The Cleveland sports focus is off the Cleveland Indians tonight

The Cleveland Indians are the only team in town playing a game tonight, but the collective focus of the city will be on the NFL Draft.

The Cleveland Indians are looking to pick up a series victory over the Houston Astros tonight, but the game will not be the center of attention for Cleveland sports fans.

This is usually the case in April when the Cavaliers are in the playoffs, but it is not even a live game that will have the attention of the city’s fans. It is the NFL Draft.

The event has become a holiday for sports fans in Cleveland, which may cause some diehard Indians fans to wonder why people don’t just watch some great baseball instead of pinning their hopes to a few college kids. Yet this is the way of life in Cleveland.

The city is a football town and that is not likely to change anytime soon. The Cavaliers winning the NBA championship was awesome, and the Indians winning it all would have been a monumental event. But the Browns winning the Super Bowl may lead the city to cease its existence after a great run.

But that is a long way away, and the Indians appear to be the next team in line to end a historic title drought and bring another championship home to Cleveland. Yet that won’t dampen any of the optimism that many Cleveland sports fans have about their beloved Browns.

More from Away Back Gone

• Cleveland Guardians tantalizingly close to locking up AL Central tiebreakers
• Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection
• Say goodbye to defensive shifts and hello to bigger bases, pitch clock in 2023
• Cleveland Guardians: Shane Bieber second-fastest to 800 strikeouts in major-league history
• The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season

The droves heading to the Muni Lot tonight won’t care how the Indians do tonight, as the focus will be on men named Myles and Mitchell, and perhaps even O.J.

This type of focus elsewhere is not new when it comes to the Indians, at least since the Cavaliers have had LeBron James. The Indians also went nearly a decade without being a major contender, so a few more years of competitive baseball may help shift the focus to the Tribe instead of on a professional sports draft.

Many Indians fans will still be watching the game tonight, but it will be tough to scour local media and find anything about the team.

Next: Jim Thome joining MLB Network as analyst

This may frustrate some, but sometimes it is nice for the Indians to operate out of the spotlight.