I just wanna state for the record that Belichick most certainly DID resign from the Jets. No debate there.
The fact that (i) he did it via writing "I resign as coach of NYJ" on a frickin' cocktail napkin, (ii) over some amount of control Parcells, their last coach, wanted to retain, (iii) in the same year they had FOUR first round picks, and (iv) Tom Brady was available . . . just . . .
Especially apropos after watching the latest super bowl where Al Michaels pronounced that the current Browns showed Odell Beckham the door. 4.25 million buys a lot of doors.
Damn, Joe -- you're such a wonderful writer, you actually had me feeling sympathetic towards Bill Belichick for a moment there. Never though I'd see the day THAT happened. It's hard to imagine him as a victim.
This whole fiction that the current Cleveland Browns franchise is the same one that left for Baltimore in 1995 is kind of lame. The Cleveland Browns are an expansion team that started in 1999. The franchise owned and coached by Paul Brown, the one Jim Brown played for, the Brian Sipe Kardiac Kids team, the Schottenheimer playoff teams -- that franchise plays in Baltimore now. Merely saying that this Cleveland Browns franchise somehow magically "owns" the prior Cleveland Brown's history does not make it so.
The Twins franchise properly claim the original 1901-60 Washington Senators (because that was a franchise shift), the Rangers claim the 1961-71 Washington Senators expansion team, and the Washington Nationals claim the history of the Montreal Expos. All these make sense because they were franchise moves. None of those teams claim a history separate from their franchises in the way that the Browns do.
Regardless of the franchise affiliation, DC still thinks of Walter Johnson and Frank Howard (as examples) as their past stars. They're both on the Nationals Stadium Ring of Honor (as are former Expos). Both have statues featured at the entrance to the Stadium (as does Josh Gibson). Local fans gravitate towards the players who played in their city, regardless where a franchise moved. The last Senators team (now the Rangers) and the current Nationals both used the same Curly W logo. Declaring franchise records versus local records seems like a semantic argument to local fans.
Fandom is funny. Geography trumps franchise and uniforms. Do you think Baltimore fans resonate more with Johnny Unitas (his Colt records now being associated with the current Indianapolis franchise) or to Jim Brown who never played a down wearing a Baltimore uniform?
Just because this is Brown's adjacent - after the Super Bowl I was looking at where Aaron Donald got drafted (11th, betwwen OBJ and Kyle Fuller). I noticed that 21 of the 32 first round picks were still playing last year, and upon looking further, found that 28 of the picks played at least 5 years in the league.
One of the picks that didn't make it was Ryan Shazier, who was tragically paralyzed (I hear he is walking now, so that is good), but he was a good player, and it certainly wasn't a bad pick.
The Browns had 2 first round picks at 8 and 22. One was gone in two, the other in three. Johnny Football was #22, and Justin Gilbert was the other. He only played two years for the Browns. They traded him to Pittsburgh for a 6th round pick 3 years in the future (which is about one step from cutting a guy) and he was cut at the end of year 3 by the Steelers.
This lat part is the most fun part. The 3rd player that didn't make 5 years in the league was a guy named Calvin Pryor. The Browns didn't pick him, but did trade Demario Davis (who is still playing and is a 3 time all pro) for him in the summer of 2017. He was cut before the season (that was the 0-16 team), was picked up on waivers by the Jags. He played 2 games for them getting 1 tackle and was cut by them before the end of the season.
You can't make this stuff up. Only three clearly subpar players in the draft, and the Browns drafted two of them and traded Demario Davis for the other. That is about as bad as it gets.
Those that moved their franchises all deserve to burn. The worst one, to me, was Georgia Frontiere. She was Carol Rosenbloom's trophy wife. Carol Rosenbloom was a very good owner, who ended up owning the Rams through some slight of hand I won't go into. But, we were happy to have him in charge. And the Rams were almost always good when he was in charge. Then he died and Georgia became the owner. Worse, that was her main job. So it was really all about the money. She couldn't care less about the team winning. Of course she was never going to get a new paid for stadium in Southern California. LA never budged on that. So, since it was all about the money, she was romanced by St Louis that gave her everything. LA lucked into hiring Vermeil (who was considered old & not really on anyone's short list), and lucked into a former grocery store clerk named Kurt Warner. Also, even as they were leaving LA, some of the longshot players they drafted, along with the high picks they got from being terrible, turned into real players. And they won a Super Bowl. They fell into it accidentally, because they weren't even trying to be good. They were trying to run the team on the cheap & siphon as much cash as possible. And still won. Props to Vermeil. It was really galling to see Georgia lift the trophy, when she actually did everything possible to prevent the team from winning. Modell deserves the hate, but at least he was also trying to create a winning team & at least negotiated with Cleveland in (I think) reasonably good faith. If that's not true, I stand corrected. But Georgia's still the worst!
Funny you mention Georgia as the worst, because Stan Kroenke is unquestionably worse. At least St. Louis sold out every game until Stan drove the team into the ground culminating in the worst 5 year stretch in the history of the NFL.
