HOW DID CLEVELAND LOSE THE ORIGINAL BROWNS? //WHY ART MODELL DITCHED CLEVELAND & MOVED THE BROWNS

after winning eight championships early on in their existence the cleveland browns firmly established themselves as a beloved part of the cleveland community so what exactly led to the team leaving after nearly 50 years and then returning just three years later in today's video we'll take a look back at how their meddling owner art medel got himself into financial trouble after a series of disastrous decisions which left him feeling like he had no choice but to move the team and before we get started i just want to say welcome to all sports history this is a channel where you'll find many sports documentaries on sports leagues like the nfl nba mlb nhl and much more so please consider subscribing and hitting that notification bell if you don't want to miss any of those okay let's get back to today's video with their first season in 1946 the cleveland browns were one of the eight original teams a part of the all-american football conference or aafc for short the browns were by far the most successful aafc team winning the championship four seasons in a row between 1946 and 1949 when shortly after the all-american football conference collapsed due to financial issues the browns the san francisco 49ers and the baltimore colts who technically are not the same team as the current colts team all made the move over to the national football league in 1950 from there the browns continued their dominance appearing in the nfl championship game six seasons in a row and winning three of them between 1950 and 1955 this was in large part due to the team's legendary quarterback otto graham and equally legendary head coach paul brown who was hired by the team's original owner and founder arthur b mickey mcbride the team even got their name thanks to paul brown who reluctantly had the team named after him when owner mickey mcbride had trouble deciding on another name although paul brown tried to tell a different story as to how the team name came to be brown had always wanted the team name to reflect the team's championship aspirations so he claimed that a top choice in a fan boat naming contest was the brown bombers the brown bomber was also the nickname for boxing heavyweight champion joe lewis and brown felt that it would be the right fit for the team with the name ultimately being shortened to just browns this alternate version of the naming history was considered factual for many years until paul brown later admitted that he made the joe luis story up because he felt so uncomfortable with the browns being named after him the browns being named after paul brown is now considered the official origin of the brown's name by the nfl and the team as successful as the browns were the ownership of the team would actually exchange hands a couple times during this period during the summer of 1953 mcbride sold the browns for what at the time was a record sale of six hundred thousand dollars the team was sold to a business group based out of cleveland where dave jones a former director for the cleveland indians initially purchased part of the team as a minority owner but would later become a majority owner in 1955. the sale of the browns may have been due to testimony that mickey mcbride gave in front of the key file for a committee back in 1951 the special committee was formed to investigate interstate commerce and was headed by estes kiefer mcbride's testimony revealed that he had partial ties to organized crime and illegal gambling but he was never charged with any crime although he never publicly admitted it it's believed that mcbride most likely sold the team due to public pressure over his alleged connections with the mob jumping the head in 1960 rumors began to form that the browns were once again going to be up for sale former browns running back fred curley morrison overheard that dave jones was potentially looking into selling the team morrison who had joined cbs as an advertising executive after retiring from football relayed what he heard to a fellow advertising and television executive named art model after becoming excited by the possible lucrative television revenue he can make from owning a team armadale borrowed as much money as he could and offered to pay jones just under 4 million dollars for the browns the sale became final in march of 1961 and medel quickly assured fans that he had no interest in meddling with the team's football personnel and promised that coach brown could run the team as he wished that promise would be put to the test early on as clashes over players and other team decisions would put the two men at odds not long after model purchased the team concerns began to rise over paul brown's coaching style even jim brown the brown star running back publicly questioned coach brown's decisions and his undermining of the team's quarterback milt plum but the rift that would ultimately lead to the suffering of mandela's and paul brown's relationship came when the team traded for running back ernie davis in 1962. davis was the first ever african-american player to win the heisman trophy and was drafted as the number one overall pick by the washington redskins however redskins owner george preston marshall who was a proud racist publicly stated that he preferred to keep the team as an all-white team basically the only reason that washington drafted davis was so that the team could avoid having the 30-year