Missing the Orange.

Being a sports fan is not easy. And being a sports fan for a team that is not so good is even less easy. Tack on to that the fact three of the seven people you live with are die-hard fans of your team's arch-rival, and you've got an uneasiest situation-which is where I am.

While I admire the solidarity and the overall never-say-die competitiveness of the Steelers team, I also just as strongly hate the fact that they're Steelers. It something that's been fed to me. Or maybe it's something transfused to me. Either way, it's in my system and has been since I've cared about anything. I am a navy brat and have lived in Connecticut, Virginia, and Ohio. But, my parents are both Ohioans. Each coming from towns an hour outside of Cleveland-Browns country they call it. This being said, no matter where we travel, there is only one home team and they wear brown and orange.

Anyone who knows anything about football knows the Browns and the Steelers have a rabid rivalry dating back to before either of them were any good. While the Steelers are on their way to the Super Bowl, the Browns are still thirsting for their first playoff game in what seems like forever ago. To simply brush this off and cheer for the Steelers, even though they represent our conference is to denounce all that it is to be a Browns fan.

We have to believe that some day soon the sun will rise in Cleveland. And on that day, the Four Horsemen of the Browns organization; Jim Brown, Otto Graham, Lou Groza, and Ozzie Newsome; will gallop into Browns Stadium and free us all from the shadow of these past years of losing. They'll gallop from one side of the field to the other scoring touchdown after touchdown, morning, noon, and night. And they'll erase all the defeats by taking on every team in the NFL, stopping only once they hold the Super Bowl trophy in their hands. You have to believe in that day. It's all we have right now.

Regarding this upcoming Super Bowl Sunday, I'd like to join my three friends in celebration and cheer their team, the Steelers, on to victory. I'd like to make my friends happy, but I fear this would bring tears to my father's eyes. Like any good son, I don't want to make my father cry. So, I suppose all I can hope for is a good game.