‘The Move’ Still Big in Cleveland

The Move Still Big in Cleveland"The Move" still big in Cleveland

Posted By: County Sports Network April 20, 2020

‘The Move’ Still Big in Cleveland

By STEVE KING

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I wrote in my last post that Kevin Byrne was a good guy during his long time in the NFL who built bridges, not walls with the people around him.

That’s true, and it’s why I liked – and still like – the former media relations director of both the original Browns and then the transplanted franchise, the Baltimore Ravens, for a combined total of 39 years.

But despite all that, the Cleveland native and Lakewood St. Edward High School graduate, who retired recently, was not a guy to make mad. Though it was a quiet one, he had a temper, and it would come to the surface when he was provoked, especially about an issue that was near and dear to his heart.

And there was – and still is – no doubt about the fact that the topic about which he is most passionate is the election – or, the lack thereof, as it were – of his good friend, former Browns and Ravens owner Art Modell. Byrne strongly believes that Modell belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The people who live in Ohio and/or follow the Browns believe just as strongly that Modell has absolutely no business being an inductee.

Every time since 1999 when the expansion Browns and Ravens have played, especially in Baltimore, the tension over that issue between Byrne and media members – and others — from Cleveland was so thick that you needed a diamond drill to cut through it.

Longtime Browns beat writer Tony Grossi, formerly with The Plain Dealer, or whatever they’re calling it these days, and now ESPN Cleveland, took the brunt of that ice storm. That, of course, is because Grossi has Cleveland’s vote on the HOF Selection Committee and has been vehement publicly in trying to sway his fellow voters that Modell does not belong because of his having moved the Browns.

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Byrne counters that The Move was necessary because of the refusal of Cleveland civic leaders to give Modell a new stadium, just like the Indians got a new stadium and the Cavaliers got a new arena, both in 1994. Otherwise, Byrne contends that Modell’s resume, especially with his work in the TV contracts and helping to orchestrate the completion of the NFL’s merger with the AFL in 1970 when he volunteered the Browns to go the AFC to balance the two conferences at 13 teams each, and helped convince Pittsburgh Steelers Art Rooney Sr. to also take his team, makes him HOF-worthy.

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Yes, I agree with Byrne that that part of Modell’s resume is impressive enough for induction – but only if The Move is excluded, which can’t be the case. It is a candidate’s total resume. This is not a cafeteria where you can go through the line and pick and choose only what you want to take. And The Move, because Modell worked secretly through back channels to accomplish it and was not open and honest – publicly – with Cleveland officials, makes the whole thing despicable and voids his candidacy forever.

In that way, then, I stand firmly with Grossi and would have done exactly what he has done if I were in his place. And I have told him that.

But at the same time, I have not let that affect my relationship with Byrne.

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