Earnest Byner will attend Cavaliers championship parade

Earnest Byner received a long overdue cathartic moment when the Cleveland Cavaliers prevailed as NBA champions on Sunday night.

Byner is infamous for "The Fumble", where he lost the ball at the one-yard line during the 1987 AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos with 1:12 remaining. If Byner scored, the game would've been tied, but instead the play is one of the tragic cornerstones of Cleveland's sports history.

Cavaliers superstar LeBron James mentioned Byner's fumble, along with Jose Mesa's blown save for the Indians during Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, when stating how important his team's victory is to the cursed sporting pathology of the city.

Byner wasn't offended by the mention and will be proudly attending the Cavaliers' championship parade Wednesday.

"I am honored to actually go up there and be a part of it. I'm honored that people asked me to come up, or asked me to be a part of it. So I am really and truly blessed," Byner said via NFL.com's Andie Hagemann.

Although the Cavaliers ended the city's 52-year title drought, Byner still feels responsible for the loss in 1987.

"I'm still on the hook but it makes managing the situation a little bit easier," Byner said.

Byner said he was optimistic about the Cavaliers' chances of winning, despite the team trailing 3-1 in the series, before James elevated his game to a Herculean level.

"I just had a sense that they were going to pull it out," Byner said. "As a matter of fact, some of the Twitter followers were hitting me up before the game and talking about the nerves they had, and I just kept pointing them to enjoy the process, watch and enjoy the process. It's so easy to get caught up in the end result, and sports are result-oriented, so it works the nerves in such a way that you can't really enjoy the process, and enjoy play after play and moment after moment.

Byner isn't the only former Browns player attending the celebration. Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar was invited to the parade by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and CEO Len Komoroski, according to ESPN.

Now that Cleveland's eradicated its 52-year title drought, Byner's career may be remembered more favorably, and he will join the city in rejoicing and reveling in the Cavaliers' historic accomplishment.