CLEVELAND, Ohio — The coolers had simply been opened. Lifelong Browns fan Mark Gurko needed a solution to bear in mind the second.

Like most Cleveland followers, Gurko, a northeast Ohio native, watched at a bar along with his pals as Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield made a stunning NFL debut in Week 3 of the 2018 season. A rookie, Mayfield got here off the bench throughout that Thursday evening sport in opposition to the Jets after Tyrod Taylor suffered a concussion and led Cleveland to a 21-17 comeback victory. The win was the Browns’ first since Dec. 24, 2016, and opened the famed locked beer coolers all throughout town.

One of the vital memorable moments within the sport got here in the course of the third quarter.

After main the Browns on a seven-play, 69-yard landing drive to tug inside two factors, Mayfield caught a 2-point conversion move from receiver Jarvis Landry. The quarterback lingered alongside the road of scrimmage, pretending to name out protections because the ball was snapped on to Duke Johnson, who threw a lateral to Landry. Mayfield drifted into the tip zone and the receiver lobbed the ball to him for the rating.

After practically two years of straight losses, Gurko, now 43, was half anticipating the Browns to blow the late lead, and at last exhaled when there was six seconds remaining.

“I mentioned out loud, ‘Oh my God, are we going to win?’” Gurko recalled in a cellphone interview. “After which all of us simply erupted. It was simply such a magical second nearly for lack of a greater phrase. We had been ecstatic. We had been hugging, high-fiving individuals I didn’t know, individuals I did know. It was simply such a tremendous second.”

The subsequent morning, Gurko awakened nonetheless a bit drained, however feeling that very same vitality, pleasure and anticipation that hadn’t existed with followers for fairly a while.

With one sport, Mayfield modified the despondency that hung over the Browns and FirstEnergy Stadium from the earlier two years. There was a purpose to be excited and Gurko, who thought it a pivotal second for the franchise, needed to recollect it in a singular approach.

“Being a fan at that time felt completely different,” he mentioned. “It simply felt like one thing stunning goes to occur. And so I simply thought, how may I seize this second? In life, it’s like, you make big-time recollections and generally you need to seize them. And I simply thought, wouldn’t it’s cool to get a tattoo to recollect this second?”

That morning, he drove to the tattoo studio and re-watched the play a handful of instances along with his tattoo artist. The 2 got here up with an Xs and Os design of the 2-point conversion catch, the “Baker Particular,” that went on Gurko’s arm, and which additionally incorporates a loving symbolic jab of the linemen purposely turned the improper away because of the dysfunction of the workforce over the earlier 20 years.

“I’ve different tattoos,” he mentioned. “And so they all symbolize pivotal moments in my life or very substantial recollections that I needed to seize. And I needed to seize that.”

Through the years, as Mayfield’s profession proved to be an up-and-down rollercoaster, Gurko has by no means regretted getting the tattoo, which evokes extra of a sense than a person athlete. He had no regrets this season as Mayfield struggled after injuring his left shoulder and the Browns failed to succeed in the playoffs. He nonetheless has no regrets this week, after Mayfield was traded to the Panthers for a conditional 2024 fifth-round decide. If he wins Carolina’s beginning job, he’ll face the Browns in Week 1 of the season.

“I really like the grittiness, the moxie he brings, these are intangibles that you would be able to’t educate,” Gurko mentioned. “Belongings you simply have, otherwise you don’t. Nonetheless, being a fan of this sport generally, not simply the Browns, you may sort of break down his gameplay and say, look, there are some deficiencies, there are some issues that he must work on.

“I want him properly, I’d hope that he does properly in Carolina, I’m nonetheless rooting for him, apart from Sport 1 this 12 months, clearly.”

Gurko isn’t alone, each in having a Mayfield tattoo and never regretting getting one, even with the Mayfield period over in Cleveland.

On Thursday after the commerce, Zach Efaw took to Twitter and shared a photo of his own Mayfield tattoo on his arm, one which options the quarterback in his gameday uniform — brown with an orange 6 on the jersey — and helmet.

Efaw tweeted the picture at ESPN Cleveland after listening to a dialogue on that morning’s radio present about individuals with Mayfield tattoos and those that have named their pets — and even youngsters — after the quarterback.

Efaw’s image rapidly made the spherical on Browns Twitter, garnering practically 200 retweets and over 1,000 likes.

“I wrote in and didn’t anticipate it to explode the best way it did,” Efaw mentioned.

Mayfield is simply part of a bigger and in-progress tattoo sleeve that Efaw has began on his arm. He additionally has the Browns’ emblem and Brownie Elf mascot, and is hoping to quickly add some Guardians imagery in addition to the Cleveland skyline.

Like Gurko, Efaw’s tattoo is in some ways a few feeling, he says.

