The 14th Anniversary of Art "Please Die Soon" Modell announcing the move to Baltimore

November 7, 2009
The 14th Anniversary of Art "Please Die Soon" Modell announcing the move to Baltimore

Someone on a different site found this article from 14 years ago and I thought I would share....

THE NFL / BILL PLASCHKE -
Tagliabue Has to Block This
By BILL PLASCHKE
November 07, 1995

The elderly man rose from his seat in the south end of Cleveland Stadium and walked slowly to the north end, to the 10th row, to a factory worker named Vince Erwin.

The Cleveland Browns' game had ended Sunday afternoon, but Erwin was still wearing a dog mask, the one he has worn at every home game for the last 10 years.

The older man walked up, grabbed his hand, and shook it.

"I never seen this guy in my life," Erwin said. "I didn't know what was going on."

Thank you, said the stranger.

For what? asked Erwin.

For being there, said the stranger. For showing the world how much we love this football team.

It was then that Erwin noticed the man was crying.

Erwin looked away in embarrassment before realizing that darn near everybody in that infamously tough, rude, crude "Dawg Pound" section was crying.

"You wonder, we wonder, isn't there anybody out there who can step in and say, 'You cannot move the Cleveland Browns?' " said Irwin.

There is. He works at 410 Park Avenue in New York, far from the Dawg Pound, far from the passion that has made this league so great.

You wonder, we wonder, if NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is listening. If Tagliabue can stop suing everyone from team owners to bar owners long enough to realize that the integrity of his league is crumbling around him.

You wonder, we wonder, if anybody up there in the NFL office has the courage to stare into that sick grin of Brown owner Art Modell and say, "Enough."

If anybody will shove Modell into a corner and slap his hands on the wall above Modell's head and say, "We will not schedule the Baltimore Browns. You leave Cleveland, you leave the NFL."

When two poorly supported teams climbed over our back-yard fence this spring, the NFL lost a couple of pieces of jewelry. Pretty, fashionable, but not altogether necessary.

If a team leaves Cleveland, the league loses its heart.

It loses a stadium that has attracted an average of more than 69,000 fans to each home game in each of the last seven years. Only three times during those seven years has the team had a winning record.

It loses one of football's best rivalries, the Browns versus the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It loses football's best rooting section, the renowned Dawg Pound.

"The Cleveland fans have been through a lot of tough years, yet they've always been there," said Bernie Kosar, former Brown quarterback. "In the whole northeastern area [of Ohio], the Browns are like a way of life. This would be so bad."

It also loses a city where you figured pro football would survive if it was killed everywhere else.

One team left, they would put it in Cleveland, where snow and mud still look good on players, where losing teams are never allowed to simply walk away, where men like Vince Erwin built their lives around the Browns.

For the last decade, on Sundays when the Browns played at home, Erwin, 36, has shown up at the salt factory at 4 a.m.

He worked until 10, drove to the game, then returned afterward to finish his shift.

Erwin was one of, oh, about 10,000 fans who did pretty much the same thing.

"It's funny here, but during the first preseason game every year, it was like no fans would be watching the game," he said. "We would all be too busy catching up on each others' lives after not being together all summer. The fans here are like a family."

Even under the NFL's poorly written and ambiguous guidelines, the Rams and Raiders qualified to move.

The Browns do not, and will not, ever.

Art Modell, the man who brought the world Bill Belichick, the man who masterminded the recent benching of Vinny Testaverde for a kid who couldn't start for any of 25 other teams, says he needs more cash.

Because he blew a bunch of money on dog free agents like Andre Rison, that's why.

He says he needs more luxury boxes to sell, because those unshared revenues are the only way today's owners can get ahead.

Yet he had an opportunity to improve his situation when the two new facilities were built in Cleveland, and declined. He chose to sit on his hands and wait for the league's yearly revenue-sharing check.

Tagliabue must pause in his support of Modell's revenue position to think a second about elderly men who walk the length of a stadium just to say goodby.

He must use his phalanx of lawyers to convince a judge that his teams are no longer just businesses, but public trusts.

He must keep the Browns in Cleveland. Forget labor peace, forget record television dollars, Tagliabue's legacy as commissioner depends on it.

As does the future of football in Los Angeles.

Our civic leaders do not want carpetbaggers like Modell to fill our void. Yet if he is allowed to blatantly ignore the rules, then Ken Behring of the Seattle Seahawks will be in Anaheim by the end of the year.

Which would be nice, except this town will never support him, or his kind.

Expansion teams work. Expansion teams can win. Just ask the San Francisco 49ers.

Before the Browns' departure, this area was set to get one of them. Now, we may get somebody who smells like Art Modell, somebody whose luggage is loaded with heartbreak.

Perish the thought.

