APThe Browns’ statement on the passing of former owner Art Modell was brief to the point of perfunctory.
Their fans might not be so kind Sunday.
While short on details of how they’re going to do so, the Browns said Friday they planned to have an appropriate recognition of Modell prior to Sunday’s game against the Eagles.
“We’re trying strike the right balance,” Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “We want to show respect and dignity for Modell’s family, the community and the fans.”
This is a tricky spot for the Browns to be in.
There’s little doubt a moment of silence wouldn’t be observed by everyone in the crowd, many of whom will never forgive Modell for moving his team to Baltimore in 1996.
That’s why the Browns have consulted with the league on how best to handle it, before deciding to do something, in hopes it doesn’t trigger an ugly or disrespectful scene.
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This is gonna get ugly.
I hope the Browns are smart and not have a moment of silence because then there won’t be.
Browns fans have to let go some. Baltimore fans have to let go of the Irsay hate too. Both cities have teams and new stadiums. We have to come to terms that things just work out this way. R.I.P Mr. Modell.
Oh this should work out well….
I’m not a Browns fan but they have every right to be mad and by they I mean the citizens of Cleveland if it was just about football it would be a different story but at some point you have to also look at the economy and how it suffered from the team moving NFL teams bring in a large amount of money to a city losing one can really take something from that city
That being said R.I.P Modell
Stay classy Cleveland.
If you do something you don’t do it on live television, you don’t want to give the fans in Cleveland the chance to embarrass themselves and the city by dishonoring a dead man, even if he is their sworn enemy for eternity.
Somethings are better just left alone. Cleveland fans won’t respect a moment of silence for him. All it will do is make Cleveland look bad, and hurt the family when the fans are booing through a moment of silence. Not a Browns fan but I live in Cleveland.
How can anyone be blamed for wanting to get out of Cleveland?
This is just a really bad idea and I hope the Browns reconsider. I understand that his legacy is a mixed bag and includes doing many good things for the NFL and the city of Cleveland. However, his final act in Cleveland – taking the team away and only leaving the name and history on the business end of a lawsuit and unprecedented fan protest – is just too much to ask the fans to forgive in Cleveland.
This is equivalent to being asked to deliver the eulogy at your ex-spouses funeral after he/she got full custody and refused to let you ever ssee the kids. You can be respectful but don’t ask them to mourn or make a public display of mourning.
If there is any chance the Browns reconsider this decision they should. It will only serve as an opportunity for those even more bitter to disrupt the “remembrance” and will come off making the entire city of Cleveland look bad. Just let the moment pass without special ceremony.
Yeah, wouldn’t want to create a disrespectful scene for the guy who ripped an entire city’s heart out and had to be strong armed into leaving behind the Browns name and history. Need to honor that guy! Give me a break. The Browns made a statement, that’s all they need to do.
I say go ahead and boo him. The guy took the city’s beloved Browns away from them and left them with what is today’s sorry excuse for the once proud franchise. I never bought into the concept that you immediately have to start respecting someone once they die. If you would boo him if he were alive, go ahead and boo him when he is dead.
Modell never owned this team. He owned a different team that once used the same name until he moved it to Baltimore. The one-and-only team that Modell owned (which is now the Ravens) is honoring his memory, as it should.
The current Cleveland Browns are an expansion team that has only existed since 1999. It has only had two owners, neither of which was Modell. The current Cleveland Browns have no more obligation (moral or otherwise) to honor Modell than the other 30 teams that had no relationship with the man.
Whether the sentiment is admirable or not, the fans here do NOT honor his memory, and no good is going to come of this gesture.
Cleveland gets thrown under the bus. Thanks nfl.
Can TV filter the boo’s to some extent. I just think it would be best for everybody if they production team did what they could.
Unless the entire NFL is doing something, there is ZERO reason for the Cleveland Browns to do anything for the guy. He has NOTHING to do with the current franchise. Let the Ravens do something for him. Current Cleveland fans owe this guy ZERO respect.
Dont do it!!!!!!