lease of their stadium revoked by the secretary of interior stuart udall who threatened to do so if the team didn't integrate their squad understandably davis had no desire to play for washington and forced the redskins to trade him paul brown excited by the possibility of pairing ernie davis with jim brown as the two main running backs on his team approved of the trade but did so without consulting art model first but dell wasn't pleased about that and to make matters worse ernie davis suddenly came down with a serious illness prior to the 1962 season paul brown ruled out davis indefinitely while model kept pressuring brown to find a way to play davis but crushing news came when it turned out that ernie davis had leukemia and it became clear that he was unlikely to return that season clear to everyone except model who even after davis diagnosis brought in his own doctors who claimed that davis was healthy enough to play even with modell's meddling paul brown refused to play davis and essentially ruled him out for the year this disagreement became the start of a major rift between model and brown that never improved the browns finished the season with a disappointing 7-6-1 record and by that point medell had had enough firing paul brown shortly after the season this ended an incredible 17 seasons as the team's first and only head coach having won seven championships between the aafc and the nfl during that time sadly ernie davis would never get the chance to play for the browns when he tragically passed away in may of 1963 at the age of 23 years old blanton collier who had been paul brown's assistant head coach was promoted to head coach after brown's firing his tenure got off to a good start with the browns improving their record in 1963 with a 10-4 record and jim brown winning the league mvp award the next year the browns reached the nfl championship game thanks to jim brown once again having a career year rushing 1446 yards that season cleveland matched up against johnny unitas and the baltimore cults in the championship game where baltimore had been favored to win however after a scoreless first half the browns managed to shut out the colts 27-0 winning their fourth nfl championship in just 14 years over the next few seasons cleveland would make three more appearances in the nfl championship game but unfortunately they lost each time once the packers in 1965 and to the colts in 1968 and then to the vikings in 1969 by this time the nfl had agreed to merge leagues with their rivals the american football league for the following season in 1970. with the merger came a realignment within the conferences and divisions in the nfl the browns were placed in the new american football conference or afc in the central division with a rival the pittsburgh steelers and the old afl teams the houston oilers and the cincinnati bengals the 1970 season would also be the first time that the browns and the bengals would get to play each other and this was significant because after being fired by the browns paul brown went to the afl and started a new team there called the cincinnati bengals their first ever meeting took place on october 11 1970 and the bronze defeated the bengals in a close game 30-27 after finishing the season with a 7-7 record and played by hearing problems head coach blanton collier announced his retirement shortly after the season this marked the end of an era for the browns as the team would slide into mediocrity throughout the 1970s with a rotating cast of different head coaches and it wasn't just the poor play on the field that was affecting the team because beginning around this time a series of poor ownership decisions by art model would eventually jeopardize the team financially [Music] model had long struggled financially to keep the organization running smoothly after all he barely scraped together enough money to be able to pay for the team in the first place but mendel's financial problems truly began from a deal that he made in 1975 when he signed a 25-year lease of municipal stadium that gave model near full control of its use in exchange model promised to give a portion of his annual profits to the city and pay for any improvements to the stadium out of pocket mendel then created a new company called the stadium corporation oh that's real creative that would pay the city annual rents of 150 000 for the first five years and then two hundred thousand dollars each year for the rest of its lease initially the deal worked out well for medell as the stadium was profitable by not just hosting the browns home games but also having the cleveland indians as tenants as well as renting it out for concerts and other events while it was profitable medel paid 625 000 to purchase land in strongsville ohio a suburb just outside cleveland as land for a potential site for a new stadium but he then turned around and sold the land to his own company stadium corporation for three million dollars which was a pretty nice payday for himself this is where things got a bit complicated by 1981 municipal stadium had mounting financial losses and medell was bleeding money he then decided to sell stadium corporation to the browns for 6 million dollars which again netted him a pretty nice payday for himself this triggered a lawsuit by brown's minority owner bob gries who claimed that model was making business decisions without consulting the ownership group and using the browns as his own personal bank account this