For Cleveland Browns announcers Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken, season has been a fun ride
Doug #Doug
CLEVELAND, Ohio – As an 11 p.m. newscast wound down on WKYC, Betsy Kling, in a segue to Jim Donovan, said to her excited broadcast partner: “I hope you get some sleep tonight, Jimmy.”
Donovan beamed. He was excited, but controlled, as he relayed the news of the day, discussing Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski’s elation at Sunday’s playoff victory, of the team readying for Kansas City, of playoff fever. He was, as he often is, almost giddy.
And it was only Tuesday.
The importance of the moment – actually, moments of perpetual elation since the Browns defeated the Steelers in their first playoff appearance since 2003 – is not lost on Donovan, who has been in Cleveland since 1985. This is the 22nd year he and Doug Dieken have called Browns games.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” Donovan said. “Every year at this time naturally we would not be in the playoffs. I’d get to the weekend and the regular season would be over and typically we would be covering the story of who’s the next head coach. I’d always sit and say ‘Gosh, those people doing the games for those teams in the playoffs, I hope they know how lucky they are because I would be absolutely thrilled to be calling a playoff game.’ “
From his vantage, Donovan sounds off the air like he does on it, constantly engaged. He’s a fan armed with knowledge, history and passion who has ridden the proverbial roller coaster of emotion. The neat thing is he gets to do it with Dieken, who marvels at his longtime booth partner.
“It’s like working with the best in the business. There is no better voice than Jimmy,” he said. “The intensity and preparation and memory that he has is in unmatched.”
He and Dieken were teamed more than two decades ago after Donovan underwent what he describes as a long and very competitive process. Auditions involved being matched with an analyst to call a recorded game. He was paired with Hanford Dixon one time, Bob Golic another, as he took the play-by-play on a Giants-Eagles replay.
“But not once was I paired with Doug,” he said, “which I thought was really strange.”
It was strange because the first game they did together was the 1999 Hall of Fame game in Canton, as the re-emerged Browns faced Dallas.
“Bang,” he said, “it just worked.”
Donovan described it as being “like two guys who had tickets forever and had seats beside each other and would sit and talk about the game. I would do anything for him; he’d would do anything for me and has. It’s great being with him. It’s so comfortable. I’m happy for him. The other night when they won and beat the Steelers, he grabbed me and he said ‘Hey, listen, I’m really happy for you.’ “
Dieken remembered those test runs.
“You’re doing it off a monitor,” he said. “I guess that prepared us for this year.”
While Donovan sweated the competition, Dieken had a secret weapon. He called a former teammate-turned-coach and said, ‘Can you get me a tape of this game?’ I had the game before I did the broadcast.”
It was, as he said, simply a matter of “trying to get that edge.”
Dieken got that edge, Donovan got the job, and together they bring the games to life from behind the microphone.
“He is not only great in his description, but he’s entertaining in his descriptions,” Dieken said. “It is a pleasure to work with him. He is the engine that drives the car.”
‘This is really happening, they’ve made it to the playoffs’
They endured well-documented horrific football seasons. But this year felt different. The highs started immediately, moments that opened Donovan’s eyes, certain early games that foreshadowed that the season could be something special.
“The first game they won, they beat the Bengals (Sept. 17, 35-30). They had a really rough opener – fully understandable in Baltimore. You say, ‘New coach hasn’t been around the team, had a very bizarre off season, training camp was bizarre’. They went into Baltimore and really got handled in that game. But they came out only four days later and looked so much better. Offensively they were doing whatever they wanted to do. Mind you I know the Bengals aren’t going to make you forget about the Bears’ ’85 defense, still … they were intriguing to me that night because I kept saying ‘Wow, they can really score and they do it a lot of different ways.’ “
Two weeks later, the Browns headed to Dallas, a venue that previously “would have sent shivers down any Browns team,” but Cleveland pulled it out again (Oct. 4, 49-38). A few weeks later came another victory against Cincinnati (Oct. 25, 37-34), a proving-ground game for Baker Mayfield, Donovan said.
“They won the game on a last-second drive, and that’s when you start talking about the Kardiac Kids, that’s when you start to say ‘That’s what Brian Sipe did back in 1980.’ “
On Dec. 6, the Browns met Tennessee, both teams with 8-3 records, and “they just really took the game to Tennessee. That was a real highlight.” The Browns won, 41-35.
Jump to the regular-season finale against Pittsburgh, “a huge hurdle for them to get over. I found it to be really tense even around town, all week. They needed to win the game to get in, it’s Pittsburgh. … I was just hoping they would play the way they were very capable of playing and not get so tight that the game gets away from them. Then when they finally made it. It was very, very emotional. You just say to yourself ‘This is really happening, they’ve made it to the playoffs.’ “
When the clock wound down, and the Browns staved off the Steelers by gaining a critical first down, you knew victory was a reality, Donovan recalled.
