My VCR is shot and I have to work all night, so can someone give me a synopsis of this after it shows? I am on record as thinking that Modell is an idiot, and I want to get on record about this show. I haven’t seen it yet, but some of the stuff they are justifying with their previous shows I think is unjustifiable, so they’re going to have to make some super convincing arguments to move me from my default position.
So, is anybody game? If so, please keep in mind that I want to know what ESPN has to say about this, not what you think. Otherwise this thread will be 100 posts deep before the show is even broadcast.
I’m pretty sure that this is a repeat and that I saw parts of it a couple weeks back. IIRC most of the “reasons” were fairly tongue in cheek and I don’t think you’ll get the satisfaction out of debunking them that you’d hope.
I know one of the reasons was John Elway. Somehow him spurning the Colts in the 83 draft led to the vacating of B-More, opening a space for the Browns to move to that was willing to pay top dollar. I think they sprinkled in some talk of the Drive I & II as well.
They blamed Baltimore on the whole too, basically saying the entire city was to blame, luring Modell there, even though they were the victimes of teh same thing and should have known better almost 20 years earlier.
I can’t remember any others but I’m guessing you’ll be able to find a synopsis and/or a list online somewhere considering it’s a rerun.
Being a bit sympathetic to Baltimore, I’ve always wondered why it was a crime when Baltimore did this but not when any other city (Indianapolis, Los Angeles, St. Louis) did this. And if it was such a crime why didn’t the NFL punish Irsay early on and reinstall a team in Baltimore (a city with a great football tradition) like they did in Cleveland (a city with a great football tradition that can’t get to much less win the Super Bowl)?
Shibb, you proceed from a false assumption. The victimized cities DID consider it just about a crime when their teams were originally stolen. I knew people in Baltimore who were pissed at Indy in 1983, and Raider fans in Oakland who were fighting mad with LA when the Raiders moved there. Bidwell had so poisoned the atmosphere in St. Louis that the feeling there was good riddance to bad rubbish when he moved to Phoenix. IMHO Cleveland was the first city to have enough lead time on the impending franchise move to mobilize serious opposition to it. If memory serves, when the Colts fled Baltimore they did so in the middle of the night so as to evade the city’s attempt to serve the club with legal papers that would’ve enabled the city to condemn the club and then buy it from Irsay.
As for the NFL’s inaction, they not in the business of punishing owners who aren’t named Al Davis. They’re in the business of encouraging owners to fleece the cities that their teams play in, and in playing other non-league cities against each other so that the owners have plenty of relocation options.
Bill Belichick – Didn’t coach the Brown well enough.
Al Davis and Robert Irsay – Showed that you can move a team for profit.
The Cleveland Indians – Their success began overshadowing the Browns.
Model’s Finances – The man was going broke, fast.
Rock 'N Roll – Cleveland spent $600 million on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but wouldn’t give Model any financial help.
Also, although it wasn’t part of the “offical” top five, they also gave mention to Al Lerner (for introducing Model to Baltimore officials) and John Elway (for repeatedly whalloping the Browns).
Mind you I’m quoting from a muddled memory of hazy events that happened when I was a wee tot as have been recapped on various programs over the years, but I’m pretty sure that comparing the Colts move to Indy with the Browns move to Baltimore is a little unreasonable. The Colts were playing in a truly dilapidated stadium and weren’t exactly rolling in dough. There just wasn’t alot of money beig made, and the deal that Indy gave Irsay was beter but not a pirates ransom.
Baltimore however practically gave away the city to Modell. The deal he got makes the Indy one look like a 3-card monty game.
The reason for the disparity in feelings is two-fold.
There were mitigating factors that mildly tempered the rest of the country into understanding the Indy move. B-More fans of course are every bit as bitter as Browns fans, but the outsiders were able to see why the move was happening and it wasn’t all Indy’s fault.
Baltimore, having been the victim before should have known better, went so incredibly far out of their way to essentially bribe Modell to leave Cleveland. The fact that the paid such a hefty price for that team made the outsiders heap 50% of the blame on B-More, and virtually none on Cleveland. They were seen as innocent bystanders in all this, whereas B-more in '84 was viewed as partly to blame.
Not saying these thoughts are necessarily valid, just that it’s what the perception seems to be.
A better comparison would probably be Houston and B-More. People in the respective cities are pretty pissed, but most people on the outside see that the original cities had their shortcomings. The only additional factor was that Irsay was the fist and essentially laid the groundwork for any owner to use relocation as the extortion threat. That makes it worse, but B-More isn’t seen by pretty much anyone as innocently victimized.
