Describing Action
Note: Ernest Byner’s goal line fumble in the 1987 AFC Championship Game for Cleveland against the Denver Broncos is a defining moment in Browns history. It’s also a defining moment in my life as a fan. It’s a moment which changes the franchise, and solidifies my commitment to a team that just can’t seem to win. It’s a moment intimately tied to Cleveland’s history as a city, and the resilience of a people facing the hardships of industrial decline. It’s a moment tied to an individual player’s anguish and eventual redemption. And it’s a moment which I still think about almost forty years later. Tick. Tick.
When the ball was snapped I did not hear the crunch of the helmets or feel the agony of the tired muscles - one never does from the armchair comfort of home - but I heard the euphoric roar of the home crowd finally on their way to the super bowl. In that instant, at the one-yard line, with one second to go, a terrible change came over the young Browns running back. He neither blocked nor scored, but every breath in his body had gone. He looked suddenly destroyed, exhausted, spent, as though the impact of the strip had collapsed every remaining inch of his strength. At last, after what seemed like a slow-motioned lifetime, it might have been two seconds, Byner fell to his knees. The clock goes to zero. He gasped for the cold playoff air and grasped for a ball no longer there. An enormous city-shaped weight had fallen upon him. The replay confirmed everything as he arose with agonized slowness to his feet, legs failing and hands empty. The replay confirmed everything again. As it would for the rest of his life. For the rest of our lives. This was the fumble that did for him. And for Cleveland. You could feel the agony of it crush his body and the city and knock the last moments of energy from everyone’s season. In falling he seemed to rise again, as he had all game, his engine-like knees collapsing beneath the team as the Bronco rocks came smashing down. And then down we came, with a crash that still feels as if it shakes our lives today.
Condensed Version: In the last play of the game, Cleveland fumble on the one yard line.
