The Cleveland Cavaliers managed to break away from their 52-year-old curse on Sunday after beating the Golden State Warriors and winning the 2016 NBA Finals series. For Joe Haden, the cornerback of the Cleveland Browns, this impressive feat by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and the rest of the Cavs can pave the way for the NFL team to win next season's Super Bowl.
After watching the nerve-wracking Game 7 of the finals, which was filled with a barrage of lead changes from the Cavs and Warriors, Haden got inspired by the Cleveland team's accomplishment.
According to him, the championship title brought home by the Cavs isn't only for the NBA franchise but should also serve to inspire other professional teams from Cleveland such as the Browns.
Haden made his NFL debut after getting drafted by the Browns as the seventh overall pick. However, during his entire stint with the Browns, he has never experienced what it's like to win or even compete at the Super Bowl.
In fact, even his predecessors and those before them had never experienced this since 1964, the last time the Browns became an NFL champion.
"The Cleveland curse is over," Haden wrote at MMQB.si. "We've finally got a champion in northeast Ohio. Over my seven years as a Brown, I got so tired of hearing about the curse, about no team in the city winning a championship since the Browns won in 1964."
"But you've got to go out and end it, not just talk about ending it," he added. "And that's what the Cavaliers did. The emotion in the streets downtown...just unbelievable."
But aside from winning the title, the championship also means that James was able to fulfill his promise to Cleveland, which was to successfully lead to the team to the finals. Haden views this as an inspiration to do the same thing in the upcoming NFL season.
"When I try to think about what this means, I think how it shows the athletes in this city, and the people in this city, that anything's possible," Haden stated. "LeBron came back to Cleveland and made it his mission to win a title."
"I look at our Browns team now, with the new coach, Hue Jackson, a lot of new coaches on the staff, and so much new blood, and I can tell you we're going to be competitive," he added.