case was settled by ohio state supreme court where greece won and model was ordered to reverse the six million dollar sale of stadium corporation and pay greece's legal fees of one million dollars after the costly legal battle model sought help from a banking and real estate executive named al lerner who bought a five percent stake in the browns but more importantly bought half a stadium corporation but overall the deal that modell made to take on the cost of maintaining municipal stadium while also trying to run a team would later turn out to be disastrous [Music] by the mid-1980s the browns have improved greatly becoming annual playoff contenders led by quarterback bernie kozar and head coach marty schottenheimer the browns won the afc central division four out of five seasons between 1985 and 1989. unfortunately the browns became better known for their string of playoff disappointments and mishaps during this period than anything else plays like the drive where john elway led a successful last minute comeback against the browns in the 1986 afc championship game or the fumble where brown's running back ernest beiner had the ball stripped from his hands just before he could score what would have potentially been a game tying touchdown all became infamous moments in cleveland brown's history the team that was once known for their championship dominance was now seen as one of the unluckiest franchises in the league during this time there were several attempts to build a new stadium for both the browns and the indians county commissioner vincent campanella proposed a multi-purpose dome stadium similar to the pontiac silverdome in detroit michigan both the governor of ohio richard celeste and art medal liked the idea but had disagreements over how it should be funded governor celeste was opposed to having the taxpayers foot the bill and subsequently a ballot initiative for a 150 million dome stadium was defeated on may 8 1984 a year later another project called the hexatron was designed as a six-sided dome with a retractable roof and the proposed idea to pay for the project would have been to implement a syntax on things like alcohol and cigarettes however the hexatron idea never really gained any traction it wouldn't be until 1990 when the city of cleveland finally approved of a project called the gateway sports and entertainment complex this project included a brand new baseball only stadium for the indians as well as a brand new arena next door for the cleveland cavaliers medel made the strange decision to not take part in the gateway complex wanting to instead focus on trying to secure funds for renovations to municipal stadium jacob's field opened in time for the 1994 baseball season and the indians after moving in were now no longer paying medel the near 700 000 of yearly rent or sharing revenue from the luxury suites at municipal stadium this turned out to be a huge blow to modell amid growing debt rising player salaries and struggling with issues from the stadium madel claimed that he had lost 21 million dollars between 1993 and 1994. he also said at the time that his team was currently 40 million dollars in debt and that he had to borrow 10 million dollars from banks just to cover costs after the gateway complex was completed there were some efforts to secure money for renovations to municipal stadium a proposed 175 million dollars was pitched but mandel felt that that most likely wouldn't be enough nor would the voters approve of it [Music] during this time al lerner the team's minority owner was privately pushing medel to explore moving the browns elsewhere the city of baltimore had long been wanting to replace the cults who in 1984 skipped town in the middle of the night and move to indianapolis however the city was also hesitant to provide any money towards building a new stadium unless they can get a full commitment from a team or the nfl in late july 1995 maryland stadium authority chairman john moog met with elle lerner to discuss a potential move moog presented lerner with an offer to build a brand new 220 million dollar stadium if the browns promised to move there moog also stressed that if the browns were serious about moving then they better act soon because he was in discussions with at least one other team about potentially moving the other team turned out to be the cincinnati bengals who like the browns were trying to get a new stadium built in cincinnati to replace the aging riverfront stadium but they had trouble convincing the city on how to pay for it in fact a deal between the bengals and baltimore had already progressed far enough that a lease document had been drawn up between the two parties but when word leaked of a potential move it sparked outrage in cincinnati the city almost immediately put forth a measure to the voters in cincinnati who then approved of a referendum that got two stadiums built paul brown stadium where the bengals play now and great american ballpark where the reds play through september of 1995 negotiations between the browns and baltimore continued with mog convincing medel that the people of baltimore would view him as a hero if he were to make the move on november 6 1995 while standing in front of camden yards art model officially announced that the browns would be moving to baltimore for the 1996 season the very next day after the announcement voters in cleveland approved of the 175 million dollars needed to renovate municipal stadium but it was too