What a last few days it was for the Columbus Crew and the team’s supporters. The Black & Gold celebrated a third MLS Cup win and second in four seasons at Lower.com Field on Saturday, then held a championship parade on Tuesday, featuring an estimated 20,000 people that packed the streets of Nationwide Blvd. and Chase Plaza.

This is a moment in the team’s history that fans should not forget any time soon. While the team is in the midst of a remarkable run, and could be at the start of something special, take a moment and really let it sink in. These moments don’t happen every day for this club.

I don’t want to be the person who says, “I’ve been here from the beginning.” As discussed on this week’s Massive Report podcast, the bandwagon isn’t full, and all fans are welcome, no matter when they started supporting the club. But I’ve been here from the beginning. This franchise is unrecognizable from the team that took the field in 1996, but that isn’t a guarantee of anything to come.

Of course, there were successes early on. The Crew was consistently a playoff team in a much smaller Major League Soccer. A rivalry formed with D.C. United because the first MLS dynasty kept getting in the way of Columbus getting its chance to be the best in the league.

There were, of course, some lean years, including 2000, when the Black & Gold missed the playoffs. In 2001, Crew Stadium was set to host the MLS Cup Final, and a much younger me thought that Columbus would finally break through and play for a championship. It didn’t happen. When the Crew won the U.S. Open Cup in 2002, I remember being very excited but also wondering if that was as good as it would get being a fan of this club.

In 2002 and 2004, Greg Andrulis’ talented Black & Gold team was denied by the New England Revolution in the playoffs, sandwiching a season of not making the postseason. From 2005 through 2007, Columbus was not a playoff contender, all leading up to the glorious 2008 season.

Being in Los Angeles for the Crew’s first championship under Sigi Schmid was outstanding. To this day, that experience feels surreal. This club had waited 13 years to reach a final and brought home the MLS Cup.

I thought the fun would continue, but it didn’t. Despite a second straight Supporters’ Shield in 2009 with Robert Warzycha leading the team, the Black & Gold didn’t even reach another MLS Cup Final until 2015. (We won’t go into what happened there.) While the Gregg Berhalter years were fun and brought a new style of play to Columbus, those five seasons have nothing to show for them when it comes to the trophy case.

After missing the playoffs in the first year under Caleb Porter in 2019, the good times – so to speak – were back for the Crew in 2020. But that championship, as exciting as it was, was marred by the COVID season, which meant few fans got to celebrate in the stadium, and there was certainly no parade.

I don’t write all this to try to explain the club’s history to anyone; that’s all available elsewhere. Instead, to stress the point that championship moments haven’t been a regular occurrence for the Crew or Columbus, even if this club now has the third-most MLS Cups in the league. Getting to hug crying fans in the Nordecke and Black & Gold players popping bottles in the locker room is unique and special and should be treated as such.

Wilfried Nancy won a championship in his first season in Columbus. Perhaps this, combined with the ownership group, will begin a new dawn where the Crew is back in the MLS Cup Final next season and are cereal winners to the extent of Manchester City in the English Premier League or Bayern Minich in the Bundesliga.

But given the history of this club, it’s hard to predict that. I’ve mistakenly assumed the good things will keep coming and maybe not valuing the euphoria of the Black & Gold being champions.

I don’t want to tell you what to do, Crew fans, but take some time and really enjoy this MLS Cup.