Factory Of Sadness
FanSided

Cleveland Browns, Have History In London’s Football Past

By Nick Dudukovich

Oct 30, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns former quarterback Bernie Kosar during halftime between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Jets won 31-28. Mandatory Credit: Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns former quarterback Bernie Kosar during halftime between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Jets won 31-28. Mandatory Credit: Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Cleveland Browns will play a game in England in 2017, but it’s not the first trip across the pound for the Dawg Pound.

Gt your fish, chips and Guinness ready to go, because the Cleveland Browns are going overseas to play a home game in 2017.

The Browns will play the Minnesota Vikings at Twickenham Stadium on Either Oct. 22 or Oct. 29.

But this isn’t the first season the Browns trekked across the pond.

Just ask Bernie Kosar, who along with Randall Cunningham, was featured on the cover of the “American Bowl” program for the 1989 event against the Eagles.

The contest, played Aug. 6, 1989, was an exhibition game. It was the fourth NFL game ever to be played in England. The Browns lost 17-13. The NFL first touched down in England during the 1986 campaign, when the Bears beat the Cowboys in a 1986-matchup.

During April of that year, Kosar and owner Art Modell traveled to England to promote the event, which would be played four months later.

When smartphones and mass internet use was still a pipe dream, fans of UK knew Kosar and the Browns very well.

“It was amazing how they knew me,” Kosar told UPI at the time. “We ran a clinic for some kids 11 or 12 years old and they knew all about me. They knew statistics. They knew all about the Central Division. One kid even asked me why the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t sign any free agents. Nobody in Cleveland ever asked me that question.”

That’s a pretty funny quip regarding the Bengals. Somethings never change, although they could say the same thing about the Browns spending habits these days.

At that time the Browns were one of the must-see teams in the NFL. Prior to 1989, Kosar had led the Browns to two AFC championship games.

Kosar versus Elway. It was the 1980s version of Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning.

The 2017 Cleveland Browns will play the Minnesota Vikings. The addition of this contest means four NFL games will be played in the UK during next season.

It’s not hard to imagine why the Browns will play a game overseas next season. All or the orange empty seats helped turned the Factory of Sadness into the Factory of Severe Depression.

The Browns, despite being the most hapless team in the NFL, should still attract an audience from England’s $4 million estimated NFL fans.

“American football in the U.K. is booming. Sunday television audiences have more than doubled, and the Super Bowl audience has increased more than 75 percent. According to internal research, the U.K. has almost 4 million avid fans, with a growing fan base of more than 13 million,” wrote Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.

The league has played games in England annually since 2007. The Browns haven’t participated yet, so it’s not much of a surprise to see Cleveland be forced to play overseas.

Next: 4 Browns Who Should Be In The HOF

The Browns will have a Bye Week immediately following the London contest “ensuring that the players have adequate time off before their next game to adjust to the time change and recover from the travel,” according to the NFL operations website.

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