Living in Cleveland, Ohio and being a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I expect to get some trash talk my way. I expect to get some crap. It comes with the territory, I am living with the enemy.
However, most Cleveland Browns fans seem to be complete idiots. You would think that being fans of a team that has been dominated by the Steelers since their return in 1999, they would learn to keep it fun and friendly, seeing how they really have nothing that they can say that truly makes sense.
But not only do many of them get very, very personal with their verbal attacks, many fans don't even know the history of the team they root for.
You wouldn't believe how many times that I have heard a Browns fan tell me that the six Super Bowls the Steelers have won don't mean a thing because the Browns have eight NFL Championships.
No. The Browns won four NFL Championships (1950, 1954, 1955, 1964). Those other four championships are All-American Football Conference, a defunct league that was mostly bad teams that when the NFL took them in they only kept the San Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns. Those four AAFC Championships don't mean a thing to anyone outside of the Cleveland Browns fanbase, and they don't count as NFL Championships because they are NOT NFL Championships. But explaining this to a fan of the Browns, is much like talking to a brick wall. It's not going to get through.
So sometimes I am nice and I give them their four NFL Championships. I tell them that they're legitimate and I'll recognize them, but that still leaves the Steelers with two more. You would think that I just assaulted their grandmother with a sock full of pennies. How dare I not recognize those AAFC Championships, you know the league the Steelers weren't in, when comparing the Browns to the Steelers? But God forbid I bring up that the Browns have never even been to a single Super Bowl, you know the game that marks the new era of professional football. Hell, many Browns fans even refer to their NFL Championships as Super Bowls.
The Browns had to buy their own trophy for the 1964 NFL Championship they won, the last major professional sports Championship that has been won by a Cleveland team.
I've had Browns fans say to me, out of nowhere, that they wish they could go back and kill my mother while she was pregnant with me to avoid another Steelers fan being born. That's not just a very horrible personal attack, it's a sign that someone has deep mental issues if they're taking a football game that serious.
I have been shopping for groceries, just minding my own business, and I have had Browns fans yell "Fuck the Steelers" (with children nearby) and then even grab stuff out of my cart and toss it on a shelf or crush whatever product they grabbed (they love to do this to potato chips). I mean seriously, is it that much of a personal slight that I live here and don't cheer for the local football team that you take to destroying the stuff that I have in my cart?
Then, there's the physical assaults. I've been punched, kicked, shoved, and spit on. I once had a Browns fan in the municipal parking lot where Clevelanders do most of their pre-game tailgating whip out his junk in front of me and tell me to suck it because that's where a Steelers fan belongs is on his knees.
And yes, I know that every team has their asshole fans. I have a good friend who went to culinary school in Pittsburgh and hates Pittsburghers because some of them told her that the Browns suck and that Cleveland sucks and made fun of Cleveland. I've told her that's nothing compared to what I have dealt with living here.
There is also the "every Steelers fan is a bandwagoner" argument I hear all season long.
Not every Browns fan is an asshole. But most of them seem to be. Am I generalizing an entire fanbase? Maybe...but is it generalizing when it's what you've actually experienced?
