Remembering the 2004 Cleveland Browns

With a franchise as storied as the Cleveland Browns, every new season means anniversaries of past glories and accomplishments. For example, 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the Browns 1954 NFL Championship and the 60th anniversary of their 1964 Championship. But we’re not here to talk about those moments of triumph. Instead, we are going to dive into one of the most forgettable seasons in Browns history. That’s right! This season marks the 20th anniversary of the 2004 season in which the team finished 4-12. This season featured one of the worst QB performances in NFL history, a head coach resigning partway through the campaign, and a nine-game losing streak. It’s also the year I properly fell in love with the team. Go figure.

When you’re 14-years-old, it’s easy for sports to take up the bulk of your brain. In 2004, I was 14 and was convinced that the Browns were about to make a major leap forward. For the bulk of my life, I had either been too young to know what sports were or the franchise was not in operations. I only knew the Browns’ return was a big deal because we were allowed to eat chips and dip in the family room during the first game back which was otherwise not allowed. The 2002 playoff season enthralled me (I distinctly called the Tim Couch-to-Quincy Morgan touchdown in Jacksonville seconds before it happened) and the finish left me bottomed out. The 2003 season was clearly an aberration, and the Browns were poised to dominate 2004 like no other team. After all, that offseason Cleveland drafted tight end Kellen Winslow II (he is always healthy!), safety Sean Jones (no doubt a future Pro Bowler), and quarterback Luke McCown (he’ll play at least ten seasons!). Most importantly, we signed new starting quarterback Jeff Garcia. Sure, he's on the wrong side of 30, but he is a three-time Pro Bowler who won a playoff game in 2002 with San Francisco. He’s definitely still got it.

The 2004 Browns started their season unlike any iteration that came since the rebirth – they won in Week 1. After a scoreless first quarter the Browns took a 3-0 halftime lead. With the game tied at three in the third, Cleveland scored 17 unanswered points including a Garcia rushing touchdown to cement the club’s first 1-0 start since 1994. In my book, the road to the Super Bowl ran through Cleveland. After all, there’s no way, the Cowboys’ 41-year-old quarterback Vinny Testaverde will doom us seven days later.

Week 2 better represented how the Browns season would go. Jeff Garcia threw 8-for-27 for 71 yards, no touchdowns, three interceptions, and a sack. That equals a QB rating of 0.0. Not what you want. Dallas’ Eddie George rumbled for 62 yards on 18 carries and a score. Still, with nine seconds left the Browns trailed the ‘Boys 17-12 at their own 1-yard-line. The Browns immediately suffer a safety but, only down seven, the team tries for an on-side safety punt. During the play, Kellen Winslow II suffered a season-ending broken leg. But Cleveland got the ball back! A Luke McCown (?) attempt at a Hail Mary came up short and the Browns returned home 1-1. I was, of course, crushed by the baffling loss and the rest of my Sunday was ruined.

Week 3 brought another dismal showing, this one a 27-10 loss at the New York Giants, but I didn’t care about any of that because I was finally going to a game. While my family had gone to countless baseball and basketball games in my youth, an NFL game was still on my to-do list. Partially because the team was absent for three years and partially because Browns games aren’t as … let’s say “family friendly.” However, the time had come for my father and I to attend a Browns game together – Week 4, Cleveland and Washington. I remember parking very far from the stadium and taking the long walk down W. 3rd over the bridge. I was blown away by the incredible volume of fans, the barking, the cussing. Look how many people are wearing orange and brown! I knew we were secretly a great team! Why else would so many people be going to the same game if we were lousy?

As far as first games go, this one delivered. The teams traded field goals until Washington took a 10-3 halftime lead. A touchdown pass to tight end Aaron Shea leveled things at 10 and a fourth quarter Lee Suggs touchdown provided the 17-13 final margin. I recall the beautiful afternoon sun splashing across the field, the cheers, the overwhelming smell of alcohol and smuggled cigarettes. It was loud; it was great. I was 1-0 in person and the team was 2-2 on the year. Onward and upward to the Steel City.