As a former Baltimore Colts and current Ravens fan I think it shows class that the Browns would have a moment of respect. This is a point where people need to separate sports from real life. I certainly didn’t party when Bob Irsay died and no one should celebrate or be disrespectful of another person’s death.
This is coming from a Steelers fan who dislikes the Browns.
I understand Modell probably did some great things in his life, great charities, etc. I also understand that Modell gave the Cleveland Local Government plenty of chances to work with him, and that the city took advantage of him and built a baseball stadium without concern about football.
With that said, everybody makes choices in their lives. Art Modell was a very rich man, compared to 99.9% of America. He could have lived out his great life, be worshipped by a city, or even sold the team to a Cleveland owner and make a ton and move on.
Instead he chose to move the town overnight to Baltimore. Cleveland hasn’t recovered.
If he gets boo’d on Sunday, I do not blame Cleveland fans a bit.
He’ll get a King’s welcome…that is…the same welcome King James gets whenever he enters this city!
Make it quick! We got a game to play.
The fact of the matter is Art Modell has no association whatsoever with the current franchise in Cleveland. If the Ravens what to do something, let them be the ones to do it.
Knowing that the original browns team went on to have Ray Lewis, Reed, Ngata, and on and on only leaves an even more bitter taste in the mouths of current browns fans. As they have watched a poor product get trotted out on to the field Sunday after Sunday.
I hope this is on TV!
@KattyKathy – Great point. The city built new baseball and basketball venues and R&R HOF. Cleveland fans should have put more pressure on the city.
As someone who owes his teams very existance to Modell by firing PB, maybe I should like Art Modell.
No way. I may not like Cleveland one bit, but what he did to the fans in Cleveland was plain wrong.
Modell did not lose money due to his fanbase not supporting the team.
He lost money due to his greed w/ one of his companies running the old stadium and not wanting to give up that gravy train if a new stadium was built.
I may not like Cleveland, but have always repected the fans there as true die hard supporters.
I hope they’re holding a parade.
Your beloved Browns where taken from you for a whopping 3 years. I totally understand your dislike for an owner who took your hometown team away, but for petes sake you’ve had them back sine 1999! Let me ask you a honest question Cleveland fans, if your Brownies where not the disaster of a team they are and have always been since returning in ’99 would you still have all this hatred and bitterness?
A very classy thought by the organization, but a statement would have been enough here. I am a huge Ravens fan, and still have an uneasy feeling about “stealing” another city’s team after the Colts were poached.
If the Browns fans cheer, that would be shockingly big of them. If they boo, that’s their right and I have no problem with it.
Why do the Browns feel its necessary to honor this dishonorable man? Modell showed no respect to the fans of Cleveland, why should they be subjected to honor his death? If I had to guess, someone in the league offices made this decision. Personally, I wouldn’t say a word about it, that man doesn’t deserve to be recognized. I don’t care that he has passed away, he’s still scum in my book
wait a minute, browns fans being disrespectful? get outta here….
Whats the point? He never owned the current Browns, so he has no relation to the current team. Just treat him like you would if any other owner in the league died.
As far as a moment of silence, let free speech rule the day.
Fox needs to get Joe Buck on the game. He still whines about Philly fans throwing snowballs at a drunk in a Santa suit (no, Joe, it wasn’t the “real” Santa); he won’t be able to contain himself when a dead guy gets booed.
kattykathy says:
Sep 7, 2012 1:14 PM
Cleveland ____ moved.
Baltimore Colts moved.
Los Angeles Rams moved.
Oakland Raiders moved.
St. Louis Cardinals moved.
Baltimore then built a new stadium to get a team back.
St. Louis built a new stadium to get a team back.
Cleveland built a new stadium to get a team back.
Los Angeles is ready to build a new stadium to get teams back.
Should have given a new stadium like Modell wanted and they never would have left.
Get over it.
____________________
This is simply revisionist history as is the oft repeated claim that Modell left the name and colors along with history.
