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Toledo mayor Wade Kapszukliewicz is an avid Lions fan, who attended Detroit’s last playoff win in 1992, and wife Sarah is an avid Browns fan. Toledo is the dividing line on the map between Lions and Browns fans. (Sam Farmer / Los Angeles Times)
Here, on the shores of Lake Erie, a gregarious local fixture is in uncharted waters.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is a diehard fan of the Detroit Lions. His wife, Sarah, is a lifelong fan of the Cleveland Browns. Both teams are in the NFL playoffs.
But theirs is not a house divided.
“The Lions and Browns are the only two original NFL teams who haven’t made the Super Bowl,” said the mayor, who doesn’t count the relatively new franchises in Jacksonville and Houston.
“Typically, Sundays in the fall are a descent into misery and sadness. As a Lions fan, I see in the Browns the same history of heartbreak and tragedy, so there’s sympathy. Browns and Lions fans don’t hate each other, they empathize with each other.”
And, Holy Toledo, is that true here.
This city, the fourth largest in Ohio, is closer to Detroit than it is to Cleveland, and the NFL fan bases are fairly evenly divided between the Lions and Browns, who for the first season in the Super Bowl era have both compiled double-digit victories.
Lora Shadley packs footballs for retail sale at the Wilson Sporting Goods football factory in Ada, Ohio, which is near Toledo (Amy Sancetta / Associated Press)
When the Lions looked to sell season tickets in Toledo and other parts of northern Ohio, the club put a twist on a 1977 Crystal Gayle pop hit to make its pitch: “Hey, Cleveland fans, let us make your Brown eyes Blue … at least for a season or two.”
There isn’t the border-war vitriol that percolates when Ohio State plays Michigan — passions for college football boil over here — but more of a misery-loves-company simpatico, even though the NFL history in these parts is impossibly rich. Every football the league ever used was made less than an hour down the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wild-card-weekend-toledo-envious-120552395.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-01-13 12:05:52
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