CLEVELAND — Midges have returned to Northeast Ohio.
And as has become a semi-annual tradition, they’re interfering with a Cleveland sporting event.
Ahead of the 1 p.m. ET kickoff between the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Chargers at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday, midges could be seen swarming the field, attaching themselves to players going through warmups. Nicknamed “Canadian Soldiers,” the flying bugs are up to a half-inch long and arrive every spring and fall and tend to only stick around for five to ten days.
The sight of midges on the football field conjured memories of the 2007 American League Division Series between the then-Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees, in which swarms of midges memorably attached themselves to Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain.