Weddle recruiting former fans

[chargerkdb]

The Ravens (Browns) were brought to Baltimore by Modell a bigger dirtbag than Tags ever was. Modell moved the Browns and fired Bill Bellichick and Nick Saban within a year. Irsay and Modell are dickheads. The Spanos and Bidwells are incompetents that made dickhead moves.

[Formula 21]

First NFL game I ever saw in person was San Diego at Baltimore Colts in Memorial Stadium. The stadium was a dump and the fans weren't too great either. This not that far removed from the Unitas years. You can almost spit from Redskins locker room and hit Baltimore. Ok maybe being a little exagerattive there but you get the point. You have to go from Maryland all the way down east coast to Atlanta to get to another team and there was certainly a mid-Atlantic cluster. Charlotte made sense. I would have looked at Birmingham Al or San Antonio before Baltimore or Jax

I agree, Memorial stadium was a dump, but it was also called the "largest insane asylum in the world." The fans were passionate and loved their football. They deserve a team. Much more than San Diego or LA whose fans are band wagoners at best. Football is life in the east and midwest, it's just entertainment in Southern CA.

The Q is a palace compared to the Old Memorial Stadium(which was built after WWII with bleacher seats for baseball).

[Formula 21]

The Ravens (Browns) were brought to Baltimore by Modell a bigger dirtbag than Tags ever was. Modell moved the Browns and fired Bill Bellichick and Nick Saban within a year. Irsay and Modell are dickheads. The Spanos and Bidwells are incompetents that made dickhead moves.

I'd also disagree about upgrading Spanos and Bidwell from dickhead to incompetent. For both, it's always been about making money, not winning.

[Formula 21]

In this museum, a history lesson for Tagliabue
September 06, 1998|By Ken Rosenthal | Ken Rosenthal,SUN COLUMNIST

In the bitter aftermath of Baltimore's expansion defeat, former Gov. William Donald Schaefer issued a warning to NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

Schaefer said that if Tagliabue ever attended another baseball game at Camden Yards, "I'm going to have it announced on the loudspeaker that we have the commissioner of football in Seat 10, Row 14."

Five years later, with Baltimore's NFL odyssey having come full circle, Tagliabue's insult can not, will not, be forgotten.

If only Schaefer could be governor again for a day.

We have the commissioner of football attending the Ravens' opener against Pittsburgh, but the sellout crowd at the new stadium won't even get to see him.

Won't get the chance to stand up and boo the arrogant suit who told us to build a museum.

Won't get the chance to shout its discontent at the Washington attorney who conspired with the late Jack Kent Cooke.

Won't get the chance to confront our new best friend who never wanted this stadium built in the first place.

That stadium needs to be loud today, ladies and gentlemen, and not just because Steelers fans will be selling their children to get into the place.

Tagliabue will be shuttling between owners' boxes, talking rich people's talk, munching rich people's food, ignoring the hypocrisy of it all.

He needs to hear the roar of the town that he rejected. Needs to witness the reincarnation of the world's largest outdoor insane asylum. Needs to see that this supposed wasteland between Philadelphia and Washington deserved the NFL all along.

Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s -- a good thing, considering The Sun King's aversion to cold weather.

Yes, even five years later, it's impossible to forgive.

Tagliabue was right when he ungraciously suggested that Baltimore could have built a museum or plant instead of an NFL stadium. What he never understood was the passion for football that exists in this town.

Still exists, even after the Mayflower vans, even after the expansion horror, even after the extraordinary price it took to bring back the NFL -- permanent-seat licenses on top of a publicly financed stadium.

Some fans remain uneasy with the deal. They would have had no such reservations about an expansion team. They would have felt clean, felt proud, felt whole.

No one ordered us to steal a team, and turn into everything we once despised. But the NFL ignored the moral argument for Baltimore. It ignored the economic argument for Baltimore.

In the end, it got what it deserved.

Today, in air-conditioned, luxury-suite comfort, perhaps Tagliabue and Ravens owner Art Modell will take a moment to reflect on their roles in creating the Baltimore monster.

Tagliabue told the owners to snub Baltimore, protecting Cooke while the Redskins owner plotted a move to Laurel that was destined never to take place.

Modell voted against Baltimore even though his partner with the Cleveland Browns, Al Lerner, was the city's last-ditch hope to own the team.

Maybe Modell was already dreaming of grabbing the Baltimore package for himself; maybe not. But it all got rather messy from there, didn't it?

Charlotte and Jacksonville were in. Baltimore and St. Louis were out. And five years later, the NFL is still trying to recover.

