Tony Timoteo says it was his wife's idea: They should turn their front yard into a graveyard for Cleveland Browns quarterbacks.
Timoteo was all-in, but he wanted to make sure they did it right. So the avid Browns fans set to work creating perhaps the best Halloween decoration in the city of Cleveland, installing nearly two dozen gravestones to represent the franchise's quarterback woes since 1999.
The graveyard is so big, in fact, that the Timoteos are running out of room. If Johnny Manziel and Josh McCown can't stick it out with the team, they may soon be looking to their neighbors' yards to manage the extra guests.
But these Browns fans are hoping all works out in the end. They describe themselves as Manziel fans and, as they explain to Cleveland 19 News, they're having fun embracing the futility of their hometown team, which for the past 16 years has been defined by one thing: its inability to find a franchise quarterback.
The Browns have come close, of course: Derek Anderson nearly led the Browns to the playoffs one year, and Brian Hoyer last year was hoping to make his case as a long-term starter.
The Browns let him go to Houston in free agency. That's why the Timoteos added a pair of hands to Hoyer's grave, giving the look of a zombie rising out of the ground.
In front of Brian Hoyer's gravestone, there's a pair of gloves sticking up out of the ground that make it look like someone may have escaped their casket.
"We just kind of feel like he's still in the league, and he is going to come back to haunt us at some point. We don't know when, so he is really trying to raise from his grave," says Timoteo.
The yard has been a big hit, but Browns fans everywhere are hopeful that it doesn't grow too much in the near future.
"We have had offers from both neighbors to subcontract their yards out if we run out of space," Timoteo says. "God -- I hope not in the near future!"
