RIP Art Modell

Most of the cities that have lost teams had lukewarm support of the team that left.

The Browns definitely were the most notable exception to that rule.

 

You're not entitled to anything.

Not to a job. Not to a team in your metro area.

If you are unable or unwilling to find a place where you won't be pissed on, won't be asked to do more and won't receive less pay, then maybe you should hug your boss' knees and thank him for keeping you employed. Because it doesn't sound like a better deal is coming down the road.

And it could ALWAYS be worse.

 

Why don't Cardinals fans hate Bill Bidwell the way Browns fans hate Modell?

 

Where were the Cleveland fans when Irsay moved the Colts in the middle of the night? Having a warm glass of Browns' juice. Then it happened to them and it was like they were the first old fat husband who came home to find his wife cuming for the 1st time in 20 years, with another man.

Baltimore got dicked around by the NFL for years. Baltimore even won a Grey Cup.

While not a Ravens fan, Baltimore didn't deserve what happened to their Colts and if it took screwing Cleveland and making the NFL look even slightly dirty, so be it.
RIP Art, and when you get to heaven make a long distance call to Bob Irsay and tell him your having a cool one.

 

They were happy to see them go.

 

BTE, Interesting perspective. Some stats:

Markets in Top 51 (1 million+) w/o NFL teams based on metro population:
2. Los Angeles ~13 million
12. Riverside, Calif. 4.3 million (near LA)
23. Portland, Ore. 2.3 million
24. San Antonio 2.2 million (2 Texas teams already)
25. Sacramento 2.2 million (2 Bay area teams within a couple hours)
26. Orlando 2.2 million (3 Florida teams; 1 w/in 2 hours)
31. Las Vegas 2 million
32. San Jose 1.9 million (2 Bay area teams w/in 2 hours)
33. Columbus 1.8 million (2 Ohio teams w/in 2 hours)
34. Austin 1.8 million (2 Texas teams already)
36. Virginia Beach 1.7 million
38. Providence 1.6 million ("New England")
39. Milwaukee 1.6 million (Green Bay ties)
41. Memphis 1.4 million
42. Lousville 1.3 million
43. OKC 1.3 million
44. Richmond 1.3 million
45. Hartford 1.3 million ("New England"/2 NY teams)
47. Raleigh 1.2 million
48. Salt Lake City 1.2 million
50. Birmingham 1.2 million
51. Rochester 1.1 million (Buffalo w/in 2 hours)

10 Smallest market NFL cities:
152. Green Bay 310k (Wisconsin's team)
49. Buffalo 1.2 million (large population centers in vicinity)
46. New Orleans 1.2 million
40. Jacksonville 1.4 million (large pop. centers w/in 2 hours)
37. Nashville 1.6 million
35. Indianapolis 1.8 million
33. Charlotte 1.8 million
29. Kansas City 2.1 million
28. Cleveland 2.1 million (bigger w/ Akron, Canton, Ytown nearby)
27. Cincinnatti 2.1 million

Next 10: 22. Pittsburgh; 21. Denver; 20. Baltimore; 19. St. Louis; 18. Tampa; 17. San Diego; 16. Minneapolis; 15. Seattle; 14. Phoenix; 13. Detroit.

 

If we're being fair, Baltimore's martyr complex about the Colts isn't any better than the Browns' fans. It comes up every time the Indianapolis Colts play there, and 30 years down the line, and given the time lag and the fact that Baltimore did the same to Cleveland as Indy did to Baltimore, it's lame.

There's revisionist history out there about just how passionate Baltimore Colts fans were in the last 10 years or so of the franchise being there.

It's not as if a Colts ticket in Baltimore during the late 70s and early 80s was hard to come by. If you look at attendance from their last two playoff seasons in Baltimore -- 1976 and 1977 -- there were games were they were nearly 20,000 under capacity.

In 1983, the Colts were briefly in the playoff hunt before ultimately finishing 7-9. Attendance for the last five games there: 38,565, 32,343 (against Miami, a Super Bowl team the year before), 57,319 (against nearby Pittsburgh, so I'm sure Steelers fans gobbled tickets up), 35,462 and 20,618.

Yes. You read that right. The last game the Colts played in Baltimore (to be fair, no one knew it at the time) drew 20,618.

I know deriving passion via attendance can be dodgy. And I know that Robert Irsay's douchebaggery had a lot to do with it too. The Colts were run like shit when he was in charge (something that translated to the Colts' first decade in Indy), constant coaching changes, etc. I get that. It would've been hard to be a Colts fan during Irsay's ownership.

On the other hand, it's not as if Baltimore didn't have ample time to keep the Colts. Irsay threatened to move as early as 1976. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Memphis and Indianapolis were all candidates long before it actually happened. Irsay tabled a move in 1979 when cursory improvements were made to Memorial Stadium. If the passion to keep the Colts was as virulent as revisionist history says it is, it could have happened.

One can say it was a different time, and that cities weren't yet ready to take seriously the threats of owners. Maybe. Maybe not. Three years before the Colts skipped Baltimore, Al Davis got into a legal brouhaha over the Raiders' move to Los Angeles. So it's not as if the threat to move wasn't a real one.

Did Baltimore deserve the Mayflower trucks and Irsay beating an eminent domain "rap" at the crack of dawn? Nope.

But it's different from the Browns situation. Unlike Irsay, who made so many threats to move he undoubtedly came off as the boy who cried wolf -- which may explain why it took Baltimore/Maryland so long to take him seriously -- Art Modell never made the same implicit threat to Cleveland.

I lived in NE Ohio at the time, and while Modell would grumble about needing a new stadium, I don't recall at any point that he ever explicitly said, "I'm going to move the Browns out of Cleveland, if ..."

Browns fans never had the chance that Colts fans had. Browns fans never had a chance to put (or not put) political pressure on the powers-that-be to keep the Browns.

It just came down one day. We're moving. Fuck you.

In that respect, while the grave-dancing might be a bit over the top, I understand it. The Browns were/are a way of life in Cleveland. It's the only place I've been where the passion matches that of what I grew up with in Wisconsin with the Packers.

It's hard to put into words how complete the brown-and-orange-colored fall Sunday's were in that part of Ohio. In every bar, restaurant, grocery store (I recall at Giant Eagle, or one of the chain grocery stores, you had to wear Browns gear on Sunday's if you were on the clock). It permeated nearly every walk of life.

Art Modell took that away. Its never been the same since. It never will be the same. I don't blame Browns fans one bit for holding that against him for perpetuity.

Sure Cleveland got a replacement, but once you lose the original love, it's hard to wrap your arms around the replacement.

And, unfortunately, the replacement Browns have largely been a joke.

The martyr complex might seem over the top in Cleveland. I can understand that feeling. But Baltimore doesn't get to have a martyr complex if Cleveland can't have one.

 

And St. Louis was also the Cardinals' second home. Not its first.

 

Bidwill.

 

Because they don't care about football the way Cleveland fans care about football.

 

How do you know where Cleveland fans were? I have a friend that hates the Colts to this day b/c of their move. He is one of the biggest Browns fans I know.

 

One of those days I really wish Geoff Sindular was still alive, and on the air.