I take it that ESPN classic had a show about Bartman and the Cubs similar to the one concerning Modell’s move to Baltimore. What, pray tell, was fascinating about the Bartman/Cubs story, for those of us (meaning me) who missed it?
Belicheck was Modell’s hire. Belicheck was a lousy coach in Cleveland, who, to his immense credit, learned from his numberous mistakes.
Al Davis and Irsay’s moves weren’t anything that hadn’t already been done before. The Dodgers and Lakers had both moved to LA, the NBA Warriors had moved from Philly to the Bay Area many years before. The football Cardinals had previously moved from Chicago to St. Louis. Franchise moves were old hat by the time Davis and Irsay moved their clubs.
The Indians’ success didn’t hurt the Browns any. What hurt Modell was that he’d been running Cleveland Stadium and jobbing the Indians - by taking all the luxury revenue generated during Indians games for himself - so that the Indians got themselves a new ballpark where they controlled their own luxury box revenue.
Modell’s finances were his own fault. I contend that anyone who couldn’t make money running an NFL team in Cleveland would lose money selling suntan lotion in Hawaii.
Modell’s contention that he hadn’t gotten anything from the City was hogwash. He’d been alone feeding at the city’s trough from the mid seventies, when he took over Cleveland Stadium, up until the 1990s, when the Indians and Cavs got their own deals. It’s not that he didn’t get anything, it is that he wanted to be the only hog at the trough.
I think you’re missing the point here. It’s not so much that franchises had been moving, it’s more that Davis and Irsay were the first to essentially be given sweetheart deals by the new cities. Essentially having momey directly handed to the owners.
In most all your other examples it was a team that was drawing almost no fan support and was in dire straits and had to move to survive or it was a team moving west from an over crowded sports landscape. These guys were making a long term business decision, not a short term cash grab. The former is a lot less distasteful than the latter.
All the fans around Bartman were going for the ball too. Bartman was the one who was “unlucky”. Balls headed for the stands are always sought out by fans. It’s a normal reaction to reach for a baseball coming at you, if only just for protection.
Moises Alou’s reaction caused Bartman to be pointed out as a culprit. Normally, players don’t make scenes like that. There was no guarantee that Alou would have caught the ball anyway. It would have to have been an incredible catch.
Moises Alou regularly urinates on his hands before games. It toughens them up, apparently. He didn’t make this announcement until after the game. Had the audience known this, it’s quite possible they would have tried to stay away.
This was only the beginning of the collapse. Dusty Baker did nothing to settle down the pitcher or the fielders until the game was already tied up. The Cubs sure-handed shortstop (can’t remember his name) made a terrible error on an easy play. Basically, there were others who were more responsible for the chokejob than Bartman.
There was still a Game 7 to be played.
These aren’t the Top 5 reasons, just what I remember. From what I recall, some of the items that didn’t make the Top 5 were even stronger than the ones that did.
Bullshit…I was there. Fans at Wrigley know better and when you watch tape of that, of all the fans in that spot only two went for the ball. Bartman and his cohort next to him. Everyone else stood back. This is the problem with playoff games, the right fans never manage to make it into the good seats like they did midseason.
There certainly were breakdowns on the field and there’s never just one thing to blame, but to call the snowball that started the avalanche blameless is silly.
So even if the score was 20 - 0, and Bartman’s questionable screw-up only allowed the score to become 20 - 1, it would still be his fault? To me, the quality of the Cubs play after the Bartman incident proves that they had no right to win that series.
I’m saying he takes some blame, period. Its the fact that a home-team fan caused any impact that makes it especially flameworthy. There’s nothing questionable about it and he’s no innocent bystander.
I can tolerate (yet still be really pissed about) Gonzo’s E6, Dusty’s mental retardation, and the emotional collapse over the last 10 innings since they are all part of the game. The fact that a fan tipped it all off makes me irate.
I agree whole-heartedly with Omniscient and want to add that, while it would have been a great play for Alou to catch that ball, I really, truly believe, now as I did then, that he would have. I thought he had a beat on it as soon as the ball came off the bat, and he was certainly in position. Looking at all the replays (which, trust me, I avoid them if at all possible) look to me like the ball was basically knocked out of Alou’s glove.
Okay, there was more I wanted to add, but now I’m all upset and depressed, etc.