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Thanks for info I didn't know. I still think both sides deserve some blame for what happened.

Not really. There was a issue on the ballot in 1995 that would have funded improvements to the old stadium (which modell said he wanted, by the 1998 end of his lease) or a new stadium. modell committed to the move to Baltimore and announced this commitment the day before the election. The issue passed by a huge margin, btw.

modell also circumvented league rules by signing a contract agreeing to move before he had the required approval of the league. The league was in a bind because Baltimore could sue them if they rejected it. Maryland's scumbag governor (a Dim of course) even gloated that if modell sold the team, the new owner would be committed to the move. As it stood, modell was required to buy out the owner of 43% of the team, who openly opposed the move.

Eventually a deal was reached where modell agreed to give up any claim on the Browns name, history, and colors, the city agreed to not oppose the move in court, and the NFL agreed that there would be a team in Cleveland no later than 1999. modell moved to Baltimore (becoming a Democrat in the process), a city he had declared didn't deserve a team when he helped block expansion there in 1993. The Browns returned in 1999 owned by the late Al Lerner, a Republican Marine alumni.

modell clearly acted in bad faith. I had a theory about why even then that was confirmed recently by a prominent Cleveland sportswriter (Les Levine). art modell doted on his wife. She doted on her son from a previous marriage, david. He was one of the most blatant combinations of cluelessness and arrogance that ever walked the Earth, and pretty much everyone in Cleveland, be they officials, other prominent people, Browns players, or fans, despised the little turd.

He would have had trouble with this if he ever inherited the team. The whole idea was to start fresh in a place where he could.

Fortunately for Baltimore, karma struck. david soon irritated a number of people in Baltimore, and even the cash infusion from the move couldn't make up for art and david's abysmal management. The NFL forced them to sell a percentage of the team or the entire franchise would be sold for them. They found a buyer who would agree to buy a minority share under the condition that he could buy the whole thing three years later.

-Eric