Kokinis Escorted out of Berea today

November 2, 2009

Looks like my email in late September really started something. Before that Mr. Lerner was rarely ever heard from and now he is meeting with Dawg Pound Mike tomorrow morning. He will likely try to persuade Lerner to address the fans publicly, even though Lerner shuns the cameras. He also may make suggestions on how to improve the fans' experience at Cleveland Browns Stadium and improve fan relations wtih the team. I personally feel I should be part of this meeting since I did start the communications with Mr. Lerner. Anyways, the link about Kokinis' firing are below. I will pass on any new news as it comes.
FOX SPORTS LINK:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/s...ut-of-Cleveland

PLAIN DEALER LINK:
http://www.cleveland.com/brown...owns_gm_ge.html

CANTON REP LINK:
http://blogs.cantonrep.com/fre...kokinis-report/

WKYC TV SPORTS LINK:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_...?storyid=124611

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL LINK:
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/br...-kokinis-fired/

ESPN LINK;
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/...tory?id=4616312

My Email to Randy Lerner and his response

September 28, 2009
Email to Randy Lerner

Subject: The Product You are Selling
Mr Lerner,

I am concerned. I am the President of the Baltimore Browns Backers and a life long Browns Fan. I live in Baltimore and still I have 6 PSL's in CBS. I hate to say it, but I am just about done. Because of my love for this team I will try to give it till the end of the season but if I don't see some dramatic change in the way this team, coaching staff and front office represent Cleveland and the fans, I am done. I will let my PSL's expire and no longer watch Browns Football. It makes me sick to say this, but it also makes me sick to watch the product that is Cleveland Browns football every week. I have not missed a game since 1988 but I can't do this anymore. Just about every Sunday I feel cheated. I feel like the team is laughing the faces of the fans. Do you even watch the games? They have zero heart. Anyways, thank you for your time and I hope to God I will be able to continue to say GO BROWNS!!!.
Best Regards,
Larry M. Elavsky Jr.
President
Baltimore Browns Backers


This is what he wrote back to me..

Mr Elavsky,Thank you for writing. When I got to the Browns there was essentially no front office or core culture to define scouting, player evaluation or the draft let alone what is was to care about Cleveland and football. What's more our pro personnel dept didn't exist. I am guilty of trying a variety of combinations- Davis, Garcia, Savage and Crennel in an attempt to discover anything with a set of positives on which to build. It is common knowledge of course that it took Tom Landry roughly seven seasons to build a winner in the 60s in Dallas. With the Steelers, it was probably 30 odd years from the time the team was acquired to when it stumbled on Chuck Knoll-- and it has never turned back. What I can say is that I'm heartbroken and as the father of four, I can also say so are my four little hearts also broken. I do know that Eric Mangini knows his football and is a straight-shooter and a deeply decent man. To say the least, I believe he can get this thing right. Fingers crossed. RL -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

The "CURSE" of General Moses Cleaveland

Cleveland Sports are Cursed!!!
Put the "A" back in Cleaveland and KILL THE CURSE!!!

I have been hearing for years that Cleveland is cursed. I have never been very religious. Ghosts seemed silly and curses ridiculous. Growing up in Ohio, about 1 hour south of Cleveland, I was brought up a Cleveland sports fan. My journey began on Nov 8th, 1970. If you know anything about sports, especially Cleveland sports, you know it hasn't been very good since 1970. Let's see...
1980 - Red Right 88 (Browns)
1987 - The Drive (Browns)
1988 - The Fumble (Browns)
1989 - The Shot (Cavaliers)
1994 - Strike during inaugural season at Jacobs Field (Indians)
1996 - Move to Baltimore (Browns-wins Super Bowl 5 years later)
1997 - 2 outs away (Indians-Heavily favored and leading by 1 in the 9th inning of game 7 in the World Series. Lose in 11th.)

Now a little history about the City of Cleveland...

Statue of Moses Cleaveland on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland

Cleveland was founded July 22, 1796 and name after General Moses Cleaveland who died 10 years later in 1806. The city was originally spelled "Cleaveland". In 1830, when the first newspaper, the "Cleveland Advertiser," was established, the editor discovered that the head-line was too long for the form, and accordingly left out the letter "a" in the first syllable of "Cleaveland" changing it to "Cleveland".

So this man has a city named after him and 24 years after his death they butcher his name and change it. I can't blame him for being pissed and I believe ,because of it, he has cursed the city. Here's how I came to this conclusion...

The Cleveland Browns, the heart of Cleveland sports, were est. 1946. They won a total of eight league championships; they won all four AAFC titles (including a 15-0 undefeated season in 1948 which is never mentioned when they talk about the Dolphin's 1972 perfect season), and after joining the NFL won four additional championships prior to the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. The Indians even snuck in a World Series in 1948. The Cavaliers were formed in 1970, so they never stood a chance.

So it has become crystal clear to me. Moses Cleaveland's ghost got to enjoy a city being named after him(24 years as a ghost and 34 years total). These numbers are frighteningly familiar. Lets see...

The Browns start in 1946 and win eight championships. "24" years later there will be no more and "34" years after establishment the heartbreak begins with Red Right 88. 200 years after the city is founded, so are the Baltimore Ravens.

So this man (ghost) obviously isn't very happy. The main sports franchise in Cleveland, the Browns, is successful for 24 years (till 1970) the exact number of years the ghost of Moses Cleaveland was able to enjoy the city being named after him and spelled correctly. Then add another 10 years making it 1980 and making it 34 years since the Browns were established, the exact number of years the city of Cleveland was spelled correctly, and all HELL BREAKS LOOSE in Cleveland sports (see above if you forgot).

This is too much of a coincidence. No other city has had such horrible luck when it comes to sports. Let's not forget the Cuyahoga River also caught on fire. YES, WATER CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!





Cleveland Sports Fans are the Best Fans in all sports!! We are the most dedicated no matter what. We put up with everything and keep coming back. We deserve better.

WE NEED TO PUT THE "A" BACK IN CLEAVELAND!!! This is the only way to kill the curse!!

GO...
Cleaveland Browns!!
Cleaveland Cavaliers!!
Cleaveland Indians!!

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