The Browns bring in Journey for a concert before the start of the NFL draft

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns took a Journey to the first night of the NFL draft.

As if having a top-five pick didn't create enough interest, the Browns decided to reward their season ticket holders by bringing in Journey for a concert at Huntington Bank Field before the picks began.

Brent Rossi, the Browns' chief marketing officer, said the talks about doing something beyond the usual draft party began at the end of last season, when the Browns finished 3-14 and secured their 14th top-10 draft pick since returning in 1999.

In a third-party survey, the Browns found the top three rock bands by season ticket holders to be Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Journey.

Since there's no hope for another Zeppelin reunion and the Stones played in Cleveland last year, the option ended up being Journey.

''When you have a chance to marry one of the NFL's tentpole events with a band like Journey, it was a no-brainer for us in something that we wanted to do for season ticket members, especially showing so much loyalty over the last decades and last year when the product on the field didn't live up to expectations,'' Rossi said.

It's not the first time an NFL team has tried to bring in a big act for the draft. The Los Angeles Chargers had Snoop Dogg at SoFi Stadium in 2022 during the first round.

Season ticket holders received free tickets equaling the number of seats in their account. The Browns said final attendance was 25,081.

Fans were tailgating in the parking lots before the concert started.

Cleveland also had a first-round pick for the first time since 2021. They sent three first-round selections to Houston in the Deshaun Watson trade and signed him to a massive contract in what is on pace to become one of the worst trades in NFL history.

Journey came on at 6:45 p.m. and was expected to play for 90 minutes, finishing their set right before the Browns were supposed to go on the clock with the second-overall pick. Cleveland, however, made a trade with Jacksonville and moved down three spots to fifth along with adding picks in the second and fourth rounds and the Jaguars' first-round selection in 2026.

It took only three songs for the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees to play what could be the theme tune for all the teams this weekend and a franchise that has had only four winning seasons since 1999 — ''Don't Stop Believing.''

The Browns have tied into the city's rock heritage in recent seasons, including a guitarist in the Dawg Pound bleacher section during games.

Last year, the team honored the Rock Hall's Class of 2024 during a game. Foreigner, who was inducted that weekend, performed at halftime.

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