Browns fans still believe in their favorite team — and tailgating

CLEVELAND: For Bob Weygandt, it doesn’t matter how the Cleveland Browns perform on the field.

His “We Believe” bus will be parked just outside the stadium, ready to greet fans.

The Browns, who were set to host a Monday Night Football game for the first time since 2009, have practically sealed their fate as one of the NFL’s worst this season. With a 2-8 record, they were set to take on an equally disappointing Baltimore Ravens team that’s scrapped together all of three wins.

Even still, Weygandt and hundreds of other Browns fans packed the Lakefront Municipal Parking Lot for a tradition that transcends the losses and woes — tailgating.

“This game has been circled on my calendar for probably two years,” Weygandt, an Orrville resident, said and then added with a laugh, “I don’t know if many people are going to watch it tonight, though.”

The bus, which Weygandt purchased from a friend in 2007, is painted orange on the outside with the phrase “We Believe” embroidered in its side. Within its doors, the bus is furnished with Browns clocks, blankets, photographs and some memorabilia, most notably a pair of gloves that former Cleveland running back William Green tossed into the stands.

Weygandt’s been tailgating since the Browns returned in 1999, and he’d drive his kids to the games, even when they were students at the University of Akron. Weygandt’s son, Steve, said it’s exciting the Browns will play a Monday night game because it puts the spotlight on the city.

The “We Believe” bus is more about family and Cleveland pride than it is the Browns.

“We’re going to be bringing grandkids up here probably next year,” Weygandt said with a soft smile.

That same sense of pride and family was on full display Monday night, as fans littered the parking lot to celebrate a Monday Night Football game. The lot was filled with decorated buses, pick-up games of football and, of course, plenty of beer.

“I can’t really talk about all of [what we had] because some of it’s not kosher,” former Seven Hills resident Vanessa Powers joked.

Powers is part of a group of six sisters and their respective families and friends who tailgate at all the Browns games, this despite the fact she drives 5½ hours from her current home in Louisville, Kentucky, “every damn game.” On a typical Sunday, Powers and her group arrive at the muni lot at 5:30 a.m. to prepare breakfast.

“I can say at least 50 percent of my friends I have because they’re Browns fans,” Powers said.

Bob Rzepka, a Bedford Heights resident, pedaled a unicycle around his family’s bus in hopes of getting a free beer like any of the other tailgaters who successfully ride it.

Amanda Eckertson from Chardon found a last-minute replacement at the bar where she works behind the counter, simply because she and her boyfriend love the tailgate atmosphere.

Cleveland Heights’ Josh Sweet drove his 1969 Volkswagen van to the game decked out in Browns garb, talking proudly of the team’s history.

“For us, it’s just that there’s football in Cleveland,” Sweet said. “I think that’s what keeps bringing us back because there was a time where there wasn’t. Even though this has been one of the worst seasons since we’ve been back … there’s a certain energy about this city when it comes to football that you don’t find in other cities.”

Even Ned Howe, a Baltimore resident who donned a Ravens jacket and traveled with his fellow fans, said he loves the Cleveland atmosphere.

“We have some wonderful Browns fans and of course some that aren’t so wonderful,” Howe said, referencing some fans who booed as he walked around the lot. “Have someone tried to hit me over the head with a baseball bat? No. Cleveland fans are great. It’s all in good fun.”

Tickets sold for the game at prices as low as $10, and in a battle between two teams out of the playoff hunt, the focus at the tailgate Monday really wasn’t just the Browns — they simply served as a reason to celebrate.

“Very few people around the NFL realize the depth that Browns fans will go to support this team,” Weygandt said. “It doesn’t matter if they win all their games or not. We do this to support the town, the community [and] the people within it.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns fans still believe in their favorite team — and tailgating