Football Americain

Last night my family went to the Browns - Giants game. Now, we are from New York and my father has been a lifelong Giants fan. He and my brother showed up to the stadium in their Giants regalia - my dad wore an old Shockey jersey and Jeff was a little more muted with a light gray and blue sweatshirt that a little more subtly indicated his allegiance. Honestly, I was a little worried about how my father would be recieved by 80,000 drunk Browns fans, because they can be a bit scary at times. I've seen Browns fans pick fights with Steelers fans just for wearing Pittsburgh jerseys.

My dad, thankfully, is a pretty good natured and affable guy. Takes an awful lot to set him off. Plus he's a big dude and while he's in his 50's, I can't imagine anyone would want to really mess with him. He got a few comments but I think that most people were expecting such a blowout that no one really gave him a hard time. In fact, most fans woud make a comment and then sidle up to him to whisper in his ear what he thought the point spread was going to be. Winslow was in the hospital, Jurevicius is physically unable to perform (what does THAT mean?)...everyone expected to lose.

So when Cleveland scored that first field goal, we were kind of astonished. And that was just the beginning. The Browns actually smoked the Giants. SMOKED THEM. It was genuinely amazing. People were cheering and jumping for joy. Perfect strangers were high-fiving eachother, drunks were barking (nothing unusual here), and for once Cleveland had something to celebrate.