The film directed by Elyria native Andy Billman depicts the piercing heartbreaks of the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers and the resiliency of their die-hard fans to soldier on and keep hoping.Central figures in the film besides the Browns’ running back are Indians Manager Mike Hargrove and Cavaliers guard Craig Ehlo. I pulled the ball in. That’s the way I looked at my job. I saw it was a Schottenheimer continued: "Earnest never saw Castille coming.
“The Fumble is a part of a story.
That’s the way I looked at my job.
On the eve of the last home game, Belichick announced to his team that Byner would start at running back against the Amid an angry audience firing off firecrackers and tearing out wooden stadium chairs for souvenirs, Byner rushed for 121 yards on 31 carries and had seven receptions to lead the Browns to a 26-10 win.“It was a blessing to be able to play that way and then after the game, to feel the admiration of the fans and see in their eyes almost some fear, some anger … a lot of people were crying. Byner left the NFL finishing as one of the top 50 all-time leaders in … When he grabbed my arm, I was trying to get him to drop off my arm. No way, shape or form could I feel vindicated of anything because I got to the Super Bowl.”“When I came back to Cleveland, I looked at it again like I was a rookie,” Byner said.By then, Byner was 32 and Belichick used him as a role player and an exemplar of professionalism and work ethic. Earnest was the reason we were still in the game at that point.
“It could not have been scripted any better.”There is not a player who better epitomizes what the Browns once were than Earnest Byner. But Earnest lost the most on that goal line. I have no idea.“I think the healing process is continual.
But sometimes runners have the ability to make others better. I took it to the mall. But Earnest lost the most on that goal line. I took it home.
“Talking about it, it really just got to me.“And the apology … I don’t know what made me look in the camera.
Earnest Byner had been to hell and back once, and 27 long years after a moment in time forever remembered as The Fumble, he recognized his calling was … I don’t know how much more (there is to come).”His fumble at the 3-yard line occurred with 1:05 to play and the Broncos ahead, 38-31.
His Cleveland Browns were trailing the The Browns were on the road in a hostile environment and were playing in a high-scoring game with the stakes very high. He spent five seasons in Washington and had 25 touchdowns and rushed for 3,950 yards. It’s on me.
For that matter, he epitomizes the Cleveland sports fan – knocked down, but always persevering. “It could not have been scripted any better.”There is not a player who better epitomizes what the Browns once were than Earnest Byner. I had to pull myself away from the fans,” Byner said. On Jan. 17, 1988, the Broncos secured a trip to Super Bowl XXII when Jeremiah Castille forced Browns running back Earnest Byner to fumble just a yard from scoring a game-tying touchdown. When he grabbed my arm, I was trying to get him to drop off my arm. Sure I mighta missed school that Monday to stay home & cry, but Byner was on his way to immortality. I had to pull myself away from the fans,” Byner said. Don’t let it linger. The Fumble was a tough moment for Browns fans, kinda like if Apollo Creed won in Rocky II.
I don’t know how much more (there is to come).”His fumble at the 3-yard line occurred with 1:05 to play and the Broncos ahead, 38-31. That game was lost on an Earnest Byner fumble. And we know how it turned out for him – a Super Bowl championship.He is the city’s eternal inspiration, the perfect lead in a movie titled “Believeland.” During the 1990 season, his first Pro Bowl year, Byner was a workhorse, leading the league in rushing attempts with 297. Byner, the Browns running back, appeared to be heading into the end zone with 1:12 left in the game and his team trailing 38-31, but he never got there.
Kosar earned two trips to the Pro Bowl and won a Super Bowl as a member of the Dallas Cowboys when he … The same two teams had met in the previous AFC Championship Game. Byner was a fullback at East Carolina University from 1980 to 1983 where he gained 2,049 yards on 378 carries. You know how you hear about getting in a zone in a game? That season culminated in a wild-card loss by one point to the Houston Oilers, in which Byner committed back-to-back personal fouls.“I probably was saved by the trade,” Byner said. Cleveland native and noted author Scott Raab serves as unofficial narrator as he passes on tales of these Cleveland sports woes to his son over lunch at a deli counter.Byner’s interview with Billman is the movie’s scene-stealer and gives remarkable insight into a man still coping today with his role in Cleveland’s endless sports misery.He has received countless letters from fans since that 1987 season AFC Championship Game foible in Denver, many filled with vitriol and hate, and has relived it many times in his third career (after coaching 10 years with four NFL teams) as a motivational speaker and in authoring an inspirational book titled “Everybody Fumbles.”But never did he feel the need to apologize before the interview with Billman, which was filmed two years ago.“It was the emotions of reliving the disappointment, but also reliving all of the things that went into being a player for the Browns and the fans and the type of love I had for the city and the players and the disappointment that surrounded that,” Byner said to me.
It was a fumble that cost the Cleveland Browns a chance to tie the Denver Broncos in the 1987 AFC Championship Game.