CLEVELAND, Ohio — Snow is falling sideways, and the air hurts your fingers. Thermometers read single digits, and even that seems high to those braving the elements.
On any given bitter, blustery winter Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium, patrons wonder: Can somebody turn the heat on?
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam considered the question this week during the NFL owners’ meetings in Orlando, Fla., where the future of Cleveland’s football stadium took center stage during ownership’s meeting with reporters. Essentially, the Haslams see two paths forward: First, a full-scale makeover of the current stadium at its current lakefront location. Second, a new domed stadium in Brook Park, which, among other things, would end Browns fans’ decades-long duel with mother nature.
But at what cost?
Stories by Jimmy Watkins
I’m not trying to start a debate over local tax allocations or stadium lease negotiations, or any other -ations, for that matter. Nor am I ignoring how ridiculous it sounds to spend bags of public money renovating a venue that can’t be used 75% of the year. But I will say that playing the Cleveland Browns in a temperature-controlled environment feels, at minimum, like a strange football fit.
Because this franchise, like its fan base, prides itself on thriving in any element. It runs the ball and plays defense when the weather threatens forward passes. And pivoting from that identity means pivoting from a core Cleveland sensibility:
Complaining of cold? Bundle up, then suck it up.
Don’t even try explaining this to a fair-weather football fan, whether they fit the phrase literally or figuratively. Casual Browns viewers are numb to the badges of honor assigned to players who play sleeveless in December. And sun-kissed southerners can’t even stand the thought of stepping outside in sub-50-degree temperatures, which is kind of the point.
Bad weather can win games for the home team conditioned to play in it, as Cleveland saw last season. The Browns’ top-ranked defense deserved credit for holding 49ers quarterback (and Arizona native) Brock Purdy to the second-lowest passer rating of his career during last season’s Week 6 win over San Francisco. But so did the windy and rainy conditions, which might’ve helped push kicker Jake Moody’s game-winning field goal attempt wide, and pushed Purdy, who only played in heavy rain one time at Iowa State, outside of his comfort zone.
Of course, the rain hurt Cleveland’s offense, too. An indoor stadium would suit quarterback Deshaun Watson, who played his best seasons in Houston’s domed NRG stadium. It would attract a wider variety of fans, not to mention more concert acts. It would, frankly, transform Cleveland’s football stadium experience.
But are we sure that’s what Browns fans want? Do they really want to feed into the NFL’s evolution toward fluffy, 7-on-7 football, which suits AFC North rivals Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson as much as it does Watson? Do they really want more novice football fans who ask you, oh so politely, not to swear at the referees? Do they really want to alter the city’s football identity?
I thought AFC North football carried a different connotation than other divisions. I thought only certain quarterbacks could hack it in Cleveland’s cutting winds. And you can tell that Cleveland has built its roster — with heightened emphasis on trench play around its star running back — with the weather in mind.
If the Browns add a roof, they lose those novelties. Maybe that shouldn’t matter to taxpayers being asked to foot half of Cleveland’s next stadium bill. And maybe Browns fans’ pride in frozen fingers stems from brain cells left in the cold too long.
But sometimes when the snow falls sideways at Cleveland Browns Stadium, the memories stick longer. Sometimes the wind chill helps Cleveland make a playoff push. And on rare occasions, a franchise’s ethos mirrors its fans’, which is why you’ll never hear a Cleveland player complain about the cold — and why it would feel strange to watch the Browns play in a dome.
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