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She’s the Cleveland Browns backer, a club of one, we’re all protecting in these difficult days - cleveland.com

She’s the Cleveland Browns backer, a club of one, we’re all protecting in these difficult days - cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- They remodeled the activities room at Kathy Dykin’s home last fall.

The good news is that the redecoration was done in orange and brown, and Kathy is hoping to get a former Cleveland Brown to swing by and sign the wall. The bad news is that the group room was off-limits during football season, which means that her Browns Backers Club had to meet in her room.

That was fine, because she’s the only member.

She had gone it alone before. Her official club designation was granted in 2016, but during those down times for the Browns, other residents at her assisted-care facility would show up in the activities room if they had physical rehab to do. Some might arrive for the tailgate food Kathy arranged, then leave before kickoff. Often, the club remained a group of one.

Kathy grew up on the Browns, her father watching each Sunday, with a second game on the radio. Bernie Kosar piqued her interest in adulthood, and soon the Browns became the center of a social hub of friends. While working for a decade in real estate and then another decade in the mortgage business, she used her Browns knowledge to strike up conversation with men in the workplace.

“I needed to find a common ground with males because I was trying to sell them something,” Kathy said. “By knowing sports really well, then I had something in common that we could talk about other than business.”

It worked, except when the business was with a Steelers fan.

Kathy loves the Browns as much as ever. But her fandom has become more isolated. Not always, but often. She doesn’t need a crowd to love her team. She yells out answers at Jeopardy, but she doesn’t yell much during the games. She thought the Myles Garrett suspension was ridiculous, though, and she still doesn’t understand how Mason Rudolph got off so easy.

She was eager for last season, but she thinks a lot of people put too much pressure on Baker Mayfield. She’s not much for hype. She believes in her quarterback, but implores everyone to give him space to grow.

“I felt sorry for him, because you could see his frustrations,” Kathy said by phone this week.

I first talked to Kathy last spring, when I reached out to Browns Backers clubs around the state for a Mayfield story. She told me her story then -- a 67-year-old, one-woman club in a power wheelchair -- so when the sports world began to shut down this week, as we considered games without fans in the stands and “social distancing” became a phrase we all suddenly knew, I thought of her.

When I first called Kathy, I was reaching out for advice for how to watch games on your own, on how to be a club of one when sports are typically so social.

“I don’t have to have people around me. I’m good company on my own," she said.

By the time we talked this week, it wasn’t about the crowds being absent, it was about the games being over. It wasn’t about what Kathy could tell us, but what we can do for people like her.

Kathy has lived with multiple sclerosis for 40 years. She raised two children, worked, volunteered, cheered for Bernie and for much of that lived without limitation. That’s how she lives now, for the most part. She just does it in a wheelchair. She typically goes out at least three times a week, she takes college classes, she watches movies. She went to one of Terry Pluto’s public appearances, and she told him Mayfield was under too much pressure, too. She has lived in her home for six years, and she can do everything but walk. She said her power wheelchair gave her back her life.

She can’t go out now. Kathy said her home is exercising extreme caution. No visitors in, no residents out.

She was planning to take the bus this week to visit her 90-year-old father, who lives in another home, but she couldn’t. She had a dentist appointment to fix a chipped tooth, but she canceled it. Living with MS, she’s potentially at elevated risk for coronavirus. Those around her, many of whom are older, may be at a greater risk.

“I’m not happy about not being able to go out,” she said. “But I’m also pragmatic about the fact that I’d feel terrible if I’d bring something back.”

She never owned stocks, but she is concerned about other people’s portfolios, and she’s more worried about the servers at Olive Garden who might lose wages than she is about herself. But that’s where we come in. I think we’re all coming around to this, but if you’re looking for a reason that the entire country is partially shutting down, think of Kathy. Let’s all be part of her Browns Backers Club by learning how to be on our own.

Kathy has plenty in her life -- a son, a daughter, her grandchildren Hailey and Emily. She has her best friends Hulu and Netflix, and her painting. Her lockdown project is painting some characters that Emily (she’s 2 1/2) loves, like Baby Yoda.

Also, she’s mad about Joe Schobert leaving. She understands losing Christian Kirksey, since he’s been hurt, but Schobert she wants to keep.

“I thought that was not their best decision, and I think that’s going to come back to haunt them,” Kathy said.

She loves her Browns, but she’s not afraid to take them on when needed. She’s never needed help when it comes to the Browns, not even when her MS worsened a decade ago and she eventually moved to her facility -- where she started organizing takeout orders and collecting money for the 1 p.m. food deliveries every Sunday.

But she could use some help with this.

“I’m not a sickly person,” she said. “But I would not want to challenge the coronavirus."

Now the Steelers, on the other hand, she can’t wait to challenge them. So let’s stay to ourselves more, help out Kathy now, and once we get to football season, a few of us can head over and watch a game with her. We’ll be part of her club.


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2020-03-14 09:09:16Z
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