Browns relish Bengals’ fall

Cleveland hopes to clinch a playoff berth with a win in Cincinnati.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BEREA — It was 1989, those ancient days when Cleveland and Cincinnati had good NFL teams at the same time.

Hudepohl, Burger and Wiedemann — the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria of Cincinnati beers — were at work. Rowdy Bengal fans tossed snowballs at the visiting Seahawks.

Sam Wyche left his post as Cincinnati’s head coach and seized a microphone.

“You don’t live in Cleveland!” Wyche barked at the crowd. “You live in Cincinnati!”

Defensive lineman Shaun Smith appreciates the story. He has had it both ways.

He played for the Bengals when they applied a December 2005 win over the visiting Browns to finish 11-5.

Now he plays for a Browns team that will be one win away from 11-5 if they handle Sunday’s business in Cincinnati.

“I’m not gonna bad-mouth the fans there or nothing like that,” Smith said Thursday. “It was good. The fans were great there in Cincinnati.

“But now I hear that, since they’re losing, fans are selling their tickets and stuff.”

He hears it on good authority. One of his best buds is Bengals wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Their wives, Lashonda and Kaci, will sit together Sunday.

“I urge all the Cleveland fans to go and buy a scalped ticket off the street or something,” Smith said. “It would be fun ... make it feel like home-field advantage.”

Smith is a big kidder — as in a 6-foot-2, 325-pound kidder.

He’ll interrupt an interview being conducted with Orpheus Roye with, “That’s not what you told me yesterday.”

He’s having a blast with this playoff run, especially as it turns south to Cincinnati, where he hasn’t been forgotten.

Asked this week what he sees of Smith as a Brown, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer said, “He’s definitely looking hefty. I know he hasn’t turned down too many meals.”

That got back to Smith, who replied:

“I really want to sack him. If I sack him, I’m not gonna get up. I might take a 15-yarder on that one. Just lay on him for calling me the Hamburgler.”

Palmer said the Bengals “need to come out swinging all over the place, have fun with it and try to knock these guys off the pedestal they are on right now.”

Another Smith reply: “Carson needs to worry about winning more games and about No. 85 [Chad Johnson] yelling at him, calling for the ball.”

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is one of the worst quotes in the league. Smith, though, hinted that Lewis is a personality to those who play for him.

“I’ve got something for Marvin,” Smith said. “I’ve got something for ... you name it. I could write a book on that team. I’ve seen good stuff happen and bad stuff happen. I’m not gonna release it all out, but I could write a book about Marvin.”

Lewis, who controls personnel decisions basically the way Butch Davis did in Cleveland, didn’t fight to keep Smith.

“It was a business decision they made,” said Smith, who has become a fixture on Cleveland’s three-man line, playing both end and nose tackle.

It can be hard to tell when Smith is half-kidding or half-serious.

“I might just give Marvin his little dance he does when he gets upset,” Smith said. “I might throw a poker chip at Levi.”

He was referring to an offseason attack in Las Vegas in which Bengals left tackle Levi Brown was victimized.

“You know ... the incident with Joey Porter.”

Smith is beginning to feel his oats as a Browns starter.

He matched his season high in tackles two Sundays ago against the Jets. He was in on a career-high eight tackles last Sunday against Buffalo.

For the record, it snowed in Cleveland. Yes, there were snowballs.