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The team were a laughing stock not so long ago but the team’s new-found energy and competitive spirit is embodied by their quarterback, Baker Mayfield
Ever since their return to the NFL in 1999, the Cleveland Browns have been viewed as everything from dysfunctional to delusional. That hit a peak last season when Hue Jackson and his band of merry men sunk the franchise to a 0-16 record. Partly by design – while they weren’t tanking in order to get high draft picks they weren’t not tanking – the Browns had hit rock bottom. Now things are trending up, much of it thanks to Baker Mayfield. In just two months the No1 overall pick has injected the Browns fanbase with the most dangerous thing in sports: hope.
The team has been through plenty of false dawns before, of course, the most recent of which was when Johnny Manziel looked half-decent for around 10 minutes of his rookie season. But this isn’t false: Mayfield is a bundle of passion and excellence, and has galvanized the organization and its fanbase in the same way he did while in college. In 12 games, Mayfield has tossed 21 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, almost the same TD-INT ratio as Ben Roethlisberger this season. He is already the franchise’s best quarterback since their homecoming, unless you have an inexplicable fondness for the Josh McCown era or Brian Hoyer’s 13-game tilt. Mayfield isn’t just the face of the Browns, either: he is the face of Cleveland after LeBron James, the city’s favourite son, scarpered to Los Angeles last summer.
Continue reading...from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Lthnqb
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