CLEVELAND — In my former life on sports talk radio, we used to refer to the night of the NFL Draft as Cleveland's 'Super Bowl.' Because for those few hours in April, there was electricity in the air and excitement about a team that customarily brought sadness every week in the fall.
My how things have changed.
Wednesday night felt like draft night in Cleveland as we got our first look at the 2019 regular season schedule.
The first thing that stood out to me as Jim Donovan and I reviewed the games on the schedule is that the Browns will be on prime time national television THREE times in the first five weeks of the season.
It's like the league and the networks are saying, "Okay Browns, you guys think you're the next best thing? Go show the country!"
It's exciting, but also a reminder that this young Browns team will have to do quite a bit of growing up in a hurry as lofty expectations are thrust upon them.
I asked 'The Voice of the Browns' which games in particular he's looking forward to in 2019. Jimmy pointed to three matchups that he's excited about.
1. Sunday Night Football vs. Los Angeles Rams: "If the scenario is the Browns come back home with a 2-0 record, the atmosphere that night in Cleveland is going to be amazing."
2. A trip to Foxborough to face Belichick, Brady, and the New England Patriots: "To see Mayfield go out there against Brady. I don't know what the Patriots are going to look like. The Patriots are going to look different without Rob Gronkowski. They're going to look different on their sidelines. It's going to be fascinating."
3. Thursday Night Football vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: "At the time of the year it's coming. Now that could be some atmosphere in that place for that kind of a game."
We went game-by-game in looking at the 2019 schedule. Enjoy the Donovan Live Postgame Show in the player below:
