Q & A With Perfect Season Parade Man, Chris McNeil
With the Browns season being nothing short of a complete disaster, there are few positives to even try and justify. The Browns currently sit in the cellar of the NFL with a 0-13 record.
Like I said, it’s tough to find any positives about this season. However, there is an event that is garnering national attention to the Cleveland Browns. That event is the Perfect Season Parade 2.0. Last year, Chris McNeil, Twitter personality @Reflog_18, came up with an idea for a Perfect Season Parade if the team went 0-16. This caused conversation literally all over the country. When I say all over the country, I mean all over the country. Chris’ idea was brought up on CBSSports, NBCSports and many other national news/sports outlets.
Should we be celebrating winless seasons? Should we be promoting a bad football product? One thing that people failed to realize though is that the money raised for the parade would be donated to the Cleveland Food Bank. This was all spoiled Christmas Eve as the Cleveland Browns knocked off the San Diego Chargers, picking up that elusive first win. The money raised for the parade was donated to the Cleveland Food Bank. With the Browns back at 0-12, they only have four games left to stop the Perfect Season Parade 2.0 from happening again. I had the honor to sit down and ask a few questions to the man behind the parade.
IT: Give me a quick background on you. How did the twitter account come about, your ideas behind it?
CM: Ian, I set up the Reflog account several years ago as I went through a transition in my personal life. I went from the stage of going out to the bar with my boys, ripping on each other and talking about our teams to married life with kiddos running around. I still had a desire to be a smartass about my sports without an outlet. Enter Twitter.
IT: You have garnered a ton of following on your Twitter account (64.2K followers). With that being said, how did you get the idea for the Perfect Season Parade?
CM: So, the context for the parade is that last year the Cavs had just had a championship parade and the Indians just celebrated an AL pennant – all that was juxtaposed against the Browns being horrid. I sarcastically put it out there on Twitter that the Browns deserve a parade. That provoked a lot of creative ideas for what a parade may have in it. Floats of past quarterbacks, Manziel as parade Grand Marshal, Dwayne Rudd helmet throw floats, etc. Then a person on Twitter DM’d me to say that with a $25 filing fee and an application, this could actually happen. That is all it takes to register a parade in the city. It launched from there.
IT: What are you hoping to accomplish if the Browns do go winless and there is a Perfect Season Parade”?
CM: I’m hoping two things happen with the parade – 1. People have a fun and safe afternoon coming together for our team. 2. Browns’ brass gets the message that we are not happy with what they are doing.
IT: I know you have had some beef with Tony Rizzo. Will he be on the invite list?
CM: Tony Rizzo is absolutely invited to the parade. He won’t come because he is only a tough guy when he is behind a microphone – plus he knows the game passed him by years ago. He made his money. He doesn’t have the energy or desire to stay relevant in the Cleveland market. Why put all of that on display in a public forum? I don’t blame him.
IT: Has anyone in the Browns organization contacted you? If they were to reach out to you, what would you like to say to them?
CM: The Browns have not contacted me. To their credit, they did match our donation to the food bank last year though and are not doing anything to hinder our efforts to put on this parade.
IT: You had a goal of reaching $10,000 for the parade. You received a donation from Excedrin for $7,683. Can you explain to me how that came about? Did you reach out to Excedrin or was it totally just out of nowhere?
CM: The good people at Excedrin reached out to me. They have been running campaigns that involve the miseries and headaches of sports fans and when this hit the radar, it was natural for them to get involved with.
IT: Last question and I have to ask. Do you want the parade to happen? Do you think they can win just one?
CM: I want the Browns to win a game and I think they will. Having said that, I am almost assured of them not winning a game.
IT: Thanks for your time Chris.
CM: Go Browns.
There is a quick overview of the parade and some ins and outs about the man behind the twitter account. You can check out Chris’ Twitter account @Reflog_18 for more details (Facebook page, GoFundMe page and of course, t-shirts). A portion of t-shirt proceeds will go to the Cleveland Food Bank.
Follow the author: @Ian_Tumey
Photo via: Chris McNeil’s Twitter
