Blackmail Is Not A Recognized Sport

St. Louis Rams? Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders? Nashville Oilers? Baltimore Browns? Los Angeles Seahawks?

The blackmail continues unabated.

Professional Football Owner: “Give me a new stadium or I’m taking the (fill in the blank - Cardinals, Astros, America’s Team, etc.) to Timbuktu. They’re going to build me a (football- or baseball-only) stadium there. Give me a key to the city. And name a street after me, me, me.”

Terrified City Leaders and Fans: “Oh no, no, no. We’ll tax ourselves to the nines and build you a rent-free stadium. Please don’t go. Pu-u-leeeese.”

Sports fans need a remedy for this corporate extortion, and U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Washington, is considering it: legislation that would make it difficult for sports franchises to swap cities.

Without protection like that, we Northwesterners either had to pony up $255 million to build a new stadium for the Seattle Mariners last fall or lose our team and an essential part of our community. That’s a bad choice, but it’s the way the game is played today.

Now, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell has taken sports blackmail to a new level. He plans to move his ensconsed franchise to Baltimore - though Cleveland area lawmakers were willing to fund $175 million in Municipal Stadium renovations.

Modell’s announcement sent shock waves throughout the sports world. If a bedrock franchise like the Browns can move from a city that has supported them in good times and bad for almost 50 years, any team can move. And many are threatening to do so.

Certainly, Modell, as owner of the Browns, should have latitude in the way he conducts his business, but he also has a tremendous social responsibility. Sports teams aren’t simple profit-making ventures. They’re part of the communities in which they perform and to some extent get public subsidies.

“Have Team, Will Travel” has to stop.

Gorton is working with U.S. Sens. John Glenn and Mike DeWine to find legislative options to keep the Browns from moving to Baltimore, a city betrayed 11 years ago by owner Bob Irsay when the Colts slipped off to Indianapolis.

Gorton has first-hand experience in franchise moves. As Washington’s attorney general and a big sports fan in the 1970s, he watched helplessly as the Seattle Pilots baseball team pulled up stakes after a year and moved to Milwaukee. Earlier this year, Gorton successfully lobbied behind the scenes to keep the Mariners in Seattle.

When the M’s considered leaving Seattle two years ago, Gorton threatened to draft legislation repealing Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption.

The Art Modells of professional sports won’t show respect to their communities unless they’re forced to do so.

This time, Gorton should do more than threaten.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board