Well, I see the day finally arrived - Art Modell has died.
This is not going to be a post where I write my hopes on what he is doing in the afterlife. The raw emotion of the move has long passed, but there is still some anger at what he did. With the move, he ripped a key part of my 20s away from me. Going to Browns games were a social highlight back then - being part of a community, seeing friends in Cleveland - and being able to do that 2-3 times a year was a big part of my pre-marriage life. That was ripped away. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but still...part of my life that I will never, never get back. It still makes me sad.
Of course, I can't blame Modell for the current state of the Browns - in fact, can't balme him for the last 10 years or so of ineptitude - but a few things I do want to state for the record:
1. I am happy that he will not be able to pass the franchise on to his family. That was a stated goal of his when he announced the move - and he will not, was not, able to do that.
2. I am getting sick of the revisionist history on Modell. "Yes, he moved the Browns...a controversial move" , some of the reports state. "But while he did so, he made sure to leave the colors and the name of the Browns in Cleveland".
That is a complete and utter lie. Maury Povich, I believe, has the results.
Some facts, just for the record:
- When Art was in Baltimore annoucing the move, there was a banner behind him: "Baltimore Browns".
- There was Baltimore Browns merchandise being sold in Baltimore.
That's why:
- I was part of an effort to clog the NFL offices' fax machine on Jan 11, 1996, protesting the move and demanding our colors. It took me about 2 hours to figure out how to do this from my hom computer at the time.
- I was part of an effort to send flowers to every NFL owners' wife - flowers in Brown and Orange - demadning our colors and history to be returned.
- I was part of a team getting signatures for a petition to get the colors and history back.
Yeah, yeah, I know...some of you are playing the world's smallest violin right now. I understand that.
But let's not mis-remember what happened in the mid 90s.
3. When I heard that the Browns were going to have a moment of silence for Art, I was livid. Who approved this? This had nothing but disaster written all over it. We would look either like wimps who sat there and took it, or "imbeciles" that booed a dead man. There was no good side.
Where was our lame duck president to nullify this? (And no, I don't mean Obama. Zing! Bad-da-bum). Holmgren was probably in Seattle this week.
But then I heard that we won't have the moment of silence at the stadium, "on request from the Modell family". Ha. I mean, I'm sure David Modell has nothing better to do than to call up Roger and say "oh, yeah, I was mourning my dad... and I thought, "let's not do the memorial in Cleveland? K? thanks.".
If you believe that, then you must believe my Browns prediction this week - Browns 31, Eagles 17.
This is not going to be a post where I write my hopes on what he is doing in the afterlife. The raw emotion of the move has long passed, but there is still some anger at what he did. With the move, he ripped a key part of my 20s away from me. Going to Browns games were a social highlight back then - being part of a community, seeing friends in Cleveland - and being able to do that 2-3 times a year was a big part of my pre-marriage life. That was ripped away. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but still...part of my life that I will never, never get back. It still makes me sad.
Of course, I can't blame Modell for the current state of the Browns - in fact, can't balme him for the last 10 years or so of ineptitude - but a few things I do want to state for the record:
1. I am happy that he will not be able to pass the franchise on to his family. That was a stated goal of his when he announced the move - and he will not, was not, able to do that.
2. I am getting sick of the revisionist history on Modell. "Yes, he moved the Browns...a controversial move" , some of the reports state. "But while he did so, he made sure to leave the colors and the name of the Browns in Cleveland".
That is a complete and utter lie. Maury Povich, I believe, has the results. Some facts, just for the record:
- When Art was in Baltimore annoucing the move, there was a banner behind him: "Baltimore Browns".
- There was Baltimore Browns merchandise being sold in Baltimore.
That's why:
- I was part of an effort to clog the NFL offices' fax machine on Jan 11, 1996, protesting the move and demanding our colors. It took me about 2 hours to figure out how to do this from my hom computer at the time.
- I was part of an effort to send flowers to every NFL owners' wife - flowers in Brown and Orange - demadning our colors and history to be returned.
- I was part of a team getting signatures for a petition to get the colors and history back.
Yeah, yeah, I know...some of you are playing the world's smallest violin right now. I understand that.
But let's not mis-remember what happened in the mid 90s.
3. When I heard that the Browns were going to have a moment of silence for Art, I was livid. Who approved this? This had nothing but disaster written all over it. We would look either like wimps who sat there and took it, or "imbeciles" that booed a dead man. There was no good side.
Where was our lame duck president to nullify this? (And no, I don't mean Obama. Zing! Bad-da-bum). Holmgren was probably in Seattle this week.
But then I heard that we won't have the moment of silence at the stadium, "on request from the Modell family". Ha. I mean, I'm sure David Modell has nothing better to do than to call up Roger and say "oh, yeah, I was mourning my dad... and I thought, "let's not do the memorial in Cleveland? K? thanks.".
If you believe that, then you must believe my Browns prediction this week - Browns 31, Eagles 17.
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