Prior to entering his secret deal with Baltimore Modell himself imposed a moratorium on discussions re stadium improvements/new stadium. Nevertheless, there was a ballot measure less than ten days after the announcement to impose a special tax to remodel or build a new stadium. It passed overwhelmingly. So the city of Cleveland WAS prepared to give a new stadium.
As to the name, colors and history. People forget there was a press conference announcing the “Baltimore Browns” and only after unprecedented protests and a lawsuit was Modell forced to leave the name and colors behind.
The guy was slimy. If you think he has an unfair legacy because of just moving the team, you ignore the fact that he was a big reason Baltimore didn’t get an expansion team because he wanted them to still be wanting a team when he made his attempt to strong arm Cleveland into building him a new stadium. Research it, he convinced Tisch to buy a share in The Giants instead of an expansion team in Baltimore which basically blew the whole deal for Baltimore. They’d have gotten a team & Modell would’ve lost what he saw as his best chance to bully a city into giving him what he wants, which I absolutely respect them for not.
I cannot blame the fans of Cleveland. As a young boy, my first heartbreak was when Walter O’Malley moved the Dodgers out of Brooklyn. I eventually became a Mets fan, but to this day, I’ll never, ever forgive O’Malley.
Cleveland offered to include Modell in the Gateway Project that built the new basketball arena for the Cavs and a domed stadium for the Browns and Indians. Modell declined to be included because he wouldn’t control the stadium revenue like he with with Municipal Stadium. It’s his own fault that he lost money and “had no choice” to move. He should have sold the team to someone who would keep the team the CLE instead of moving it to Baltimore and selling it anyway.
this is the perfect time for Cleveland fans to vent their anger. it will get blamed on the Philly fans anyway
Apart from revenue sharing, the other thing Art Modell brought to the modern NFL (along with Ron Irsay) is the idea that an owner or the league can require municipally-funded (or heavily-subsidized) new stadiums. Privatize the gains, socialize the costs.
Should have gave him a new stadium so he didn’t have to leave Cleveland in the first place. Stay classy
Comish is making all of the teams do it. Browns and the other teams don’t have much of a choice.
kattykathy says: Sep 7, 2012 1:14 PM
Should have given a new stadium like Modell wanted and they never would have left.
Get over it.
____________________________________________
Maybe they would have once his current lease for Municipal Stadium was up. He still had several years left on it.
The man devastates a city and millions of fans and we should honor him, whose next Bin Laden day?
Modell could have had a new stadium but he did not want to be a part of the Gateway project which would have given him a football only stadium and the Indians a baseball only stadium. He did not want to share parking, concessions, and suite fees.
He had a stadium that held 80,000 screaming fans while paying only an $1 per year lease. The Gateway project then had gone after the Cavs, whose owners had their own stadium.
The city of Cleveland had a ballot for the November election to upgrade the Browns stadium at a cost of over $300 million but that snake made the decision to move before the residents could even vote.
With all the money that Baltimore had given him, he still screwed that up and the NFL had to bail him out with a loan. The NFL did not want to see an NFL team file for bankruptcy. He was forced to take on a minority investor who had the option to buy the full team. That is how Mr. Biscotti (sp) became the new owner of the Ravens.
Again, I say honor the man, NEVER.
Put a mic in Bernie Kosars hand and show some highlights of Jim Brown, the Kardiac Kids, Bernie’s teams, and Turkey Jones getting slammed and call it a tribute to Modell!
Wasn’t three years a long enough moment of silence for Browns fans?
Just be thankful it’s Cleveland and not Philly. Can you imangine what would happen if this whole thing had occured there instead in The Cleve?
This is going to be fun to watch! Why don’t people get that Modell was offered a chance at a new stadium with the Gateway Project, and declined! He didn’t move the team because of the stadium! He moved the team because he was broke, and couldn’t swallow his pride and sell the team! He thought moving the team to Baltimore would save him financially, but guess what? Three years later he was more broke (estimated $185 Million in debt), than when he left Cleveland, and the NFL stepped in and made him sell the Ravens!
He left simply out of greed. That’s why Browns fans are so pissed! If you don’t know the facts, don’t post!
