Christmas Comes Early

I remember one of the best Christmas presents I got when I was a kid - Football Pro ‘95 for our family computer. It was basically the undersold, under-appreciated little brother to the “Madden” series put out by EA Sports. But it was mine and now I could play football games on the computer.

The trick was installing the game. Apparently Santa Claus hadn’t paid the very close attention needed to find out that the family computer didn’t have enough RAM to support the game. And since Santa Claus had already made his trip (and because, back then, RAM was expensive, Santa couldn’t really afford to make another trip to our house that year), I had to put Football Pro ‘95 on the shelf.

The next year I got a small present that said something to the effect of, “I know you’ve been waiting a long time for this. It’s for your computer and I think you know what it can do.” Santa delivered what I needed and the game was played for hours.

That was over half my life ago. Saturday, April 28, 2007, Santa Claus gave Browns fans a gift. But like my computer game from years past, the gift couldn’t be used until a year later.

Tonight, Brady Quinn starts for the Browns against the Denver Broncos in a “nationally-televised” game (it’s on the NFL Network, which isn’t national enough for me). Unlike his fellow first-rounder, former Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Thomas, who started from Day One, Quinn had to take a back seat, originally set as the team’s third-string quarterback.

Of course this will all come across as biased as any recent column written by a political analyst who already knew whether Barack Obama or John McCain was getting his or her vote. I’m from Ohio, grew up a huge Notre Dame and Cleveland Browns fan and played high school football for four years, very similar to Quinn. (But make no mistake, the comparisons stop there. What I’m trying to say is that he is a more handsome, more athletic, more talented, smarter, more accomplished person who is also 10 months older.)

But consider for a moment what Brady Quinn has already done in his life. Few people realize he is ninth in NCAA history in TD passes thrown. He took nearly 2,000 snaps in his college career (1,856) and finished in the top four in Heisman Trophy balloting his junior (4th) and senior (3rd) seasons. When he graduated, Quinn was 7th in career pass attempts and 10th in career passing yards in NCAA history. And those numbers don’t mention the 36 Notre Dame school records he broke.

In essence, Quinn’s no chump.

2007 was one of the most ridiculous for me as a Browns fan. It began with Charlie Frye as the starter… for one game. I watched that 34-7 blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers via webcam at 2:30 a.m. while on my study abroad trip in Adelaide, Australia. I thought there was no hope for the Browns season. In other words, I thought it was just going to be another year.

But Cleveland traded Frye after that one game. Enter Derek Anderson. He finished the season with nearly 3,800 yards, 29 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. In the other games of his career, all of Anderson’s averages and ratios are lower than 2007.

It seemed like this incredible, out-of-nowhere, not-seen-in-a-million-years season was just an oddity. (For perspective, 2007 was just the second year since 1988 that the Browns made double-digits in the win column. 14 seasons at or below 9 wins.) On the Leap Day this year - a day set up to get everything back to normal in the calendar year - the Cleveland Browns re-signed Derek Anderson to a three-year deal.

And Browns fans waited. But there comes a time when you’re sick of waiting. You just want to play that computer game. You just want to see your team win. You just want to see if Brady Quinn is a waste of time or a good use of trading up on Draft Day 2007. Tonight is the first glimpse of that answer.

Brady Quinn just turned 24 years old ten days ago.

Happy Birthday, Brady. Merry Christmas, Browns fans.