ARIZONA ROAD TRIP 2007

Trip to the desert... we came up a little short. When the schedule came out earlier this year we were excited that we were playing in Arizona in December. We would be able to get away for 2 days in the sun and away from the cold weather of Cleveland. Mike and I left for our road trip at 2am on Saturday morning for our flight from Pittspuke to Atlanta then Atlanta to Phoenix. We arrived in Phoenix around noon on Saturday and we were off to the hotel. We stayed at the Renaissance hotel right in Glendale which was right next to the stadium. The hotel was a great hotel with all the amenities. Mike was a little upset that they had no fire hydrants but he got over it when he saw how big the bathroom was inside our room.. The weather was not desert like because we had rain and temperatures in the low 60s. We were able to see some of the players and even speak to a couple of them as well. Browns backers from all over the country were there and it just felt like we were not in Arizona but in Cleveland! It is always like this when we travel around with the team. Everywhere we go we are greeted by the best fans of the NFL!! That night we decided to go to a Browns Backers party that took us 45 minutes to get there and a $60.00 cab ride. We thought what the heck its browns and its a party! We arrived for the party and there were about 300-500 Browns fans at the party. Most of the fans were chanting here we go Brownies and barking all over the place. Most Browns backers were glued to the TV sets for the Oklahoma and Missouri game as well at the Pittsburgh West Virginia game. If West Virginia or Missouri would lose, the Ohio State Buckeyes would be in the National Championship game. The place was well energized and when Pittsburgh beat West Virginia chants of OH.I.O!! Filled the bar! The place went crazy! The Ohio State Buckeyes will play for the National Championship game again!! Inside the Browns Backer partyformer browns player Ray Ellis was there with his wife and daughter. Ray Ellis is a great guy and huge Browns fan. Ray was a great defensive back and he had a line that I will never forget. During the 1986 playoff championship game Ray Ellis was on the sideline chanting We are going to winwe are going to win!! We still do this in the dawgpound during games where we need some inspiration to seal the victory. We will sit there and chant we are going to win..We are going to win! Game Day We awoke to sunny skies and temps to be around 70. We walked down to the lobby and we were greeted by Browns General Manager Phil Savage which we had a very nice conversation. We were off to the Brown lot for some tailgating Arizona style with Browns fans that have traveled all over the Country for this game. We thought the lot would be by the stadium but it was about 2 miles away. We started walking to the lot but we were picked up half way there by Browns Backer coordinator Bridget Huzika. We arrived at the lot and there were about 200 Browns fans when we arrived and at the time we left for the Stadium around noon there were over 500 Browns backers tailgating. It is always great to meet new Browns fans all over the place. Mike and I had a great time and we even ran into The Doggy Brothers who made the trip as well. They were all dressed in their full garb. The doggy brothers are huge Browns fans and they represent Browns nation very well! Well now it was off to the game. The amazing thing about this road game..was that there were more Browns fans than Cardinal fans. We saw orange and Brown all over the place and chants of barking and here we go brownies all over the place. Once inside the stadium we were in awe of how nice the stadium is. The roof was closed but then it started to open and that was a very impressive site to see. We were not heckled what so ever and everyone there treated us like a guest in their house. It was a great pre-game experience. We received a game ball from our friend Chad of the Cleveland Browns. Our pre-game ritual is to give the ball to a little boy or girl with Browns gear on and present them the ball. We found a little boy which we presented the ball to him.. This little boy had a smile on his face bigger than we can describe. The parents were so appreciative that we did that and told us that Browns fans are the best in the NFLwe would have to agree! Now it was game day! Well we know what happened and we are not going to even bring up that mess in this story. All I can say is that after walking out of the stadium we saw so many depressed an very unhappy Browns fans. Lets just say we quickly turned our thoughts to New York this coming week. We arrived back to our hotel at 5:30 and checked out and had a dinner and then it was off the airport for a red eye flight back to Browns country. Although we didnt sleep many hours, had very long flights , spent way too much money and didnt get the winwe love this team and we would do it all over again. We will be in NY for jets-Browns game and like our friend Ray Ellis would say WE ARE GOING TO WIN!!! WE ARE GOING TO WIN!!