A good-humored Ohio man who was taken from us too soon isn't getting his final, tongue-in-cheek wish granted by his beloved Cleveland Browns, but they're honoring him despite the fact he took a shot at them on his way out. After he died at the age of 55 last week, it was noted in Scott Entsminger's obituary that the lifelong Browns fans "respectfully requests six Cleveland Browns pall bearers so the Browns can let him down one last time."
From NewsChannel5 in Cleveland:
Cleveland Browns spokesman Zak Gilbert told NewsChannel5 Sports the team has reached out to his widow Pat to offer the teams condolences. She informed the team that his favorite player was Hall of Famer Lou Groza. The team will present the Entsminger family with a number 76 jersey at the memorial service.
That's a nice gesture. It would have been extremely difficult for the team to get players to fly into Ohio for the funeral, which takes place on Tuesday, especially since they're on vacation until the Browns open training camp July 25. Besides, the request was probably more of a joke. I don't know if players would have felt comfortable stealing part of the spotlight at Entsminger's funeral.
This is probably the best approach.
Entsminger would have been about 6 years old when the Browns last won a championship, beating the Baltimore Colts 27-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1964. They've only won a grand total of six playoff games since, so it's easy to understand Entsminger's frustration.
So there are probably other ways in which the Browns could honor Entsminger in the year of his death. Making the playoffs for the first time in 10 years would be nice. Heck, winning a playoff game for the first time since 1994 would be even nicer. And if they could find a way to win two playoff games for only the third time in franchise history, you'd have to think that Entsminger would be smiling somewhere.
A Super Bowl and they'd just be messing with all of us.
