"THEY START GATHERING four hours before the gates open. It's a muggy Friday morning in late July, with thunder forecast for the afternoon, but the fans lining up outside the back entrance to the Cleveland Browns' training facility in Berea, Ohio, will not be deterred. They're here, on a leafy suburban street six weeks before the regular season, for the Browns' first public day of training camp, which is free each year."
"It's an eclectic procession waiting to enter -- some large and serious men wearing jowly rubber dog masks, families in matching orange football helmets, elderly couples with tributes to Paul Brown etched on their forearms like initials carved in wood -- yet in their sense of affiliation and purpose, they're perfectly, intimidatingly aligned. "You got a knife?" a man named AJ asks me."
"Back outside, a defensive-end-sized man named Big D sits behind a fold-out table on the sidewalk, a tub of wares by his feet -- orange-and-brown plastic dog chains with bulky dog-bone pendants and serving-plate-sized tags reading "DAWG." He sells the biggest chains for $20. He says he has been selling chains outside games and practices for 40 years. And business has been good."
Fans start gathering four hours before the gates open on a muggy July morning, undeterred by thunder forecasts, for the Browns' first public training-camp day. An eclectic mix includes men in jowly rubber dog masks, families in matching orange helmets, and elderly couples bearing tributes to Paul Brown. Supporter groups like the Browns of Columbus wear orange-and-white vests. The practice field area is transformed into a festival ground with bounce houses, food trucks, and a dog adoption area. Street vendors sell orange-and-brown merchandise such as oversized 'DAWG' dog chains, with some sellers reporting decades of doing this and steady business.
Read at ESPN.com
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