"History has proven that you needed to backfill the other markets first," said John Moag, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Baltimore stole the Browns from Cleveland. St. Louis stole the Rams from Los Angeles. Now the league must expand again, first to Cleveland, then to Los Angeles or another abandoned city, Houston.

Expansion means growth, so Tagliabue can argue that all this actually benefits the league economically, especially when the Browns' move led directly or indirectly to new stadiums in Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington and Cincinnati.

But tell it to the fans.

The right decision would have been to expand to four cities in 1993 -- Charlotte, Jacksonville, St. Louis and Baltimore. If Modell couldn't have made it in Cleveland, he would have been forced to sell -- probably to Lerner, who likely will be the Browns' new owner, anyway.

Moag said that it would have been "very, very difficult" for Tagliabue to convince the owners to slice the television pie into four more pieces. But now they will end up doing it anyway.

Tagliabue saw the small picture, and twisted the owners' arms for Charlotte and Jacksonville. Pete Rozelle would have seen the bigger picture, twisted the owners' arms for four teams and avoided the anarchy of franchise free agency.

Expanding only to Baltimore and St. Louis, Moag's solution in hindsight, was never a serious possibility. Rozelle initially proposed adding one old city and one new. Tagliabue rejected that idea in his lust for virgin territory. And if the NFL hadn't expanded to Charlotte, it might have lost the market entirely.

Carolina owner Jerry Richardson was on record as saying he would not buy an existing team; he likely would have withdrawn the private financing on his stadium rather than wait for the next round of expansion.

Jacksonville might have stolen a team, but what were its chances of luring an Art Modell with only a renovated Gator Bowl to offer?

"We would have seen how strong they were, if they could have hung in there," Moag said.

Baltimore did hang in there, then became a national whipping boy for stealing the Browns.

Of course, all the bleeding-heart moralists never asked how the city got from Point A to Point B, never pointed the finger at Tagliabue.

The Sun King remains largely invisible, moving through his world of private suites and corporate boardrooms, conducting the mighty business of the NFL.

He apologizes for nothing, and today he marches triumphantly into a stadium he never wanted, a city he tried to make disappear.

Welcome to the museum, commissioner.

Pub Date: 9/06/98

[chargerkdb]

I agree, Memorial stadium was a dump, but it was also called the "largest insane asylum in the world." The fans were passionate and loved their football. They deserve a team. Much more than San Diego or LA whose fans are band wagoners at best. Football is life in the east and midwest, it's just entertainment in Southern CA.

The Q is a palace compared to the Old Memorial Stadium(which was built after WWII with bleacher seats for baseball).

Stealing from the Dog Pound was a dick move though. Shitty owner and shitty team and Cleveland still loved them.

[Formula 21]

Baltimore, Maryland, its fans and its politicians fought for a team.

What did San Diego, California, and its fans and politicians do to keep/get football in San Diego? In a word, DICK.

[Formula 21]

Stealing from the Dog Pound was a dick move though. Shitty owner and shitty team and Cleveland still loved them.

Agreed. But what the NFL did to Baltimore was a dick move also.

But the NFL took care of Cleveland quickly. What did the NFL do for Baltimore? What's the NFL going to do for San Diego? Not a fucking thing in both cases.

Baltimore did what it had to do to get football back. What they did was the only thing they could do. It was the only option available.

[chargerkdb]

I won't argue that. I grew up in Redskin country and now live in Falcon country. I've never really been on the whole home team represents my community thing. Most of my neighbors are assholes. I fell in love with Bolts during Air Coryell days. They are stuck with me

[Formula 21]

Stealing from the Dog Pound was a dick move though. Shitty owner and shitty team and Cleveland still loved them.

And I disagree on the teams and owner too. Modell was loved as an owner. Cleveland loved the Browns because they were a good team.

The whole affair is a black eye for the the NFL. And Tagliabue is the dick head behind it all.

[Formula 21]

I won't argue that. I grew up in Redskin country and now live in Falcon country. I've never really been on the whole home team represents my community thing. Most of my neighbors are assholes. I fell in love with Bolts during Air Coryell days. They are stuck with me

I'm originally from Baltimore. But I've lived in SD since 1979. And the Bolts are my team since then even though they've now moved. It sucks, but that's the way it is until SD gets another team. Which will probably be never.

[Formula 21]

As you can tell, I'm still pissed at the Colts leaving Baltimore and how Baltimore was treated by the NFL.

So for all the Chargers fans, don't expect to get over getting screwed by the Bolts and the NFL in your lifetime.

[chargerkdb]

After watching Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston, Saint Louis twice , LA 3 times and now San Diego I don't get attracted to a team based on location. The only team guaranteed not to be bought and moved is Green Bay. If it hurts too much take that into account.