I’d say he negotiated in bad faith, but that implies he negotiated at all…Now he’s got a fan base that won’t even show up for the NFC Championship game. Thank goodness the Super Bowl is pretty much exclusively for corporate sponsors and celebrities (most of whom live in LA) or the Super Bowl would’ve been a real embarrassment.
That said, I agree with you on the Rams just wanting to milk St. Louis for all it’s worth and the city did itself no favors with its asinine lease agreement.
My apologies if I came off as harsh. I don’t hold anything against Rams fans and I understand your hurt at the team moving well, but it pains me to see Kroenke get let off the hook time and again.
An honest question- would Belichick have done as well if he stayed with the Browns/ Ravens? Did he learn/change anything from his time there? I’m not saying I know the answer, but I think that’s an interesting question.
Same with Roger Clemens - does he do as well after leaving the Red Sox if they don’t kick him to the curb?
I bet there are lots of examples like this in sports. Does Brady do as well if he is a top 10 draft pick? Does Aaron Rodgers? What if Burrow started over Haskins at Ohio State? I wonder if Joe could do One of those columns where he lists some of these famous what if’s that caused great athletes or coaches to have a chip on their shoulder and how it motivated them
"Whatever it is, you wanted the guy to say something.” I have very little sympathy for reporters who dislike coaches or athletes just because they won't make their jobs easy. That's why I am a Big Fan of Belichick's press conferences.
I can't imagine the "sports pain" of having your team move from your hometown, although sometimes during those dark 29 years I felt kind of ok with contracting the Royals and just celebrating the memories!
Being from Seattle, the Sonics were my boyhood team. I was gutted when they were hijacked. I'm mostly over it now, though I do admit to some schadenfreude over the way Oklahoma City has squandered their generational talent over the last decade.
Some guy was saying that the official name of Ravens was picked after Belichick was fired so technically the Ravens did not fire him either. It was Baltimore Franchise Team (BFT). Or since it was no team, just list is as Modell's firing.
I just wanna state for the record that Belichick most certainly DID resign from the Jets. No debate there.
The fact that (i) he did it via writing "I resign as coach of NYJ" on a frickin' cocktail napkin, (ii) over some amount of control Parcells, their last coach, wanted to retain, (iii) in the same year they had FOUR first round picks, and (iv) Tom Brady was available . . . just . . .
. . . I can't.
Especially apropos after watching the latest super bowl where Al Michaels pronounced that the current Browns showed Odell Beckham the door. 4.25 million buys a lot of doors.
Solid. We’re glad you didn’t pick law school.
Damn, Joe -- you're such a wonderful writer, you actually had me feeling sympathetic towards Bill Belichick for a moment there. Never though I'd see the day THAT happened. It's hard to imagine him as a victim.
However much you hate a person associated with sports, the person who signs their paycheck is most assuredly worse.
No, no, no - didn't you pay attention? ART 🤬 MODELL was the victim here.
This whole fiction that the current Cleveland Browns franchise is the same one that left for Baltimore in 1995 is kind of lame. The Cleveland Browns are an expansion team that started in 1999. The franchise owned and coached by Paul Brown, the one Jim Brown played for, the Brian Sipe Kardiac Kids team, the Schottenheimer playoff teams -- that franchise plays in Baltimore now. Merely saying that this Cleveland Browns franchise somehow magically "owns" the prior Cleveland Brown's history does not make it so.
Seems to me it's equivalent to arguing over who gets to claim the Washington Senators as their ancestors. The Twins, Rangers, or Nationals?
The Twins franchise properly claim the original 1901-60 Washington Senators (because that was a franchise shift), the Rangers claim the 1961-71 Washington Senators expansion team, and the Washington Nationals claim the history of the Montreal Expos. All these make sense because they were franchise moves. None of those teams claim a history separate from their franchises in the way that the Browns do.
Regardless of the franchise affiliation, DC still thinks of Walter Johnson and Frank Howard (as examples) as their past stars. They're both on the Nationals Stadium Ring of Honor (as are former Expos). Both have statues featured at the entrance to the Stadium (as does Josh Gibson). Local fans gravitate towards the players who played in their city, regardless where a franchise moved. The last Senators team (now the Rangers) and the current Nationals both used the same Curly W logo. Declaring franchise records versus local records seems like a semantic argument to local fans.
Fandom is funny. Geography trumps franchise and uniforms. Do you think Baltimore fans resonate more with Johnny Unitas (his Colt records now being associated with the current Indianapolis franchise) or to Jim Brown who never played a down wearing a Baltimore uniform?
Heck, there's a Unitas statue outside the Ravens stadium.
Just because this is Brown's adjacent - after the Super Bowl I was looking at where Aaron Donald got drafted (11th, betwwen OBJ and Kyle Fuller). I noticed that 21 of the 32 first round picks were still playing last year, and upon looking further, found that 28 of the picks played at least 5 years in the league.