As a lifelong Browns fan, Efaw (who hails from Mount Vernon however now lives outdoors of Springfield, Mo.) was solely about 6 years outdated when the Browns moved to Baltimore forward of the 1996 season. By the point they returned in 1999, he was all in.

“The Browns had been enjoying the Saints, Tim Sofa had that Hail Mary move to Kevin Johnson,” he mentioned, “and from that second on I used to be hooked.”

When rumors started circulating in 2018 that the Browns had been going to draft Mayfield, Efaw was excited. He was much more excited when it truly got here to fruition, and beating the Jets in 2018 solely validated that pleasure.

However by the point the Browns made the playoffs in 2020, Efaw was able to commemorate it eternally and determined to lastly transfer ahead with getting a tattoo after excited about quite a few Cleveland concepts over time.

“He sort of breathed new life into us,” he mentioned. “I feel we are able to all say we felt that approach.”

For Drew Champa, it was additionally a years-long course of to getting his Mayfield tattoo, one which has solely turn into increasingly related this 12 months.

The tattoo not solely options Mayfield along with his signature headband, clad within the Brownie Elf outfit, but additionally has “DAN6ER ZONE” written within the High Gun font, planes flying within the background.

“It’s loopy that film (High Gun: Maverick) simply comes out and he will get traded,” Champa mentioned.

The 40 12 months outdated from the Wickliffe space is a self-described Browns tremendous fan. As a child, the Browns had been all he cared about, and to at the present time, he can nonetheless inform you nearly any participant’s quantity from the groups he grew up watching (Heart Mike Babb who was with Cleveland from 1982-87 and once more from 90-91 wore quantity 61 in Cleveland, he factors out to show his level).

Champa already had quite a few Browns tattoos earlier than he obtained his Mayfield one, together with one among Bernie Kosar.

“Because the years had been going by I all the time instructed myself if we obtained a quarterback that may get us to the following stage, I’d contemplate getting one other one,” he mentioned.

When the Browns performed at Denver within the 2018 season throughout Mayfield’s rookie 12 months, Champa made the journey. When he was tailgating, by likelihood he occurred to run into Mayfield’s then-fiancee, Emily, and talked about that if the Browns received, he would contemplate getting a tattoo of the quarterback.

Cleveland eked out a 17-16 victory with Mayfield throwing for 2 touchdowns and one interception, so Champa started excited about what design he needed, and simply over a month later, made it official.

Three and a half years in the past, when Champa obtained that tattoo accomplished, it was unattainable to foretell precisely how Mayfield’s Browns profession would have ended. However for all three males, there are actually no regrets about selecting to memorialize the quarterback’s tenure.

“Wanting again over the past 20 years, he’s positively the most effective quarterback we’ve had since Bernie Kosar and he obtained us our first playoff win (in 18 years),” Champa mentioned. “It’s not one thing the place I’m going to go and get a tattoo eliminated. I haven’t thought of something like that.”

Within the days since sharing his tattoo with Twitter, Efaw has heard unsolicited recommendation from all corners of the web, with some suggesting he change the Browns jersey to at least one with Carolina blue.

For now, that’s not a change he’s prepared to make. Mayfield has earned that spot, and he plans to root for the quarterback so long as the Panthers aren’t enjoying the Browns.

“It’s sort of within the center whether or not I remorse it or not,” Efaw mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s a bit of historical past. He did assist change our franchise for the higher whether or not he was constant sufficient or wasn’t, he had his good years, had his unhealthy years. However all in all, I feel he helped change the tradition and we’re higher for it. I want him all the most effective in Carolina and hopefully he does properly. In Week 1 I cannot be rooting for him, although.”

Over the previous couple of years, Gurko’s tattoo has aged significantly properly. It doesn’t include Mayfield’s likeness, nevertheless it does seize his essence. A second in time that has been highlighted repeatedly over the last week, as quite a few retrospectives have been written on Mayfield’s Cleveland profession.

For Gurko, the tattoo was all the time about greater than Mayfield. It was additionally about ending two years of dropping, and capturing a second in time eternally that the quarterback supplied.

“Sometime I’m going to be 80 years outdated — hopefully I stay that lengthy — and it’s going to be a black, inky blotch on my arm,” Gurko mentioned. “However I’m going to have the ability to take a look at that and it’ll take me again. I’ll bear in mind the evening. I’ll get goosebumps. It’ll carry a smile to my face. So do I remorse it? Completely not. It’s a second in historical past that I’ll eternally cherish, each for the workforce and in addition for him.

“As a result of hear, no matter what occurs sooner or later with him, no matter what has occurred prior to now, you must give him credit score for for bringing a change to the tradition of the Browns. Different issues occur, clearly, you already know, [Myles] Garrett and Jarvis coming in, I imply, there have been issues that helped change the tradition. However he was an enormous a part of that. And as a fan, I’d hope all followers can respect what he did.”

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