As the entirety of the NFL fandom watches the slow-motion train wreck that is the Cleveland Browns, some lucky folks have this opportunity to thank their lucky stars they landed as fans of another team.

It was the 2004 NFL draft that finally made me realize I could no longer be the fan of the team I had worshiped since the 1991 Super Bowl. The New York Giants had been everything a kid from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan who was just discovering the joys of football at the tender age of 10 could possibly want in a football team. Awesome players. Amazing defense. A Super Bowl championship! I was sold, and I remained that way, faithful through it all, until the days and weeks following the NFL draft 13 years later.

For those of you who don’t know me — which may actually be all of you — I am a firm believer in loyalty. I believe teams should stick with players who have done well for them, and give them contracts that match their ability. I think players should work from the opposite end, keeping their contracts team-friendly to stay with that organization, if that is indeed what the player actually wants.

But there was a run following the Giants’ Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens in 2001 that found me feeling pained as I watched my team and the players I had come to respect and admire part ways. Jason Sehorn and Jessie Armstead were two of the toughest to swallow. My faithful foundation was cracking as the years went by and my realization that loyalty in the NFL may not actually exist the way I had always hoped. But it was in the days after the draft that I realized I could no longer back the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.

Like many NFL fans, I was astonished when Eli Manning announced he would not play for the San Diego Chargers after they drafted him first overall in the 2004 event. Though as a Giants fan, I was intrigued with how he would fit in with Kerry Collins and Kurt Warner at the quarterback position when — BAM! — Collins was cut and lost his starting spot to the rookie without even getting a chance to compete against him for the position.

And my heart broke.

Yeah, I get it. I can see why. But I was tired. I just couldn’t do it anymore.

So I quit. I stopped cheering for the Giants. I threw out my Giants-related belongings. I had enough. It was time to move on.

I sat down and I considered heavily what my options were. Would I cheer for the Lions, the team from my state and city that I had moved to just a few years before? Or would I put on the ol’ cheesehead and pull for the Green Bay Packers like my dad, who never let his faithfulness waiver even in the toughest seasons?

I decided that neither was the future for me. I asked myself which teams could use a new fan? A faithful fan? A fan who would be with them through the good times and the bad. My years with the Giants were full of ups and downs. Of joy and of agony. Of sweet, sweet victories and downright ugly losses. I could be the same fan for a new team. I knew it.

Then it hit me: The teams that could use the fans weren’t the ones like the Packers, which had gone 10-6 that year and made it into the postseason. No, it was the bottom feeders. The struggling squads. Those who struggled.

So I sat down and I wrote letters — good old-fashioned pen-and-paper letters — and mailed them to the Cleveland Browns (5-11 that season), the Houston Texans (5-11), the Arizona Cardinals (4-12), and the San Diego Chargers (4-12). In the letters, I said I was a former Giants fan, and I explained why I was leaving. I said I was looking for a new team to cheer for, and I wanted to know if they were interested in having me join their ranks.

As expected, I didn’t receive anything back from any of the teams — until about a month later, when a thick envelope arrived from San Diego. Inside was a letter welcoming me to the team, a key chain featuring the Chargers logo, and a photo of the Charger Girls, signed by each of them.

I was more than a little shocked. To even get a response was surprising, but to get that kind of welcome was more than anything I could have ever expected.

And thus began my love affair with the Bolts. I’ve been a fan from that day forward, cheering them through some great victories and many, many, many tough losses. This season has been a tough one to watch. Our future is uncertain in San Diego. Our team is struggling. Injuries have piled up. But win or lose, I cheer for those San Diego Chargers each and every week.

I often wonder what these years would have been like had it been the Browns that responded to my letter instead of the Chargers. I would probably have been able to get to more games in person, that’s for sure, but it would have been a much more agonizing road.

Since I made the jump to the San Diego bandwagon, the Chargers have gone 12-4, 9-7, 14-2, 11-5, 8-8, 13-3, 9-7, 8-8, 7-9, 9-7, 9-7, and 4-12 for a total of 113 wins and 79 losses. In that same span, the Browns have been 4-12, 6-10, 4-12, 10-6, 4-12, 5-11, 5-11, 4-12, 5-11, 4-12, 7-9, and 3-13 — a record of 61-131.

This year neither team is faring well, with the Chargers at 5-9 and the Browns in a free fall at 0-14 and threatening to become just the second team in NFL history to go 0-16 on a season.

Yes, it’s been a rough year to cheer the Bolts, but this is how the pickle squirts sometimes. Unless, of course, you’re a Browns fan — then this is how it always goes.

I have nothing but sympathy for the Browns fans out there. I am in awe of just how insistently and religiously loyal they are to their team. I know there are stories about the largest and rowdiest fans out there for each sport, but the fans of the Browns are punished year after year after year, and yet they still come back with the hope that the next season is going to be better.

With two games remaining on the schedule, I have high expectation that San Diego is going to win out, which means that first they have to add another loss to the Browns’ already gloomy season when the teams meet up on Christmas Eve at 1 p.m. in Cleveland. I hold no ill will toward the Browns, and I do hope they beat the Steelers in Week 17 to escape a winless season, but Christmas Eve will not be full of sugarplums and cookies. It’s not very nice, and Santa might drop some coal in my stocking for saying so, but the Browns just aren’t going to get a win in this one. Sorry, guys.

I will say this: Though I would not have enjoyed the losses over the years, or the lack of making the playoffs, I think I truly would have enjoyed being part of the Dawg Pound had I been given that opportunity. Alas, the Chargers were the ones who put pen to paper and invited me to wear the navy, gold, and powder blue.

So thanks, San Diego, for making me a fan. And good luck, Browns, on getting a win in that final game. I’m truly pulling for you.