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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio There is finally joy in Mudville this week.
After nearly 30 seasons of Cleveland Browns fans sharing an inescapable sense of disappointment and defeat, they finally found themselves staring down the improbable: defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs and doing it in Heinz Field, no less.
Sunday’s win over their neighboring rival (a rivalry whose significance had diminished over the years because of the Browns string of abysmal losing seasons) marked the team’s first postseason win since the 1994 season.
In a year consumed with a deadly pandemic that has resulted in isolation and loss, separated us from our routines, jobs, traditions, loved ones, and community as riots and politics have scorched the earth, the win is a welcome distraction.