, so I just don’t need them. Also, it would seem mean to have them out there in Dec-Jan. Brrrrr….
Bottom line (pun intended):
How many more points will these under-dressed bimbos help to put on the new, shiny, oversized, overpriced scoreboard?
Yeah, I thought so…
Case closed…
Chuckles the Clown
Hey Will, were you too worried about the backlash if you did an opinion piece on Bernie rather than bury it in the cheer leading article?
I think having high school cheerleaders is still a good idea to encourage families
to come to games let them wear their school uniforms. Scantily dressed cheerleaders do not really represent our Browns and would be more of a distraction.
The last thing we need is cheerleaders.
Good riddance, Bernie. Your best days are at least twenty years behind you. Listening to you on the airwaves was painful at best…so I didn’t. You were yet another reason to keep the radio off when the Browns were on. It was a wise (and overdue) decision to pull the plug on your “color” (and colorful) commentary.
Chuckles the Clown
Welcome Cleavage Browns!
Nothing hotter than a frozen cheerleader dressed like an eskimo…
My mom, Connie Pyers, was a Brownie in ’54 or so, which I believe was the first year.
What is the purpose of cheerleaders? Men already watch football, they don’t need another incentive. Women won’t be impressed by the cheerleaders. You can’t hear or see them in the stadium, so how do they change the fan experience? I’m guessing there will not be male cheerleaders, so it’s sexist and I’m against it. Even if there were male cheerleaders, I still don’t think it would affect the fan experience. Now the drumline is awesome! You can hear them and see the big drums when they march across the field. They definitely amp up the fan experience.
Now, now, we’re going to have Cheerleaders because the rest of the teams in the league are doing it, so we need to get with the times. In unrelated news, other teams in the league are winning, but still no word from the Browns on when they’re going to do that also and get with the times.
the Browns cheerleaders back in the day were classy and professional. I’m sure they’ll manage to ruin that proud tradition with a bunch of scantily clad sluts for the drunken fans to drool over and harass.
I personally would love for the Browns to add cheerleaders. And, I would be one of the first in line to try out. I live in Cleveland and I was also a cheerleader. It’s not about being sleezy, its about showing young children that anything is possible if you work for it. At least that’s what my coach always told me “Somewhere there is always a little girl looking up to you wanting to be just like you.”
It’s about time we had cheerleading squad. It’s embarrassing that the owners have never had the ambition to create one.