The Cleveland Browns are a truly unique NFL team, which is one of the reasons why Ryan Grigson was so happy to take on the position of personnel executive. The team is perhaps not the best performing one in the NFL, but it is certainly the most popular. This is further highlighted because of its frequent appearances in popular culture.
Examples of Popular Culture Featuring the Cleveland Browns as Found by Ryan Grigson
- Arsenio Hall is a Cleveland native as well as a Brown Fan. During the Arsenio Hall Show, which is his television programme, the audience often barks and pumps their fists, which is the chant used by the biggest fans of The Browns. Indeed, both the section in the Browns’ stadium and the audience engagement at the show are known as the Dawg Pound.
- The Drew Carey Show once featured Bernie Kosar in an uncredited role. This was the episode known as ‘Drew goes to the Browns game’, which was shown on September 29, 1999. Interestingly, Drew Carey actually appeared on the field when the team came back in 1999 and played its first regular season game.
- Family Guy is a very popular fox television show, in which one character is known as Cleveland Brown. He was so popular that he even received his own spin-off series, called The Cleveland Show.
- How I Met Your Mother is another famous television show and in the 7th season premiere, the story of the episode is a wedding at which everybody appears in a Cleveland Brown theme.
- Hot in Cleveland is another television show in which the Browns have been featured a number of different times. Three of those were aired and recorded in 2012. Another one was recorded after the 2014 NFL draft.
- Then, there is the movie The Fortune Cookie from 1966 in which both the city of Cleveland and the Cleveland Browns are featured almost continuously. In fact, the Brown’s cooperated in the making of this film.
- The Express, a film made in 2008, talks about the trade of Ernie Davis between the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns. It features the Browns uniform and also the special pregame ceremony that was held for Ernie Davis after he was diagnosed with leukaemia.
- Hot Tub Time Machine, a movie made in 2010, shows the Brown’s winning the AFC championship game in 1986. The movie claims that the reason why the Browns were able to win this game was due to a phenomenon called The Butterfly Effect.
- The movie draught Day, Made in 2014, features a fictional general manager of the Cleveland Browns who aims to get the NFL draft’s number 1 pick.
Clearly, the Browns really have an excellent claim to fame. Whether or not they are performing as well as they could have is almost secondary in nature. One thing that will always keep the Cleveland Browns going strong if their fantastic fan base. The fact that they feature so often in popular culture and in a positive light is a true testament to that.
