If you're a Cleveland Browns fan, you should be delighted that
Art Modell moved his team to Baltimore two years ago. If he
hadn't, here's what you'd be facing this year: another season in
ramshackle Cleveland Stadium with no franchise quarterback and a
nondescript coach.
Instead, you're a year away from a preseason date with the
Cowboys. You have a new stadium under construction. You will
have an ownership group, no matter which one of the six
candidates is awarded the franchise, with some of the deepest
pockets in sports.
In addition the Browns will have two distinct advantages the
Jaguars and the Panthers lacked when they entered the NFL in
1995. Those two teams picked in a quarterback-poor draft, while
Cleveland could get a franchise passer (Kentucky's Tim Couch or
Washington's Brock Huard, if either comes out after his junior
season). Also, with no competition from another expansion team,
the Browns will be able to select the top players from a pool
made up of at least five players from each of the 30 NFL teams.
Jacksonville and Carolina had to split the pot, meaning each got
14 of the best unprotected players from the 28 teams then in the
league. Says Falcons coach Dan Reeves, "Whoever buys this team
is going to have some incredible advantages that no expansion
team has ever had."
Issue date: August 17, 1998
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