I hate to be this person. Absolutely hate it. The reason? Fans have a painfully deep and detailed memory of every call that has gone against their club dating back to forever, and so bringing up the moment when a call—or, in the case of the Browns a series of egregious calls—benefits a team immeasurably can open up a fire hose of whataboutism that would tear a skin off a rhinoceros.
But let’s be clear: I am not here to complain about the Browns winning a football game. If I could have constructed a Madden roster that somehow beats a skilled NFL opponent merely with the usage of one superhuman defensive end, I would still be in my parents’ basement trying to unglue my hands from a PlayStation controller (instead of being in my own basement writing about football). My thoughts on Deshaun Watson aside, the Browns have created a kind of chaos-proof football team. Even when the best defense in football gives up almost 40 points to Gardner Minshew, there they are, gobbling up St. Elmo’s on the plane ride home, toasting another how-did-we-do-this? victory. Replacement-level quarterback play will land this team in the conference title game.
My problem is with a referee performance so bad that CBS house rules analyst Gene Steratore said something to the effect of: If I were in that huddle of referees, I would probably have continued the conversation.
