The Cleveland Browns Are Getting a Hulu Show – Struggling Browns Head Coach (Christopher Meloni) Drafts His Son 1st Overall Out of Ohio State to Turn The Team Around, Premiering After This Year's Super Bowl
FOX 8 CLE — The Cleveland Browns are getting the Hollywood treatment in a new drama series.
“The Land,” created by “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman, follows a fictional version of the Cleveland Browns as the team navigates pressure to win, family drama and power struggles in the front office.
Christopher Meloni stars as Danny Roarke, the team’s head coach, who faces one last chance to turn around the struggling franchise. His future hinges on a newly drafted Ohio State quarterback — who also happens to be his son.
There ya go, Cleveland. I know times have been tough for Browns fans lately your entire life. Unless you're one of the rare Barstool Sports readers who remembers the Browns winning the AFL-NFL World Championship in 1964. Most readers probably don't even remember the Browns' run in the late 80s, when they made (but lost) 3 out of 4 Conference Championships (1986, 1987, 1989). In all likelihood, the best memory Browns fans have is beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2020 Wild Card round.
But even at their best, since 1989, the Browns have never been a threat to win the Super Bowl. Not by a long shot. This year might be their best chance yet, and in true Factory of Sadness fashion, Cleveland relies on a quarterback who's such a horrendous person (and is on such a horrendous contract) that they can't even entertain the thought of bringing him back next season. Only the Browns could find themselves in such a uniquely precarious situation.
Good news though, Browns fans. Even if Deshaun Watson doesn't take you to the promise land this year (lol), you WILL be playing on Super Bowl Sunday. Kind of. Well... technically, no. Technically, it will be Monday. What I'm saying is, at midnight following the Super Bowl, a brand-new series called The Land will premiere on Hulu.
In case the Browns didn't bring Cleveland enough pain and suffering in real life, they now have at least six episodes of fictional Browns football to stomach. And what a premise it is. In a last-ditch effort to save his career, the head coach of the Cleveland Browns (Christopher Meloni) drafts his own son (Sam Corlett) to play quarterback. My goodness. Can you imagine? I mean… credit to Hulu. I can definitely see the Browns pulling something like that in real life. We weren't THAT far away from it when Shedeur Sanders was in the draft, and Deion Sanders… existed. But for any sicko Browns fans out there who for some reason wanted Sanders x Sanders in Cleveland, I guess you'll get your chance to see it play out… in a fictional world… on Hulu.
Cleveland – The series, from “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman, centers on two families connected by football. Christopher Meloni (“Law & Order: SVU”) plays the Browns’ down-on-his-luck head coach Danny Roarke, who rests his fortunes on his son, Ohio State quarterback Connor Roarke (Sam Corlett), after drafting him with the No. 1 overall pick.
William H. Macy (“Shameless”), meanwhile, plays Browns owner Hal Durkin, whose daughters — played by Mandy Moore (“This Is Us”) and Chloe Bennet (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) — are in the running to succeed him. Chace Crawford (“Gossip Girl”) plays the team’s new general manager.
Seems like a solid cast. Those are, in fact, real actors I've heard of. It's made by the creator of This Is Us, which wasn't my cup of tea, but it won Emmys. From the few pictures I've seen, they clearly got the rights to use the real Cleveland Browns logo + uniforms.
Hopefully that means they have the rights to use teams and logos across the entire NFL. That'll make or break any show about professional sports. Draft Day was one big heaping pile of garbage, but they had real NFL logos. They were able to use real teams. That at least made it watchable.
The Land also managed to get Roger Goodell to film a scene for them at the draft.
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And for the love of god, they better make the Cleveland Browns win the Super Bowl. Do it in the first season too. Don't you dare end your show on a heartbreaking loss to the Bengals that would have clinched them a playoff spot, then get canceled. Don't even fucking think about it, Hulu. We've all seen the Browns lose plenty. Making them lose in a fictional world would be entirely too cruel.