@righthereisay And my friend is why Cleveland fans actually have more respect for Steelers, than Baltimore! Baltimore fans will never understand the magnitude of the Browns v. Steelers rivalry! Even Steelers fans were pisses when the Browns left! On fact, Rooney was one of the owners that voted against the move!
As much as I depise the Steelers, I would never want to see that team uprooted from that town!
from what i remember. Modell was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was “attached” to the old stadium and was losing money left and right. The city builds a new baseball stadium and tells Modell that his tenant (the indians) are leaving so he loses whatever income he was getting from them. So here he is.. with a football team that sells out 10 dates a year in a stadium that was a joke compared to the new digs the Indians got. When he demanded our city to pony up for a new stadium.. they refused.. he couldn’t sell it to a local investor b/c he would of had to sell the stadium along with it.. and no one was touching that deal. I feel bad for Modell b/c i’m sure he did move my team b/c he had no other choice. So i’m not like other browns fans. I’m over what he did. i’m 100% sure it was both his fault as well as our local officials fault.. but as you can tell from a bunch of responses above.. most browns fans are not.
I’m a Steeler fan, and if I attended the game, I would force myself to behave. However, I would be hoping the Dawg Pound would erupt. I most certainly can say RIP, but that doesn’t mean I have an ounce of respect for him. “I have come to bury Caeser, not to praise him”.
It is going to be ugly.
These are the only fans I’ve seen pelt officials with beer bottles forcing them to leave the field. I have it on DVD. Game from like 2002 or so, they blew a call at the end of the game and it went nuts.
When feeling entitled, these fans have few rules.
Oh, man, This is going to end badly. I was in Cleveland Stadium on Christmas Eve 2005. Steelers were up 20-0 at halftime. Half the crowd was already gone, about half of who was left was wearing Black & Gold. Those in Orange and Brown actually booed the Cleveland Opera singers on the field for the halftime entertainment. WTF is the team and league thinking by trying to honor the passing of Art Modell? Cleveland fans hate him worse than LeBum.
Wasn’t the three years of silence enough?
Let’s see…. Cleveland fans riot and light fires in the streets when a free agent leaves town, and act like dangerously immature babies everytime he comes back; how do you think they’re going to “honor” a man who was at the helm of their entire franchise leaving town? I’m sure they’ll be classy and gracious as usual.
Does Dan Gilbert have any comment on Modell?
Quick story. I went to the first game (Steelers vs Browns at 3 rivers stadium) after it was announced that the Browns would be moving.
There were Cleveland fans having Steeler fans sign petitions. I remember signing it and telling the lady that I felt sorry for them and the city of Cleveland.
Then the lady had a great quote.
“I’m not sure what’s worse, the Browns moving, or Steeler fans feeling sorry for us.”
As a fellow clevelander and browns fan, please don’t cause a scene my fellow browns fans! Thats just what everyone wants, another reason to say that Cleveland doesnt deserve a winner or team. Please browns fans, just remember, when u wear browns gear, your representing Cleveland. Be classy.
It’s a shame that many outside Cleveland do not know or will not accept the fact he was offered a new stadium in the Gateway project and he declined, also, you need to remember that he was a member of the expansion committee that awarded both Carolina and Jacksonville new teams, so why Jacksonville? He learned during this process what Baltimore was willing to pay, including the tax payers buying unused seats along with the regular package of income. Please, we acknowledge his families pain, his accomplishments, charitable givings and out hearts go out to them, but keep in mind, He could have sold the team and made hundreds of millions, he chose to spite those who supported he and his family for years.
The Browns are more than a football team, it can be considered heritage. My grandfather took my father, my father took me, i took my boys. Art took that away from all of us. If it weren’t for the outrage from the largest American sports fan base(BBWW is the largest fan club still) It would still be the Baltimore Browns. There is no spite, I acknowledge the family and the man, but there is no honor due him.
Awesome!
He did move my beloved team to Baltimore. He did it in the middle of my first season as a season ticket holder.