One of the picks that didn't make it was Ryan Shazier, who was tragically paralyzed (I hear he is walking now, so that is good), but he was a good player, and it certainly wasn't a bad pick.
The Browns had 2 first round picks at 8 and 22. One was gone in two, the other in three. Johnny Football was #22, and Justin Gilbert was the other. He only played two years for the Browns. They traded him to Pittsburgh for a 6th round pick 3 years in the future (which is about one step from cutting a guy) and he was cut at the end of year 3 by the Steelers.
This lat part is the most fun part. The 3rd player that didn't make 5 years in the league was a guy named Calvin Pryor. The Browns didn't pick him, but did trade Demario Davis (who is still playing and is a 3 time all pro) for him in the summer of 2017. He was cut before the season (that was the 0-16 team), was picked up on waivers by the Jags. He played 2 games for them getting 1 tackle and was cut by them before the end of the season.
You can't make this stuff up. Only three clearly subpar players in the draft, and the Browns drafted two of them and traded Demario Davis for the other. That is about as bad as it gets.
Well done & thanks for sharing.
For some reason I didn't mention the year. It was 2014.
F*** Art Modell. He was an awful person and a worse owner. Seriously burn in hell.
Those that moved their franchises all deserve to burn. The worst one, to me, was Georgia Frontiere. She was Carol Rosenbloom's trophy wife. Carol Rosenbloom was a very good owner, who ended up owning the Rams through some slight of hand I won't go into. But, we were happy to have him in charge. And the Rams were almost always good when he was in charge. Then he died and Georgia became the owner. Worse, that was her main job. So it was really all about the money. She couldn't care less about the team winning. Of course she was never going to get a new paid for stadium in Southern California. LA never budged on that. So, since it was all about the money, she was romanced by St Louis that gave her everything. LA lucked into hiring Vermeil (who was considered old & not really on anyone's short list), and lucked into a former grocery store clerk named Kurt Warner. Also, even as they were leaving LA, some of the longshot players they drafted, along with the high picks they got from being terrible, turned into real players. And they won a Super Bowl. They fell into it accidentally, because they weren't even trying to be good. They were trying to run the team on the cheap & siphon as much cash as possible. And still won. Props to Vermeil. It was really galling to see Georgia lift the trophy, when she actually did everything possible to prevent the team from winning. Modell deserves the hate, but at least he was also trying to create a winning team & at least negotiated with Cleveland in (I think) reasonably good faith. If that's not true, I stand corrected. But Georgia's still the worst!
Funny you mention Georgia as the worst, because Stan Kroenke is unquestionably worse. At least St. Louis sold out every game until Stan drove the team into the ground culminating in the worst 5 year stretch in the history of the NFL.
I’d say he negotiated in bad faith, but that implies he negotiated at all…Now he’s got a fan base that won’t even show up for the NFC Championship game. Thank goodness the Super Bowl is pretty much exclusively for corporate sponsors and celebrities (most of whom live in LA) or the Super Bowl would’ve been a real embarrassment.
That said, I agree with you on the Rams just wanting to milk St. Louis for all it’s worth and the city did itself no favors with its asinine lease agreement.
My apologies if I came off as harsh. I don’t hold anything against Rams fans and I understand your hurt at the team moving well, but it pains me to see Kroenke get let off the hook time and again.
I didn't know any of this. Great stuff.
An honest question- would Belichick have done as well if he stayed with the Browns/ Ravens? Did he learn/change anything from his time there? I’m not saying I know the answer, but I think that’s an interesting question.
Same with Roger Clemens - does he do as well after leaving the Red Sox if they don’t kick him to the curb?
I bet there are lots of examples like this in sports. Does Brady do as well if he is a top 10 draft pick? Does Aaron Rodgers? What if Burrow started over Haskins at Ohio State? I wonder if Joe could do One of those columns where he lists some of these famous what if’s that caused great athletes or coaches to have a chip on their shoulder and how it motivated them
"Whatever it is, you wanted the guy to say something.” I have very little sympathy for reporters who dislike coaches or athletes just because they won't make their jobs easy. That's why I am a Big Fan of Belichick's press conferences.
"On to Cincinnati.."
I can't imagine the "sports pain" of having your team move from your hometown, although sometimes during those dark 29 years I felt kind of ok with contracting the Royals and just celebrating the memories!
@Sean B. It happened TWICE to Washington Senators fans.
Being from Seattle, the Sonics were my boyhood team. I was gutted when they were hijacked. I'm mostly over it now, though I do admit to some schadenfreude over the way Oklahoma City has squandered their generational talent over the last decade.
Some guy was saying that the official name of Ravens was picked after Belichick was fired so technically the Ravens did not fire him either. It was Baltimore Franchise Team (BFT). Or since it was no team, just list is as Modell's firing.
If Modell had kept Bellechik maybe we would all have been spared the Patriots dynasty. Or maybe not.