Is the city of Baltimore no better than the Irsays?

Definitely. It all depends on how you prioritize your fandom. It's complicated now, especially with players changing teams so much.

Example A: My love for Glavine trumps my hatred for the Mets. I root for Glavine every five days -- but when he's not on the mound, or when he's off the hook, I despise the Mets.

Example B: I'm a Michigan fanboy, so I despise the fact that A.J. Hawk was Green Bay's No. 1 pick last year. It's hard for me to root for him -- but for me: Packers love > Ohio State hate, so ... after a lot of justification ... I begrudgingly hope he does well. Although I'll never forget that he was a Buckeye ... 8)

 

I may not be recalling this correctly, but here's my shot:

Modell didn't agree to leave the Browns' history behind until the city filed a lawsuit against him. It was some kind of settlement between the league and Modell, where the NFL agreed to let him move if he left the name and history or Cleveland, who was immediately awarded an expansion franchise. This was enough to satisfy Cleveland Mayor White. To add to the Modell's level of dickness, some suggested he just leave the Browns in Cleveland and take ownership of a expansion franchise in Baltimore and he wouldn't have any of it; he wanted 'his team' to stay in 'his family.' I guess no one in the Modell family can get a real job.

And only an idiot would lose money with the Browns. They sold a ton of merchandise, packed in 80,000 in the mistake by the lake plenty of times, yet he had to borrow money from a bank to sign Andre Rison. The fact he is still allowed to be an owner by the league shows you what a good-ol-boy-network sports ownership is.

I'll never forget the hissy Modell threw when Lerner was awarded the new Browns franchise. Classless jerk. When they won a Super Bowl, it almost turned me atheist and I'm not even a Browns fan.

 

Pretty sure that Modell is either only a minority owner of the Ravens now or has sold off all shares of the team. I know for a fact that he no longer owns controlling interest in the team. And I think Modell signed the deal to move the team to Baltimore on Al Lerner's private jet.

 

Yeah, I can understand that. I guess my fandom left me fairly early on. Except for my hometown high school and college. I'll still be fanboy for them.

 

True, true, all true. It actually caused me some resentment toward Lerner, even when he was the Browns' owner.

 

Vividly remember Geoff Sindelar bitching about that on WKNR back in the day.

 

Ahhh Sindelar. Good times.

 

I miss that fat, miserable bastard. You have Mike Trivisano but it's just not the same.

 

Yeah, I've lost touch with all the Cleveland media types. I just know two of my favorites (Nev Chandler and Casey Coleman) are no longer with us. Last I heard, the most annoying one, Jim Donovan, still was.

Shame.

 

Sindelar, I know, retired a few years back. Wanna say that it was around 1998-99.

Mike Wolf? No idea.

Kenny Roda? Don't care.

 

Well, I never worked with any of them or talked to them, so I'll leave that to you. I was just commenting as someone who grew up watching them anchor the sports on the 6 p.m. news.

 

Sindelar's arguments with Mr. Bengal should have been taped and put online