However, without Mr Modell’s passion and hard work, we would not have the game we have today.
18 years ago we said ‘Jump Art’.
Now, I say “Thank you, Art’
RIP.
PS: Can we have Ozzie back?
Aahhhh! THE DRIVE!!! That was fun.
It was already stated, if you don’t know the facts, don’t post. The city of Cleveland made him offers, but it wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted his cake and, etc. One person said he had to move because he was losing money. RIGHT!
But the question is WHY? They led the league in
attendance or was 2nd the ten years before he moved. He paid nothing for the stadium to the city. The prices for everything is expensive at all professional sporting events. Why wasnt he making money with the attendance he had? Granted with a new stadium it would have improved but he shouldn’t have been losing money. He was losing money because he was a poor businessman. No other reasons. The fans of Cleveland owe him nothing! When he left I was glad him and bellyache left. Good riddance to both of them, even though i will never forgive them for the circumstances that they made. He doesnt’t deserve any respect from us for anything.
However, even though he doesn’t deserve anything from us, Let’s show a little class and keep our heads on what really matters! That is our 2012 Cleveland Browns. He left Cleveland, and now he left this earth. True, nobody here is crying, But lets show some class and play the game on Sunday against the Eagles. He is gone and I really don’t care. The less noise we make the quicker we get to matters I care about. 2012
footb all. GoBrowns
One more subtle option: put an emblem or initials on the jersey. It avoids having a specific moment where a spectacle is unleashed. Also couldn’t lead to any more booing of the hometown team than usual.
Just lease, please don’t put Art’s initials on the helmet!
No one is asking you to throw a parade for him. just keep your yaps shut for 30 seconds before the National Anthem, just like the other 31 teams are doing…no more, no less. Show some class.
The Modell Browns had only one winning season in their last six in Cleveland. Once Modell moved his team to Baltimore and dropped the name because the Baltimore fans insisted on not keeping it, the then Ravens were quickly on the road to success, winning the Super Bowl in only their 5th season and becoming a perennial power house. If you boo any sort of tribute to a dead man, you will only put a further stain on Cleveland, a city with too many stains already. But I guess that’s who you are. Have at it.
This is a really bad idea. As a Cleveland fan, I hope we can take this opportunity to show a little class. You don’t have to close your eyes or say a prayer. Just don’t boo the death of a man. But if it does turn ugly, it should not be a surprise. Poor decision on the part of the Browns organization. A public statement was more than enough to show your respect. They shouldn’t put the fans in this situation.
miztake82
the organization isn’t putting the fans in a situation. it is the thousands of bitter fans who will be drinking heavily before the game who put themselves in that drunken obnoxious situation to boo a man’s death.
Love the Browns. Cleveland is always home. But it ain’t filled will the smartest or classiest folks.
jacktheraven says:
Sep 7, 2012 1:10 PM
Browns fans have to let go some. Baltimore fans have to let go of the Irsay hate too. Both cities have teams and new stadiums. We have to come to terms that things just work out this way. R.I.P Mr. Modell.
——————————————-
Poor comparison. Bad analogy. Here’s why:
It has been MUCH easier for the people of Baltimore to let go of their hate for Irsay because they inherited an already existing, turn-key team- a team that was only one year removed from having reached the second round of the playoffs. A team that had reached the AFC championship just 5 years before the move. A team that already had an experienced owner, players, and GM. And within 4 years of moving to Baltimore, they’d win a SB.
But after Browns fans got robbed of their team for no other reason than mismanagement, stubborness, and the ability to be seduced by a sweet deal from a desperate city (Baltimore) after Cleveland DID meet his demands, what Cleveland was given in return was a terrible expansion team with a noob HC a noob GM. Since then, all Cleveland has done is hire noob coaches, noob GMs, and had a hands-off owner. And while it’s not Modell’s fault that 13 years of new ownership for the expansion team has resulted in next to nothing, the fact remains that we’d have carried on with a team that had just made the playoffs instead of this atrocity, had Modell not turned traitor. Instead, we still have “the new Browns” while Baltimore has enjoyed a SB and multiple playoff appearances.
