Posted on 01/03/2010 4:11:45 PM PST by Drea
I'm glad because I think big Ben has gotten to big for his britches.
I think James Harrison refused to meet with Obama when the team went to the white house.
That is complete and utter BS.
Nice job.
Tell me how I’m wrong.
Ok...here is how you are wrong.
Son did you steel those cookies from the cookie jar? Yes mom, but I didn’t take as many as Johnny did so its ok.
Your justification is just plain childlike and asinine.
You can try to justify it in your mind, but that is the exact same line of bull crap the liberals give us as they are taking money out of our pockets to give to someone else. Well we didn’t take as much this time. LOL..unbelievable.
Can’t answer with facts? The way you behave, apparently “son” is in fact worse than “Johnny”, not equal.
Anyway, I guess all the cities that ever “took” a team are all evil and bad?
Indiana didn’t “steal” the Colts; Irsay did (per se - yes, it was his team). I don’t blame a city/locale for embracing whatever they get. Do you honestly expect millions of people to turn up their noses at whatever team shows up on their steps, regardless of the past? Lots of luck.
Truth is you made it out as if they were exactly the same situations (and how dare Baltimore whine). They are not. Baltimore’s experience with Irsay and the Colts is unique, in fact. No other team has left like that, much less retained all that they made in the originating city.
BTW, the Ravens have their weaknesses, but if Flacco's on his game they may have a chance against the Pats. Here's hoping.
modell (only proper names should be capitalized) was forced to give up the name and records because he basically put the league in a bind. He signed an agreement to move to Baltimore (breaking his Cleveland lease BTW) before he had gotten league approval for the move. Since the league had eight criteria for approving a move and the Browns only met one of them (that one even arguably), he was very unlikely to get that approval.
Since he had signed the agreement, the league was going to get sued either way, unless they could broker a deal. The deal was Cleveland retained the team identity and was promised a new team within three years. I believe they also kicked in some money for the new stadium.
Why did he do this? It wasn’t because he wasn’t getting a new stadium. The bond issue to renovate or replace the old one (which he had run down) passed the day after he made his announcement in Baltimore. It was because his stepson david had burned just about every bridge in Cleveland and there was no way he could ever effectively run the team. However, art doted on his wife who doted on her son (one of history’s all time horrendous spoiled brats).
He also had to buy out a guy named Robert Gries who owned 41% of the team and was vehemently opposed to the move. Gries would have joined a suit attempting to block the move.
Here’s the funny part. The teams in Baltimore continued to suck and despite the money he got to move he kept violating the NFL’s rules on debt. Finally, the NFL forced him to find someone who would buy at least a minority share in the team, or they would pull the franchise and resell it. The only way he could do this was by giving the buyer the option to buy the whole franchise after three years. Enter Steve Bisciotti. The team wasn’t successful until Bisciotti’s money was infused, and there was no way he would invest in something which would be run long term by the modell family.
In effect, the modells were kicked out of the NFL.
As for the Stoolers, it’s a fact that they aren’t in the playoffs primarily because they were spanked like small children by a 1-11 team on national TV. >:)
-Eric
Almost after the season ending win at Memorial Stadium; he began talking to other cities about moving the club. On February 13th he toured the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. The Colts also spoke to officials in Phoenix, as the Maryland legislature tried to use eminent domain laws to force the franchise to remain in Maryland. On March 28th he kept the move secret until just after midnight when by cover of darkness he used Mayflower moving trucks to pack up the Colts offices and relocate them in Indianapolis. By the time anyone realized what had happened it was too late to stop.
Maryland put up a futile fight before the Colts agreed to support Baltimore getting an expansion team. The city of Baltimore would fail in several attempts at landing a NFL franchise, and even entered the CFL, before landing a new NFL franchise named the Ravens in 1996, over 11 years later. However, the Irsay family would not relinquish the name Colts, as they once promised. Many Colt legends were angered by the move including legendary Quarterback Johnny Unitas who refused to acknowledge the franchise for the rest of his life.
Its really really hard to feel sorry for the Browns, given what happened to the Colts. .
You will find that the huge majority of Browns fans think that the deal we got should be the standard for any future franchise move, and indeed should have been applied to the Houston situation and retroactively to the Baltimore situation.
It also should be noted that Baltimore would likely have beaten out Jacksonville for the 1993 expansion team if not for the efforts of art modell, who clearly was trying to keep that option open for himself.
Since the modell has been flushed out of the current organization, you’ll find that we have much more of a continuing issue with that family than the city and fans of Baltimore, with the exception of those fans who continue to defend the modells (still a significant minority).
-Eric
Without warning? Are you kidding? The Colts made it well known that they were seeking to move over a dispute surrounding the crappy stadium; the dispute between the Colts and Baltimore was years old. Phoenix, AZ was also a front runner.
The Colts left in the middle of the night because the state legislature was in the process of passing a bill to seize the team by eminient domain; if they waited until the next day, the state police might have seized the team's property. In fact, the Colts were so concerned about being stopped by the Maryland state police that several "dummy" trucks were sent to confuse the state.
If Baltimore wouldn't have been so ham-fisted towards the Colts, they would still be in Baltimore.
You think Irsay is the first owner who snapped his fingers and didnt get what he wanted right away? I'm sorry, but he was promised a stadium but it wasnt fast enough for him. The league was dead set against what he did but he didnt care.
What the city did after he left was perfectly reasonable. The NFL administration is just a paper tiger anyways.
You probably know very little about Ben's 'off field' behavior.
St Louis would have gotten it before Baltimore, and they did get a team before Baltimore (in '95, from L.A.) playing in the old Busch stadium for 2 years.
As for Modell, he's out of ownership and 84 yrs old and spends most of his time in Florida these days. Theres no Modell dynasty in Baltimore (unlike Irsay in Indianapolis), and they have no presence on the society circuit, as far as I can tell.
Irsay screwed Baltimore and Modell screwed Cleveland, but you didnt have to wait 11 years to get another team, and you kept your name. Nobody should be complaining, as far as I see it.
We were well aware that Irsay wanted to leave (even though sometimes he insisted “DAMNIT” that he wasn’t going to). The difference was the splitting without actually announcing it would happen.
Yes, the state was getting involved, perhaps too much (and now they talk of doing something about the Preakness). (Of course, why any city/state should have to build stadia, I don’t know; that’s state involvement, too.) But the fact remains the Colts left without saying they actually were going to do so. That is unprecedented.
Hey, thanks for your reasoned reply and the info.
I stand by my statement, that regardless of the details, the bottom line was Modell (who was far in front of Irsay for being in the HOF, I might add, until this issue; Irsay was hated by and large by players and fans alike long before “the escape”) announced during the season he would be moving, then played out the season. Irsay left without any word, which is unprecedented before, and certainly not since.
After all, the Browns moved to Baltimore in the ‘50s to become the Orioles, too. Just another example of your more typical MO.
I did forget to mention one thing. When he moved, modell swapped from being a Republican (though basically a RINO) to the Democratic Party.
I did forget to mention one thing. When he moved, modell swapped from being a Republican (though basically a RINO) to the Democratic Party.
I did forget to mention one thing. When he moved, modell swapped from being a Republican (though basically a RINO) to the Democratic Party.
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