Fans get their 15 minutes of fame
Zac Jackson, Staff Writer
07.07.2007
This is a story of two diehard Browns fans who scored some impressive tickets, soaked up every ounce of a unique gameday experience and ended up getting 15 seconds of fame out of the deal.

And when that 15 seconds became 15 minutes, the whole thing became something they'll be talking about it for 15 years, at least.

Not only do they have the pictures to prove it, but thousands of other Browns fans have now seen the pictures, too.

It started when Matt Moebius, a 28-year-old lifelong Clevelander who used to play catch in his yard and pretend he was Brian Brennan, caught Daven Holly.

"I tell people I caught a Browns player," Moebius said. "They kind of look at me funny."

The catch in question happened last November 19, just after Holly returned his first NFL interception 57 yards for a touchdown against the Steelers. He leaped into the Dawg Pound and into the arms of Moebius, and the exchange was caught by several photographers and videographers who had been tracking Holly's sprint toward the endzone.

The Plain Dealer ran a large color picture of the celebration in the next day's paper, and Moebius saw himself on ESPN and every local sports show that evening. But that was just the beginning.

The Browns used the picture on the front of their 2007 season ticket renewal package. The same picture was then used on four additional ticket offerings, the team's 2007 pocket schedule and a special ClevelandBrowns.com splash page.

"By the time I got to work Monday morning, someone had already framed it and put it on my desk," Moebius said. "Then (later) I had heard through some friends that it was on a few of the brochures the Browns sent out. And one day Jason called me, saying he logged on to the website and there it was."

"I remember (Holly's) runback -- he was flying, and he was headed right for us," Holzmann said. "When he scored, he pointed right at us and jumped right up.

"I just remember it being so loud that I couldn't hear anything. Unbelievably loud, it's like we were frozen. It's good that we have the picture to remember it."

Moebius and Holzmann met through their respective companies, Roscoe Medical and Health Management Services. Holzmann was born in Parma and lived there until he was 13, when his father's job took the family to New York.

Holzmann's own career path took him from New York to Richmond, Va., where he joined the local Browns Backers club. Eventually he landed in Houston and started doing business with Moebius. The two started talking football, shared their Cleveland roots and kept talking Browns at every ensuing meeting.

"He's a big customer," said Moebius, a graduate of Cuyahoga Heights High School and Cleveland State. "So when I could start justify using the corporate card to get Browns tickets, that's a pretty nice perk."

And one they hope can continue.

"We were in the Dawg Pound a long time before kickoff, just soaking everything up," Moebius said. "We had joked about being a part of something special, but we had no idea."

"That's going to be a tough act to follow," Holzmann said. "But we plan on coming back."
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