Franchise Frenzy In Nfl Teams Come And Go And Come Back Again For Money
So, it turns out St. Louis and Oakland and even Baltimore weren’t such terrible football towns after all.
Once deserted by the NFL, two of them are back in the league and the third is on the verge of returning. Art Modell, one of the league’s most influential owners, will get the votes he needs to move the Browns and all will be well again - except in Cleveland, the town about to be abandoned.
Nothing is forever, though. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue pointed out that a favorable vote on a tax to be used to upgrade decaying Cleveland Stadium might convince the league that the city is, indeed, a viable NFL territory.
The voters came through and now Cleveland becomes a candidate for a replacement franchise. Just like Baltimore, St. Louis and Oakland were.
In the Gospel According to St. Pete, the NFL’s old testament, franchise stability was the league’s cornerstone.
Let baseball and basketball teams jump from here to there, like so many fast-buck transients. Football was not like that. Pete Rozelle’s NFL was rock solid, something dependable.
Rozelle’s rule for franchises was that they stayed put, dedicated to their communities and their customers. This was no fly-by-night, here today, gone tomorrow operation. Those days were over, discarded in the leather helmet era when teams might move from year-to-year, maybe even from month-to-month.
For more than two decades, with Rozelle in charge, NFL clubs remained in place, content to do business in the same old stand. And, by the way, it was not such a bad business, at that. Then Al Davis got itchy and nothing’s been quite the same since.
The league left Oakland and then returned to Oakland. And it left St. Louis and then returned to St. Louis. And it left Baltimore and now it prepares to return to Baltimore.
The more things change …
Davis opened up the landscape for football gypsies, enticed away by promises of new stadiums and luxury boxes and visions of dollar signs dancing through their heads. That’s all it takes to get their attention.
Modell’s hand was forced by debt and some $21 million in losses over the last two seasons. Tradition is nice and the Browns’ owner is one of the staunchest defenders of that policy in football. But accountants deal in the bottom line, and Cleveland’s wasn’t good.
So when Baltimore tapped Modell on the shoulder and whispered seductively in his ear, he listened. And more teams almost certainly will follow, especially when the All-American dollar, a permanent No. 1 draft choice in this league, is involved.
The problem is it’s all too easy for teams in trouble to find bailouts waiting from other municipalities, circling like vultures. The irony is that Baltimore had the Colts yanked away 11 years ago and cried murder over it. But when the opportunity came along for the city to swipe the Browns, there was no hesitation.
Davis was the Pied Piper in this exodus business. He once even talked about taking the Raiders to the tiny Los Angeles suburb of Irwindale, attracted by a vacant gravel pit where - naturally - a state of the art stadium with plenty of luxury boxes would be constructed. He cleared a cool $10 million from that little adventure when the deal evaporated.
These franchises are all equipped with suitcases ready to be packed. They have, remember, moved before. The Cardinals began in Chicago, the Rams in Cleveland, the Raiders in Oakland, the Colts in Baltimore. They are like the population of America. Most of them came from someplace else.
So now the Tampa Bay Bucs talk about Orlando. And the Houston Oilers talk about Nashville. And the Arizona Cardinals talk about anyplace.
Modell said the Browns move was a gut-wrenching deal. “This has been a very, very tough road for my family and me,” he said. “I am deeply, deeply sorry from the bottom of my heart. I leave my heart and part of my soul in Cleveland.” He is, however, bringing his wallet to Baltimore.
And whatever happened to the Gospel According to St. Pete?
It has been filed away by the NFL. Under old business.