Round Two: So many ex-Browns have rings, and we’re still waiting

Nearly 44 years ago, I was among the swarm of youngsters who stormed the field at Kent State’s Dix Stadium seeking autographs from our beloved Cleveland Browns at the conclusion of their controlled scrimmage against the Buffalo Bills.

It was July 1978. I was 10 years old, enjoying the summer time off between fourth and fifth grade. That was back when the Browns held their training camp at Kent State, which they did from 1975 to 1981 (before that, the Browns had training camp at Hiram College from 1952 to 1974). And on this beautiful summer day in the late ’70s, I wandered, starstruck, from player to player, each standing like a giant among Lilliputians, gathering as many signatures as I possibly could and relishing the feel of the soft Dix Stadium grass beneath me — the same grass our orange-and-brown gladiators had just done battle on against the Bills.