So don’t give us that “We’ve gotten over our hate for Irsay, why can’t you get over your hate for Modell?” stuff. The repercussions are still being felt and we’ve still got plenty to be mad about stemming from the move.
I commend the Steeler fans who get it! I could never comprehend Pittsburgh without the Steelers! The Steelers are almost a religion in Pittsburgh Art Rooney was one of the few owners who voted against the move,thats why I rooted for the Steelers the 3 years without football. I hate the Steelers,but RESPECT the hell out of them!
Easy, show a video commemorating the best moments during his ownership with a quick name and birth-death photo immediately following something the crowd will fondly remember but the whole thing should not last more than about 30 seconds because there will be some that are negative. Music and commentary to the good memories shown will be key not to allow a boo bird to be heard.
Damn, Cleveland fans are a bunch of whiny babies, you lost a team for 3 years, try 18 years without your beloved team and then you can complain.
I will never feel bad for a fan of a Cleveland professional team, you all cry too much.
Hard to have a moment of silence, when there will be no silence. This is one of those things where you should not even ask if it’s appropriate. You’re asking for forgiveness in death, it really doesn’t work like that. For the rest of the NFL, sure, have a nice moment of silence before every game. Not for Cleveland. Cleveland has still not recovered from the loss of the Browns. Not just talking about the loss of a few seasons in town. Also talking about the decade-plus of a complete joke of a team trotting around in what was once colors that commanded respect. Football aside, what about all the businesses, the small business owners lives that were destroyed by the abrupt move of the Browns. The local restaurants and shops that couldn’t survive without the team. The people in Baltimore might honor the man that “stole” a team to replace their stolen team, but not me. I’m not going to boo or throw things, but I owe that man no respect. Paul Brown made the Browns what they were, not Art Modell. Art is forever etched in Browns history as ripping the heart out of the city. Ask for a moment of silence at the mans’ funeral, not in Cleveland.
Would be a really bad move for the start of the Jimmy Haslem ownership. Or an abysmal end to the Randy Lerner ownership, depending on how you look at it.
We that are old enough know how Modell, took over ownership of the Browns, in the early ’60s. We also know that then he fired, one of the best coaches that ever coached. Art made millions in moving he Browns to Baltimore. His move was all about money and not about the people of Cleveland, northeast Ohio, or even the state of Ohio. He could of chosen to stick it out, build from here where He had so much invested, but His decision was to forget about these people, and take a much storied franchise to another city. The man has passed away, and everyone of us shall follow him one certain day. We shall not forget, and we should not, for we as people learn from our past, and Art took a piece of us that day. Football is more than business, it is more than making money, it is fathers, and sons, daughters, mothers, coming together for four or five months a year. It is family having a common bond. We choose this in the country we live, and we have the right do to so. This makes a sport we call football, so much more than just winning and losing, as all of us Browns fans know all to well. For we come together, as a family each Sunday at home games, maybe black, white, yellow, brown, our skin color never mattered, our way of life never mattered, either rich or poor. This is so much of who we are, and Art really did take that from us, all for money.
Yes, if it is a moment of silence, at the stadium on Sunday, I for one, will not be quiet, for I have a choice to do so, for it is where I live, that protects me and all of us to be who we are.
Modell? as in the guy that bought the team out from under the previous owner and namesake of the team with the promise that he would still be with the organization just to fire him a year later?
The guy who fired coaches like Marty Schottenheimer and Bill Bellichick just to watch them turn other bottom feeding franchises to contenders?
The guy who moved the team after mismanaging it by betting his fortune on overpriced free agents like Andre Rison and selling out to the highest bidder to save face?
Yeah, definitely can’t understand why the fans in Cleveland would be bitter to this day. After all they did eventually get a consistently last place expansion team run by a guy who thinks football is played with a white and black round ball out of it.
I only lived in Cleveland for a decade but I can tell you that the fans their have tons of class. Despite Paul Brown ending his career in Cincinnati there is still a plaque of him outside their stadium in Cleveland and Al Lerner (despite leaving his team to his clueless son) has his initials permanently as a part of the Browns uniforms.
