Chey’s Lounge

Part of this post is a few weeks in the making. I will just pick up where I left off with it because I feel sad erasing what I wrote previously. I had that issue a lot when writing papers in school, lol. Don’t ask me why because I don’t have a rational/logical explanation. Here’s where we left off… 

I’m pretty interested in the history of sports teams. I like looking into where some have moved, reading into defunct franchises, and exploring rebranding. I think a lot of people are into this topic right now either because of or considering some popular documentaries that have been released in recent years. For example, the miniseries about the Danbury Trashers and Montreal Expos. I still need to watch the one about the Expos. 

For me, I think my interest was sparked by a hockey YouTuber, The Hockey Guy, that exposed me to the Quebec Nordiques. The logo was just incredible. I was instantly hooked on old sports franchise logos. It’s not like my obsession with countries’ flags, but it could absolutely grow into it if I dedicated some time to it. There’s still so much I don’t know and so much to learn, all while new history is being made each day! I like to occasionally say a little prayer that some teams come back in some way. I know I need to be careful what I wish for (careful is a little dramatic here). I guess a lot of franchises can’t/maybe shouldn’t be “revived” when the actual original franchise exists somewhere. Like, how can we bring back the Seattle SuperSonics when the franchise itself moved to Oklahoma City? And let’s not talk about the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Jk. Let’s chat. It’s that time of year anyway. Not just that time of the year. It’s the anniversary. 

Some people in Cleveland will forever consider Art Modell a “dastardly supervillain” who is less deserving of a place in the Canton than Johnny Manziel? I won’t get deep into it, but I will talk a little to remember the original Cleveland Browns. Modell was a franchise owner that ended up relying on his franchise to remain wealthy. It’s not like he bought the Browns, ran them into the ground, and skipped off to Baltimore. This was a drawn-out process that ended up in millions lost. The thing is, when time passes, things change. Modell owned the team for decades. Things an individual said years earlier can be easily contradicted with the passage of Father Time and all the changes he brings along. Things change. Promises are broken. The Indians got themselves a new stadium (Modell was offered a similar deal for the Browns) and stopped paying Modell. Turns out baseball teams with dozens of home games a year can be quite the moneymaker. Modell was like Icarus and flew far too close to the sun. To make a long story short, even though Modell had no intention of moving the Browns from Cleveland, I don’t blame fans of the Browns for hating his guts and seeing him as a dirty, lying conman. Economic factors tied to unmitigated hubris surrounding the Cleveland Municipal Stadium led to the relocation to Baltimore. Modell took their storied franchise and moved it away. 

Well… it wasn’t exactly like that. Modell basically took the Browns at that time to Baltimore and essentially created an expansion team with the former Browns staff. Cleveland basically kept everything from the records to the colors. Modell’s Ravens had to start anew in Baltimore (he couldn’t buy the rights to the Colts) and in the end, he still went bust. I feel like I could’ve done better with this post, but it’s not bad. I just wanted to say that I’d be really sad if I lost my football team, even if a new iteration was on its way in a few years.