CINCINNATI — While nothing will be determined this weekend in the Cleveland Browns-Cincinnati Bengals game — with a postseason spot already clinched — Browns fans are starting to look forward to a playoff run.
But for Browns fans that live in the heart of Bengals country, this weekend’s in-state rivalry has a little extra meaning.
What You Need To Know
- The Browns and the Bengals play in the regular-season finale Sunday
- While the Bengals are already eliminated from the playoffs and the Browns are in, the game still matters to fans of the Ohio teams
- It especially matters to Browns fans that call Cincinnati home
- Browns fans that live in the Queen City say their fandom has never wavered
Inside Dick and Lynn Harvey’s Cincinnati home, it’s obvious the two are loyal Browns fans. They said they’ve been fans for over 50 years.
Some of their favorite memories growing up in Cleveland in the 60s revolve around the Browns.
“I was in the Rocky River High School marching band and we performed at a halftime down at Cleveland Stadium and that was really special for me,” Lynn Harvey remembers. “I’ll never forget it.”
“Living on a country road in West Lake Ohio in the middle of winter, the snow plows would come through and that snow would get piled up three foot tall,” Dick Harvey said. “I would take a pack of ice, tuck it underneath my arm, and run through that snow that was freshly plowed pretending I was Jim Brown.”
The two started dating in the 70s. Work took them both to the Cincinnati area in the late 70s, but they never wavered in their Browns fandom, even in Bengals territory.
“It’s been hard finding other Browns fans,” Lynn Harvey said.
Justin Jones is one of those fans. He grew up on the east side of Cleveland and remembers being a Browns fan as a kid.
“Just depressing,” Jones said. “It was kind of that lull where we didn’t have a lot of highs to celebrate.”
But now, with a wife and daughter in Cincinnati, he calls the Queen City home. But that doesn’t stop him from cheering on his Brownies every Sunday with the same group of Cleveland fans he’s found here in Cincy.
“Never wavered,” Jones said. “No, I don’t. It’s been in my blood for a long time, unfortunately, and my daughter will be a Browns fan too when she’s old enough.”
And then there’s Andrew Naylor, who grew up in Chagrin Falls. He attends games with his buddies every year.
“They say you can be a die-hard Browns fan, there’s only one kind of Browns fan and that’s being a die-hard because otherwise, you would have maybe given up by now,” Naylor said.
Even after meeting his wife in Cincinnati and moving to various other NFL towns, he said he couldn’t imagine being anything but a Browns Fan.
“I moved here and met my wife, our first year dating, we actually took each other to the Browns-Bengals game in Cincinnati and in Cleveland and that was a blast,” Naylor said. “I lived in Baltimore, which was the toughest three years of my Browns fandom, and definitely would never become a Ravens fan. When I worked in Wisconsin, I actually worked across the street from Lambeau. So if I couldn’t give up being a Browns fan when I worked across the street from Lambeau Field and the Packers, I was never going to give it up.”
For these die-hard fans, it’s been a magical year and they’re enjoying every minute of it.
“I didn’t think it was going to be their year, but it’s so exciting that they’re in the playoffs,” Lynn Harvey said.