Cleveland Sports fans get a bad rep unfairly. Everyone remembers them boo’ing Lebron but there was absolutely no coverage of them giving Zedrunas Illgoskas (who also left for the Heat from the Cavs that same year) a STANDING OVATION when he was announced as a member of the Heat. Cleveland fans are super loyal to those who are loyal to them. It just so happens that they are also a collective group of people who you don’t want to get on the bad side of.
No way should anyone in Cleveland be expected to “honor” this guy.
My sympathies go out to his family, but it would be a cold day in hell before I EVER honor Art Modell.
Bury Modell next to the Browns stadium so every fan can piss on him as they go to and from the game. As a Steeler fan, I respect Brown’s fans passion and knowledge of the game. And I miss that great rivalry. To Ravens fans, you are pathetic, sleazy, dishonorable for stealing another cities team. Even worse because you knew exactly how it felt after losing your Colts. But you did it anyway. The Redskins 15 miles away wasn’t good enough or you wouldn’t wait for the expansion team. Brown’s fans said it right- 3 years was long enough silence. Just like the last Steeler Browns game as the Browns were getting ready to go to Baltimore and the Steelers were playoff bound on their way to the Super Bowl, every fan yelled”Modell Sucks!” It needs repeated!
I grew up in Cleveland LB for LB we are the toughest city in America we are also proud i have forgave Mr Modell and hope he rest’s in peace leaving here was a Financial move nothing more.
As I stated before, nobody has less for respect for
Modell than me. I considered it a blessing when
he and bellyache left. I’m sorry the team went with him, but at the time I considered it the best
thing as far as football for Cleveland was concerned. As far as I’m concerned Modell died
about 15 years ago. I’m over it and don’t care now. I am finally glad to see us getting a good nucleus of young players that i hope the new owner doesn’t tear apart. I want these guys to do good so the new owner keeps them together, even
though i’m not completely sold on Shurmer at all.
I think there is going to be a change there in the future, but i hope he keeps the nucleus of young players we have together. In that reguard, I think
we should do our best on Sunday not to cause any
distractions for our Browns. Some people are making this moment of silence more important than our 2012 football team. Modell is gone and I
don’t care. I was over him a long time ago and I am looking forward to see our 2012 Browns play.
Lets NOT make this foolishness more important than the game we are playing. Our young team doesn’t need any distractions! I feel this is going to be a needless distraction. Is dredging up the past more important than supporting our new young players? I don’t think so. Art’s misdeeds speak for themself in the hearts of every Cleveland Brown fan. Let’s leave it at that!
Is the Nfl trying to start a riot I am a life lone Browns fan who now lives 2 1/2 hours away fromt the team that was stolen from us the Baltimore Ravens. I will never forgive Art for what he did based on his own self greed. There should be no moment of silence for him in Cleveland I hope if they try and have one everyone chants and BOOS Modell and Baltimore sucks. Art Modell was a low life who fit right in with the rest of the low life trash from Baltimore a Trashy owner for a Trashy city
The only appropriate, less disrespectful, approach to expressing our discontent with Modell is to do what he did to us, when the time comes for the Browns to acknowledge the passing of Modell, the entire stadium of fans should stand up and turn their back to the field, the same as Modell did when he turned his back on us, this simple gesture is not disrespectful, it is a form of protest that is honored and acceptable, we get our feeling across, we save face and Cleveland doesn’t get trashed by the media cause you know they are going to if they can.
When the Browns do the ‘appropriate recognition’ of Modell the only appropriate response would be for the fans at the game to STAND AND TURN THEIR BACKS TOWARD THE FIELD, this would be the appropriate gesture to recognize Modell, he turned his back on the fans, we should turn our back on him, this gesture ranks very low in disrespect, it would be the best form of protest we could do without getting nasty, Cleveland saves face and we get our point across.
too bad the ravens are not playing in Cleveland this Sunday that would be interesting.