NFL Browns' survivors have witnessed it all

There are only 10 original players left from the 1999 team that won two games.
BEREA (AP) -- Someday, their media guide biographies should include the following line: "Survived the 1999 and 2000 seasons with the Cleveland Browns."
Of the original 52 players who made up Cleveland's opening-game roster in 1999, only 10 remain from that dreadful expansion team that won two games.
The Browns weren't much better in 2000, going 3-13.
"There are only a few of us left still," cornerback Corey Fuller said.
They're Cleveland's survivors, and in nearly four seasons, these Browns have seen it all.
"A few of us hung on," wide receiver Kevin Johnson said. "It's been a disappearing act around here. From day one, guys have just disappeared. All the ups and downs. It's been a rollercoaster, and it's been amazing. But it's about patience."
Patience is rewarded
For Johnson, Fuller, quarterback Tim Couch and a few others, that patience will be rewarded this Sunday.
The Browns (8-7) are hosting the Atlanta Falcons (9-5-1) in arguably Cleveland's most important game since its football rebirth. With a win and some help from others, the Browns could clinch an AFC playoff berth for the first time since 1994.
"It's really sweet," said Couch, who along with Johnson and cornerback Daylon McCutcheon are the only original draft choices left. "All of the guys that have been here have been through some tough times.
"The expansion year and all that, and to finally have our chance now to get in the playoffs and play the final game of the season and it means so much, everyone is real excited about it. You're going to see a real hungry team out there."
Many painful moments
Those first two years for the Browns included as many painful moments as comical ones.
There was the season-opening 43-0 drubbing in '99 against the Pittsburgh Steelers that forced then-coach Chris Palmer to scrap his plan to play Cleveland's veterans.
There was the seven-game losing streak to start that season, the skid ending with Johnson pulling down Couch's last-second desperation heave in New Orleans. The Browns then lost seven of eight.
The next year, Couch had his season ended eight weeks early when he broke his right thumb on the final play of practice. The Browns were shut out four times in 2000 with a blanking by Tennessee in the finale, the final straw for Palmer, who was fired.
They're all memories Fuller would like to forget.
"I don't try to remember," Fuller said. "There wasn't anything good."
Finally enjoying success
Well, there was some. But looking back, tight end Mark Campbell, another of the survivors, said all the losses have made this year's success that much more enjoyable.
"I think I appreciate it more," he said. "But it wasn't our goal to be in the playoff hunt [this year]. Our goal was to get into the playoffs and see what happens from there. It does feel good."
Campbell said there were days in those first two seasons when he wondered if things would ever improve for the Browns.
"It wasn't a matter of were we going to lose, but by how much," said Campbell, who was an undrafted free agent. "Is it going to be respectable? It was frustrating. I lost more games my rookie year than I lost in my entire collegiate career. So now, to be playing for something really means a lot."
So, was there a low point?
"I don't know if I could say there was really one," he said. "Man, we just needed so much work all the way around. The low point was just losing. Losing really takes its toll on you. You get concerned about thinking that losing is OK."