The trip to Pittsburgh proved fruitless as Cleveland fell 34-23, but then rebounded at home against the Bengals. I watched the following week’s game against Philly with some fellow high schoolers at our Browns Backers event at the school. I was so enamored with the team that I was willing to go to school on a Sunday for three hours just to watch it with friends. The Browns lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the Eagles. Jeff Garcia, who was starting to look a little long in the tooth now that I think about it, ran for a 4-yard TD with 30 seconds left and a Phil Dawson PAT tied it. Cleveland got the ball second in OT but couldn’t get clear of their own 48. It took Philly only seven plays to get into position for a game winning 50-yard field goal. Browns fall to 3-4 at the bye.

By now, if you’re still reading this and God bless you if you are, you’re wondering why on earth I am so fixated by a remarkably forgettable football season. This was my experience at that critical age, but for a generation of fans it could have been any season. Was this year any more miserable than the year the team went 4-12 in 2006? Or the lone year of Rob Chudzinski in 2013 (also 4-12)? It’s an easy comp to Pat Shurmur’s 4-12 campaign in 2011 too. I could go on, but anyone born between 1990 and 2003 can certainly relate this to their preferred year of obsession. And obsession is the right word as I was breathlessly consuming every newspaper story I could find, every sports highlight on the evening news, and every second of the pregame show. This is before YouTube don’t forget. I used the bye week to convince myself that the road to recovery would begin in Baltimore.

[Narrator: It didn’t]

The Browns lost to the Ravens on the road.

Then the Steelers at home

Then the Jets at home (9 punts and two missed Phil Dawson field goals)

Then the Bengals on the road (Kelly Holcomb throws for 413 yards and 5 TD’s)

That game proved to be an inflection point on the season. Two days later, head coach Butch Davis resigned and was replaced with Terry Robiskie. The Browns stood at 3-8 and even if they won out they’d have at best a snowball’s chance in hell of making the playoffs. And yet…I heard the news and wondered if Robiskie was the guy who could push the right buttons and turn this seemingly lost season around. Hope springs eternal and all that.

The losing streak continued with a 42-15 dismantling at home at the hands of the Patriots. Then a 30-point loss at Buffalo. Then a 21-0 shutout at home versus San Diego. It had all gone horribly, terribly wrong. A post-Christmas visit to Miami brough a 10-7 lump of coal. The tam was 3-12 with only a visit to Houston separating them from their respective tee times and vacations. Then a funny thing happened.

At 7-8, the Texans were equally playing out the string. Cleveland amassed five field goals plus a Kelly Holcomb touchdown to TE Steve Heiden to defeat Houston 22-14. I shouldn’t have cared. It should have been as meaningless as an exhibition game. But I was loving it. I cheered each field goal like it was a game winner. I hooted every time a defender dragged David Carr to the ground. We watched as we put away our Christmas tree, but it felt like Christmas morning to see this well-oiled, polished Cleveland Browns team competently beat an opponent on the road. It was their first road win of the season, leaving them a mark of 1-7 as visitors. The final whistle blew, the club rose to 4-12, and the season was over.

I vividly remember the front page of the next week’s Plain Dealer sports page. It depicted a beaten-up Browns helmet with twelve nails pounded into it, one for each loss, very evocative. In a way it also sort of symbolized my feelings about the season – no matter how badly I wanted the team to win, it didn’t mean they were going to win. It’s too dramatic to say this was innocence lost but more likely perspective gained. For better of worse this would be my team and better days did not seem close at hand. Still, when we drafted Braylon Edwards in the first round and signed Super Bowl champion Romeo Crennel as head coach, I started to wonder…what if the Browns were finally going to be good? I’ve asked myself that question more times than I can count. Maybe in 2024 I’ll finally be right.