As a life-long Cleveland Browns fan, Condoleezza Rice isn’t positive why she beloved coach Paul Brown.
She suspects it was his fedora and tie, his entire look on the sideline.
However Rice, then 8 years outdated, remembers her response when proprietor Artwork Modell fired the Corridor of Fame coach on Jan. 9, 1963.
“I went and ripped all of the Browns posters off the wall in my room,” Rice mentioned. “I’ve to confess for a short while I used to be a Cincinnati Bengals fan. For a little or no whereas. Then when the Browns got here again, I went all-in once more.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Rice, 67, was honored because the 2022 Ambassador of Golf in a Thursday night time dinner reception at Firestone Nation Membership in the course of the Bridgestone Senior Gamers Championship.
A local of Birmingham, Alabama, who watched the Browns together with her father, Rice is director of the Hoover Establishment and a senior fellow on public coverage at Stanford College. However when requested her favourite Browns victory because the franchise returned in 1999, Northeast Ohioans heard the Clevelander come out.
“I actually must work at that one,” she joked.
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Her alternative was the Browns’ 48-37 AFC wild-card victory at Pittsburgh on Jan. 10, 2021, of their first playoff look since 2002. In leaping out to a 28-0 first-quarter lead, the Browns earned their first playoff triumph since Jan. 1, 1995. They had been making their first postseason look because the 2002 season.
“I mentioned to somebody, ‘The issue is if you’re a Browns fan and also you go up by 28 factors, you begin to fear,’ ” Rice advised the Firestone viewers. “I bear in mind a buddy of mine was going to return over and watch the sport and we had been already up 21-0 when she confirmed up. I mentioned, ‘Let me be very clear, if one thing goes mistaken, you go house proper now.’
“Happily, we scored once more. That was so surprising in some methods and so great.”
She referred to as her second alternative “actually sort of unhappy,” the 20-17 house victory over the San Diego Chargers on Dec. 24, 2016, that saved the Browns from a winless season. She didn’t point out the Browns’ Jamie Meder, who blocked a 32-yard subject aim with 3:49 remaining.
“I don’t bear in mind who the workforce was, however they missed a subject aim so we received that recreation and didn’t go 0-16 and I cheered like we received the Tremendous Bowl,” Rice mentioned. “So I’m wanting ahead to some higher reminiscences.”
Marla Ridenour might be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Observe her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