“I’ll never forget that,” he said.
What else the two won’t forget about this season is more about emotion than any touchdown run or dropped pass.
“You’d drive down and you get on the Shoreway and those muni lots were empty. And it used to hit me every week,” Donovan said. “It broke my heart, it really did, to see those muni lots so empty. It really hit me every time. Here we were having this great season, that we had waited for so deservedly for so long, and people couldn’t get in. It was so quiet.”
Dieken also knows firsthand about the fans in Cleveland, a city where he played from 1971 to 1984 before moving to the broadcast booth.
“The game the other night against Pittsburgh when guys had name tags on their jerseys saying ‘Hello, my name is Joe.’ … It’s been very impressive. The win over in Pittsburgh obviously means a lot to the city. Unfortunately we don’t have the full stadiums like we normally would. You’d come out of the stadium and see people happy. That’s one of the highlights. We’ve come out of the stadium many a day when they’ve lost and they have had their butts kicked and you see the sadness on their faces … You come out of the stadium now, they’re happy, they’re high-fiving, it’s good for the city.”
This year’s Browns have “gone through a lot,” Dieken said, to forge an 11-5 regular-season record. “Every team has, but I think this team with a new coach has probably gone through more than most teams. The discipline and the way they have come together as a team. They aren’t 11 independent contractors. They play with a passion, and they play like they really care about one another.”
Dieken credits limited penalties, Mayfield’s development, and the relationship between Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt who put aside any egos to share the backfield. It’s as if the players have gelled as much as the announcers have.
“Chemistry is a big part of the game of football,” Dieken said. “When you have success without really being allowed to develop chemistry that says a lot for the coaching staff.”
Remembering the past, overcoming challenges
To equate the feeling of the Browns’ playoff win, Donovan and Dieken go back to Jan. 3, 1987.
“I have to go back to (Bernie) Kosar and the Browns beating the Jets in the double-overtime playoff game,” said Donovan, remembering the 12-4 favored Browns.
“The jubilation of winning that playoff game and winning this one, I think that kind of equates to feeling when they finally won the game, how you felt,” Donovan said.
“The Jets-Browns playoff game in ’86 was incredible because they had a great comeback. This was amazing because it’s a completely different world we’re living in, not having players playing and your coach wouldn’t be on the sidelines. And you’re going to have to try to beat a guy in Ben Roethlisberger, who has beaten you soundly in your career.”
Donovan also remembers the deflated feeling when he learned about the late-season Covid benchings going into the 23-16 loss to the Jets on Dec. 27, the canceled practices, and knowing they had to play a Steelers team that was “fit as a fiddle.”
Dieken added: “They got wiped out right before the game with the wide receivers. It’s like ‘OK, this isn’t a fair fight.’ “
Then the Browns won, and the elation continues. And when the final seconds tick off in a game, especially as one with the magnitude of Sunday’s matchup with Kansas City, Donovan will be there, with the call. It’s one he doesn’t practice ahead of time. What he will say at the end, win or lose, will be born out of preparation and go with the moment.
For Donovan, it doesn’t matter if he is calling pre-season, regular or postseason. His game plan remains the same.
“I will talk the game in my head all week. Once I get the other team in my head and I memorize them I will take a walk with my dogs or just around our property, and I will do the game. I will do a quarter of the game, where the Browns have the ball or where this week Kansas City has the ball, just so I can put the names in and take a look at how it will sound.
“To my two dogs, when we’re walking around, the Browns have won the Super Bowl every year. … I would never have something pre-ready. I would like it to come out very naturally.”
What also is natural is Donovan in the booth next to his pal Dieken. Hear him call the end of a game, and Browns fans can feel his excitement that never wanes.
“It’s been an incredible ride all year long. They have been amazing,” Donovan said. “Week in and week out you keep saying: ‘Is this really happening’? And it really is.”
More info
Highlights of Donovan and Dieken’s calls are on WKYC’s YouTube channel and Instagram account. Kickoff for Sunday’s Browns-Chiefs playoff game is 3:05 p.m. on CBS.
I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 8:05 a.m. Fridays for “Beer with Bona and Much, Much More” with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler.
Get a jumpstart on the weekend and sign up for Cleveland.com’s weekly “In the CLE” email newsletter, your essential guide to the top things to in Greater Cleveland. It will arrive in your inbox on Friday mornings – an exclusive to-do list, focusing on the best of the weekend fun. Restaurants, music, movies, performing arts, family fun and more. Just click here to subscribe. All cleveland.com newsletters are free.