Looking back on Bill
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Peeing on Modell's grave was sort of a novel idea...but hardly original.
The good people of Baltimore beat the Brown's fans buy a few years.
Fuck that. He's still a man's father.
WSS
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At least someone gets where me & Gip are coming from. The young 'uns may not be aware of how hard some of us worked when Modell pulled the rug out from under us (this was before the Internet really took off) jamming the NFL's Fax machines, picketing their office in New York to at least get table scraps. Modell got plenty of death threats, bet that made him think twice about going out in public for awhile. Some Browns fans recognized him eating in a restaurant in (I believe it was) West Palm shortly after, and gave him a full fledged barrage of profanity before they were asked to leave, letting him know on a personal level exactly how the fans felt. Our name, our colors. Best lawyers in Cleveland donated their time to make it happen.
Nobody is blasting the fan base Larry. Just the opposite. You keep saying the franchise never left but there was no football in Cleveland in 96, 97, and 98 before there was 5-27 football in 99 and 2000 right? 2 winning seasons in 20 years has tarnished the reputation and resume of the Glory years we enjoyed in the 80s and our previous family members enjoyed in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Modell buried that no matter how much you want to spin it. Today? We're finally feeling some legit hope something is being built the right way 23 years after the move.
The Cleveland Rams established in 1936 - moved to LA in 1945. The Cleveland Browns kicked off for the 1st time in 1946 - did the previous colors, name or anything from that move prevent fans from getting interested in whatever professional football team CLEVELAND put on the field? In fact, they didn't even join the NFL until after they dominated the AAFC with 4 consecutive Championships in every ear they participated. Then they joined the NFL and went to 6 consecutive Championship Games while winning 6 of those. Guess what solves everything when it comes to getting fans interested? Nobody gave a crap that they weren't the Rams right?
After getting Modell'd, Paul Brown reminded us the way to stick it up Modell's asss was to keep the orange helmets and get to the SB before Art could. Land ho! Having said that, the city of Baltimore once felt like they'd never root for another NFL team with a different name and team colors than the Colts. After there was no NFL in Baltimore - absence made the heart grow fonder for a Pro Team. They had no trouble selling games out; especially when they started frequenting playoffs and winning SBs.
YES, our fans had a lot to do with keeping the colors and team name we are happy about. But, there's no pretending how much was lost regardless of semantics. My friend had a very successful pizza business that he franchised. The most essential ingredients aside from location and name of the franchise are product, leadership, employees, advertising, and customer service/satisfaction. That's where a lot of us are coming from. In the last 20 years - how often have we read or voiced complaints about customer satisfaction, leadership, personnel choices, and product on the field?
Nobody is blasting the fan base Larry. Just the opposite. You keep saying the franchise never left but there was no football in Cleveland in 96, 97, and 98 before there was 5-27 football in 99 and 2000 right? 2 winning seasons in 20 years has tarnished the reputation and resume of the Glory years we enjoyed in the 80s and our previous family members enjoyed in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Modell buried that no matter how much you want to spin it. Today? We're finally feeling some legit hope something is being built the right way 23 years after the move.
The Cleveland Rams established in 1936 - moved to LA in 1945. The Cleveland Browns kicked off for the 1st time in 1946 - did the previous colors, name or anything from that move prevent fans from getting interested in whatever professional football team CLEVELAND put on the field? In fact, they didn't even join the NFL until after they dominated the AAFC with 4 consecutive Championships in every ear they participated. Then they joined the NFL and went to 6 consecutive Championship Games while winning 6 of those. Guess what solves everything when it comes to getting fans interested? Nobody gave a crap that they weren't the Rams right?
After getting Modell'd, Paul Brown reminded us the way to stick it up Modell's asss was to keep the orange helmets and get to the SB before Art could. Land ho! Having said that, the city of Baltimore once felt like they'd never root for another NFL team with a different name and team colors than the Colts. After there was no NFL in Baltimore - absence made the heart grow fonder for a Pro Team. They had no trouble selling games out; especially when they started frequenting playoffs and winning SBs.
YES, our fans had a lot to do with keeping the colors and team name we are happy about. But, there's no pretending how much was lost regardless of semantics. My friend had a very successful pizza business that he franchised. The most essential ingredients aside from location and name of the franchise are product, leadership, employees, advertising, and customer service/satisfaction. That's where a lot of us are coming from. In the last 20 years - how often have we read or voiced complaints about customer satisfaction, leadership, personnel choices, and product on the field?
But doesn't that show that the franchise didn't leave? Not that it makes much difference to me how you feel, or look at the semantics (not meaning that in a jerk way, you have your opinion and it's yours no matter what and no reason to feel some way for your heart), but when Baltimore got the Ravens, they couldn't be the Colts because the franchise moved, everything it entailed, whereas with the Browns, the rights to the franchise didn't.
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