late madel had already made up his mind and felt that his relationship with cleveland was permanently damaged saying the bridge is down burned and disappeared there's not even a canoe for me the immediate reaction from the fans in the city of cleveland was intense backlash and protests broke out over their team that was leaving town after nearly 50 years advertisers also began to pull out of the stadium and sponsoring the team fearing company boycotts from the fans the city sued model the browns stadium corporation and maryland stadium authority stating that the browns lease with municipal stadium ran through 1998 and couldn't be broken local fans also tried to sue model while the united states congress even held meetings to discuss the move the situation got so bad that by mid-season when the browns visited pittsburgh to play their arch rivals the steelers in a rare sight both browns and steeler fans joined together to protest the move steeler fans were upset that model would rob the fans of the history and rivalry between the two teams through the media circus surrounding the team the browns struggled on the field as well finishing with a record of 5 and 11. they also had the dubious record of losing to the expansion jacksonville jaguars twice that season which made them the first team in modern history of the nfl to lose to a first year expansion team twice during the team's final home game which coincidentally was against paul brown's cincinnati bengals bands in the dog pound section of municipal stadium threw beer bottles and other objects onto the field while other fans ripped out entire rows of seats and tossed those onto the field all in disgust over the move in response the referees had the players play in the opposite direction of the field to continue play with the browns 1 26-10 their only win after the relocation announcement [Music] the nfl after witnessing how ugly things had already become decided to step in and mediate between medell and cleveland by february 1996 a compromise was struck when cleveland agreed to allow medell to move the team to baltimore in exchange for the brown's name team history and colors to remain in cleveland medell would receive what technically amounted to an expansion franchise that would have a fresh start in baltimore however madel would also get to keep all the current browns contracts of players coaches and other personnel as part of his new team also part of the deal was that the browns would remain deactivated for three years while the nfl and cleveland could search for a new ownership group and have time to build a new stadium for the team the 175 million dollars that had been allocated to renovating municipal stadium would now be used to construct a new home for the browns with an additional 48 million provided by the nfl model seen here shocked when presumably he learned that he was also ordered to pay cleveland 9.3 million dollars to make up for lost taxes and income revenue plus another 2.25 million to cover the city's legal fees the last part of the deal was that the future browns team must be placed in the same division as the bengals and the steelers to continue their long-standing rivalries the league held a vote of the owners to approve of the deal with it being approved by a 25-2 margin with the two no votes coming from pittsburgh stan rooney and buffalo's ralph wilson while there were also three absentions after the approval of the deal the nfl set up the cleveland browns trust which would help facilitate the brown's return the trust's main job was to help oversee the construction of a new stadium sell season tickets the leasing of stadium suites and the overall general marketing of the team on november 4th 1996 almost a full year after model's announcement that the browns would be leaving the demolition of municipal stadium began and was completed by early 1997 on the exact same site construction on a brand new stadium started on may 15 1997 and cost 283 million dollars to build the new stadium would be called cleveland brown stadium and later changed to first energy stadium as it's known today during this time the nfl began its search for a new ownership group for the browns many different hopeful investors appeared like a group led by hbo founder charles stolen and former browns quarterback bernie kozar other interested parties were former miami dolphins head coach don shula and comedian bill cosby dodged the bullet there huh but the nfl settled on one person who had been very close to the brown situation for many years owl lerner yep the same owler who had helped convince art madeline that he needed to move the browns out of cleveland in the first place lerner bought the team for 530 million dollars in september of 1998. former 49ers president and ceo carmen policy became the minority owner of the browns owning a 10 percent stake and also becoming the team's president running day-to-day operations while medel's team in baltimore technically was considered an expansion team the new browns team needed to have an expansion draft in order to fill out their roster a special expansion draft was held on february 9 1999 where the browns were able to select from 150 unprotected players from the other 30 nfl teams cleveland selected center jim pine from the detroit lions as their first expansion draft pick the browns were also given the first pick in the regular nfl draft that took place between april 17th and 18th 1999 where the team selected