Sports star says: Forget the game, go to the orchestra

Drew Carey is a nationally known TV presenter, actor and sports commentator in the US. He is among the biggest local fans of the Cleveland Browns football team, who are doing very badly this season. So he’s giving up.

‘You don’t have to support them just because they’re in Cleveland,’ he tells an interviewer.

Then Drew goes on to say: ‘Listen, you don’t want those Browns to be part of your mental state… You know, the whole ‘Cleveland is bad, the Browns are bad, Cleveland bad, I’m bad because I’m from Cleveland,’ dance. You don’t want that thing to be part of your brain. There are so many good things in Cleveland. Concentrate on the Museum (of Art) — it’s one of the best in the world. Concentrate on the Cleveland Clinic and all the great things they’re doing.

‘Go to the orchestra. It’s the best orchestra in the whole wide world, arguably, and it’s right in our city. Take the money you were going to spend on the Browns, take your kids, and go to the (bleeping) orchestra. Then you can have pride in your city. That’s the thing to be proud of.’

This is very good advice, indeed.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra should insert it as an advertisement in Aston Villa programmes. Likewise the Halle Orchestra.