--- title: Cleveland Browns Fan Catches Possum in the Stands description: As the Cleveland Browns stormed to their first win since 2016, one fan's act of courage seemed to usher in a new era for the city's long-suffering football team. canonical: https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-21T16:59:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:01.294Z og:title: Football Fan Catches a Possum in the Stands Mid-Game og:description: People have all the jokes about the animal that was clearly a good luck charm og:url: https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc150374cff220f9/69893adbab6d777b806b3be4/cleveland-browns-possum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NFL: SEP 20 Jets at Browns og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Football Fan Catches a Possum in the Stands Mid-Game twitter:description: People have all the jokes about the animal that was clearly a good luck charm twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc150374cff220f9/69893adbab6d777b806b3be4/cleveland-browns-possum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fan Catches Possum on a Power Trip at the Big Football Game and It Was Clearly a Good Luck Charm  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2018 4:59 PM UTC  Cleveland Browns fans celebrate as the seconds tick off the clock during the fourth quarter of the National Football League game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns on September 20, 2018, at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, OH. Cleveland Browns fans celebrate as the seconds tick off the clock during the fourth quarter of the National Football League game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns on September 20, 2018, at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, OH.Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2018 4:59 PM UTC As the [Cleveland Browns](http://time.com/3721534/cleveland-browns-logo-orange-helmet-dawg-pound-nfl-football/) stormed to their first win since 2016, one fan’s act of courage seemed to usher in a new era for the city’s [long-suffering football team](http://time.com/3648996/johnny-manziel-oversleeping/). In the midst of the Browns’ 21–17 victory over the New York Jets on Thursday night, a possum was spotted wandering the stands at FirstEnergy Stadium. Security was quickly alerted to the situation and attempted to coral the wild marsupial. But it wasn’t until one daring Cleveland fan grabbed the animal by its tail and gently placed it in a box that the incident was resolved. > [](https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1042957475257954304) The Browns went on to snap their 635-day losing streak just a few hours later, a turn of events that instantly elevated the possum to good luck charm status. By Friday morning, the newly-nicknamed “Rally Possum” already had its own t-shirt. > [](https://twitter.com/bustedcoverage/status/1043081089739366405) And of course, Twitter was rife with on-point possum jokes, including some from an account posing as the possum itself. > [](https://twitter.com/OpossumBrowns/status/1042992676931420160) > [](https://twitter.com/MRudolphComedy/status/1042966875070717953) > [](https://twitter.com/Rickie%5FDragon/status/1042967736794669058) > [](https://twitter.com/SlimFrisco/status/1042962673393119237) > [](https://twitter.com/SeabassFinnAho/status/1042960074795376640) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/"},"headline":"Fan Catches Possum on a Power Trip at the Big Football Game and It Was Clearly a Good Luck Charm","datePublished":"2018-09-21T16:59:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:01.294Z","description":"The Browns snapped a 635-day losing streak","url":"https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","NFL","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc150374cff220f9/69893adbab6d777b806b3be4/cleveland-browns-possum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc150374cff220f9/69893adbab6d777b806b3be4/cleveland-browns-possum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NFL: SEP 20 Jets at Browns","caption":"NFL: SEP 20 Jets at Browns","creditText":"Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5403090/cleveland-browns-fan-catches-possum/","name":"Fan Catches Possum on a Power Trip at the Big Football Game and It Was Clearly a Good Luck Charm"}}]}] ```