quarterback tim couch from kentucky as the number one overall pick the first game that the newly reactivated browns played was at the annual hall of fame game on august 9th 1999 and a match up against the dallas cowboys a little over a month later the browns opened the regular season against their old rivals the steelers on september 12 1999 but the game turned out to be an absolute blowout with pittsburgh winning 43 to nothing which also turned out to be the first of seven straight losses in a row but hey at least football was back in cleveland right [Music] once model got settled in baltimore he decided to clean house starting with the firing of the brown's old head coach bill belichick belichick struggled to turn the team around early in his tenure as head coach but managed to reach the playoffs with the browns in 1995. belichick's replacement would be ted marchi broda who had previously been the head coach of the baltimore colts from 1975 to 79 this made marcie broda the only person to coach both iterations of baltimore's nfl teams on deciding on a name after a failed attempt by model to try and buy the cult's name back from indianapolis for five million dollars the team settled on the ravens as the team's new nickname which came from fan surveys and focus groups this was in reference to edgar allen poe's famous poem the raven as well as poe's connection with baltimore having lived there later in life and being buried there the ravens moving into town had ripple effects of its own as well as baltimore's only other professional football team at the time the stallions out of the canadian football league felt that they had no choice but to relocate themselves the stallions had been a successful team and were the reigning grey cup champions but economically they were no match to try and compete with the nfl for market share the stallions after deciding to move to montreal reclaimed the old allylette's team name who had seized operations before the 1987 season the allutes coincidentally much like the browns were formerly recognized by the canadian football league as having resumed operations with their previous history fully intact jumping back to baltimore after the colts left in 1984 the team's marching band had remained loyal to the city of baltimore waiting for the moment that a new team would arrive when that time came and the ravens came into existence the team formally adopted the old colts marching band and rebranded them as baltimore's marching ravens model had actually already established a relationship with the band years prior when he invited him to play at halftime during a cleveland browns game jokingly saying that booking the band was cheap and speaking of cheap model himself would run again into financial trouble not long after the ravens began play in 1996. unlike virtually all the other owners model was hardly a wealthy man himself outside the value of his own football team due to his ongoing financial struggles the nfl finally had enough and essentially forced model to sell the ravens in the year 2000 earlier that year the league approved a businessman steve bashady buying a 49 stake in the team leaving model with a slim 51 majority in ownership part of the deal was that bashadi had the right to purchase the remaining half of the team after four years which he later did on april 8 2004 for 325 million dollars after the sale medell retired and later passed away on september 6 2012 at the age of 87 having never returned to cleveland before his death the ravens dedicated the 2012 season to his memory while the rest of the league commemorated his life the following sunday after his passing all the league except one team the cleveland browns who did not commemorate or even mention art model's name that day this was at the request of medell's son david who felt that it was better not to upset the browns fans by even mentioning his father's name understandably the wounds ran deep in cleveland with the original browns leaving the city not just having a huge impact on cleveland but around the football world as well between 1995 and 2006 16 brand new nfl stadiums were constructed with many of them due to the pressure that teams put on their cities to get them built in the wake of the browns leaving cleveland to name a few the lions seahawks broncos buccaneers cardinals and eagles all receive new facilities in their towns while the houston oilers actually made good on their threat to leave with bud adams moving the franchise to tennessee and becoming the titans so what did you guys think about the browns leaving cleveland and them being reactivated three years later and what did you think about art model never coming back to cleveland let me know in the comments below and while you're here why not check out some of the other all sports history videos you

Channel: All Sports History

Views: 45,494

Keywords: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL CLEVELAND BROWNS, All Sports History, Cleveland Browns highlights, Cleveland Browns History, HOW ART MODELL DITCHED CLEVELAND & MOVED THE BROWNS, cleveland browns vs pittsburgh steelers, Cleveland Browns vs Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns vs Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, Art Modell announces move to Baltimore, Cleveland Browns last game 1995, Cleveland Browns Football, Cleveland Browns throwing beer bottles, Art Modell, NFL

Id: iatv8Di0Mf0

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021