I’ve been getting increasingly annoyed with Mike Trivasano (like everyone else, I think) about his whining and moaning about the Browns (mostly because he’s not buddy-buddy with the front office like he used to be), but today’s interview with Art M*dell is impossibly interesting. I’ll be listening at 5:20, that’s for sure.
Last night 1100 had a discussion about how, apparently, in 1994-95 Al Lerner had been loaning M*dell money that Art could not repay. When Lerner eventually demanded repayment and couldn’’t get it, Lerner was going to go after M*dell’s interest in the Browns. It was then that M*dell had to desperately pick up and move the Browns. I guess no one knows if this is true, but it’s interesting if it is. And it kind of casts Lerner’s involvement in the Browns in a different light.
It doesn’t, however, change the fact that M*dell continually botched the business side of the Browns. As 1100 this morning replayed an interview Mike Snyder did with M*dell the day the moving story broke in 1995, I was struck by the sheer stupidity for M*dell to:
- Rely so heavily on revenue from the Stadium Corporation in order to keep the Browns afloat. Think about it. For well over a decade the Indians were rumoured to be leaving Cleveland, and that would have been disastrous for the Browns. Had the Tribe bolted town in the 80’s (to no one’s surprise), it may not have been long until the Browns followed them out of town.
- Not embrace the Gateway project, or similar proposals that were considered in the late 80’s/early 90’s. I know Dick Jacobs insisted on a baseball-only stadium, but the Browns were really the ones with the most leverage early on. Instead M*dell repeatedly refused a dual-purpose stadium, perhaps because he needed the Stadium Corp (or similar) revenue. But, c’mon, M*dell had to know that the Indians couldn’t keep him afloat forever. I find it impossible to believe that M*dell couldn’t have been the more important stakeholder in a Gateway project that included both the Browns and the Indians. Instead there was only stupid talk about how the Browns needed a domed stadium or whatever.
Listening to that interview today, M*dell really sounded like a man who had been caught offguard. A man who had for years been able to put off planning for the Browns to be self-sufficient. A man who, when that day came, was so unprepared he was forced to make a fateful decision: move the team, or sell the team. It all came down to who really owned the Browns -- Art M*dell or the citizens of Northeast Ohio. And we all know how that worked out as M*dell left for greener pastures (though not green enough to keep the team), and Cleveland was left with the "team history" and a pile of sympathy.
So today, Tuesday January 19, 2006, I can’t help but still bemoan the loss of the 1995 Browns. Had things worked out differently, namely with M*dell selling the team in 1995 or the Browns getting a new stadium in the years prior, the last decade of Browns football would have no doubt been much different. If yyou listen to KDKA in Pittsburgh today you can hear all about the Steelers visiting Denver this Sunday for the AFC Championship. And if you listen to WTAM this evening you get to relive the pathetic events that blew the Browns to smithereens for the last decade. That this broadcast eill be interesting is as undeniable as is the fact that it flat-out sucks sometimes to be a Browns fan. It’s time to move on, isn’t it?
UPDATE: What a Sh!tty a$$ interview! Triv, you suck more than words could describe. Have you no backbone? All you tried to do was cvozy up to the dude instead of asking him the hard questions. Will you believe anything?
After Triv allowed M*dell to talk freely and unchallenged, George Voinovich called in to deny he ever told M*dell to move. I’m not a big Voino fan, but I believe him. But, really, it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t Voinovich’s job to look out for the Browns, it was M*dell’s. And he sucked at it by his own admission for taking over the Stadium, living with it for such a long time, and then for believing less-than-handshake agreements from county commishioners and the like. And that is just Art’s side of the story. Trivasanno, you suck so hard it ain’t funny. I spent the whole interview shouting obvious follow-up questions at the radio. You didn’t ask a single one. What a disgrace. Don’t even try to cover the Browns anymore, ok? This might have been great for ratings, but it sure took a toll on your credibility. How embarassing. More later if I can muster it, tomorrow maybe.
And, oh yeah, I’m not just yet ready to jump aboard the Bernie-for-Pres bandwagon.
I like
this little column.