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Cursed -- Tribe, Browns, Cavs, Belichick and a Duck
Published: 10/25/2007 8:48 PM
Last Modified: 10/25/2007 8:48 PM

Does anybody else feel sorry for Cleveland?
The Cleveland Indians squandered a chance to be in the World Series. The Tribe blew a three-games-to-one lead in the ALCS, continuing the sports struggles of a city that deserves a good bounce rather than a drop-kick to the chin.
Let’s recap:
--The Cleveland Browns have never been to a Super Bowl. They reached the AFC Championship Game three times in a four-year span, but lost to the Denver Broncos in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Two of the games were heartbreakers – John Elway took his team 98 yards for a game-winning touchdown on one occasion and Earnest Byner once lost a fumble on what could have been a game-winning TD run for Cleveland.
Worse yet, loyal Cleveland fans lost their team when owner Art Modell packed up and moved his franchise to Baltimore after the 1995 season. After three years without football, Cleveland had to start over from scratch with a new batch of Browns.
--The Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948. They settled for runner-up finishes in 1954, 1995 and 1997.
--The Cleveland Cavaliers were once so mismanaged, trading away first-round draft picks like they were a dime a dozen, that the NBA had to rescue the franchise from itself. Because of the Cavs, the league create a rule stipulating that you couldn’t trade away first-round picks in consecutive years.
Of course, the Cavs got really good when they had Enid native Mark Price at point guard, but unfortunately they happened to be good during an era when a fellow named Michael Jordan was playing for the Bulls.
LeBron James helped the Cavs to their first NBA Finals appearance last season, but they got swept by the Spurs and (gasp!) James was caught wearing a New York Yankees hat at an Indians game this year.
--A network created a super-funny television show about an Ohio radio station in the late 1970s. But WKRP was located in Cincinnati rather than Cleveland. Bridesmaid, again.
--Also in the 1970s, Marvel Comics published a book called “Howard The Duck.” The premise was what if Donald Duck landed on a planet of humans, sort of like “Planet of the Apes” in reverse. Many of the stories occurred in Cleveland. In 1986, Lucasfilm and Universal Studios produced a “Howard the Duck” motion picture and Cleveland was the city in which Howard lived. Siskel and Ebert called it one of the worst films of the year and it was such a bomb that a Universal executive was asked to resign.
Blame it on the Cleveland curse. And not even Bill Belichick was immune.
From 1991-95, Belichick coached the Browns. He managed one winning season and was run out of town with a record of 36-44. Cleveland was due for Super Bowl seasons. Instead, Belichick got ‘em when he changed addresses.



Reader Comments 1 Total
Eric (5 years ago)
One positive thing about the Indians being terrible for all of those years: we got a great baseball movie in "Major League". Maybe Rick Vaughn could help them now.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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