Top 10 Reasons the Cleveland Browns Are Not Moving to London

The 1945 Cleveland Rams were World Champions, then moved to Los Angeles.  The Browns replaced the Rams in Cleveland. 

The 1995 Browns had a staunchly loyal fan base...and moved to Baltimore because they got a better deal there.  

Cleveland is no stranger to having franchises stolen by greedy ownership.  The NFL has moved franchises on two separate occasions.  The 1945 Cleveland Rams won the World Championship, and then moved to Los Angeles, thus providing an opportunity for the upstart Cleveland Browns to become the flagship of a new league, the All American Conference.

The Browns have been strongly supported by a ravenous group of Dawgs over the years, but they moved away in 1995 because Art Modell got a better deal from the City of Baltimore.  They were replaced in 1999 by the new Cleveland Browns.  I thought it was a great deal.  We got rid of Art Modell, and we only had to pay $400 Million dollars for a new stadium.  But truth to tell I miss the old stadium.   

The Browns are playing in London, England this week.  The League and the team want to pretend that it is a kind of special bowl game for us.  But make no mistake about it, what's going on here is that the NFL is preparing a London-based NFL fan base, with the intention of allowing one or more NFL teams to move to London in the next few years.  Could it be the Cleveland Browns?  Here are 10 reasons why they might not move, ranging from the most idiotic to the most realistic. 

10.  The team has an unbreakable lease!  I don't know how many times I've heard that, but I've never heard that from any attorney.  Just what is an unbreakable lease?  Ownership has access to some of the best legal minds in the country. They have to, as it was very difficult to keep Mr. Haslam out of jail over the Pilot Oil rebate scandal. Surely, the same clever lawyers will find some way to prove the City is in Breach of Contract and defend themselves from a countersuit by the City.  Put it this way, some of my very close friends are sports nuts, and attorneys, and they all say that the team would owe some money to the City, but bottom line, the team can be moved. 

9.  The NFL are done with moving franchises, and will oppose future franchise moves. Moving franchises is good for business because it allows teams to threaten to move unless they get sweetheart deals from their current host cities.  The NFL loves it when franchises move, and love it even more when they can extort money.  So heck no, they are not done. 

8.  The NFL would never permit the Browns to move.  What nonsense.  Because of the Pilot Oil diesel rebate scandal, Jimmy Haslam is radioactive.  The NFL would gladly get rid of Haslam in favor of even richer owners in London.  Jolly right. 

7.  The Browns are too strong of a franchise to move.  Really?  Forbes Magazine ranks the Browns as the 29th best franchise out of 32 (  Forbes on Cleveland Browns ).  .  Based on their dismal, awful terrible performance in 2017, the value of the franchise is decreasing significantly.  

6.  Mr. Haslam is so wealthy, that increasing the value of the Browns by a billion dollars would not tempt him. Hahahahaha!  I can't even respond to that.  

5. Mr. Haslam would be banned from the State of Ohio if he were to move the Browns. So what?  He is not a local owner.  He lives in Tennessee.  When he bought the Browns he promised to move to Cleveland to be a full-time owner.  Somehow, he forgot that promise and continues to live in Tennessee.  Quite a guy.  

4.  Los Angeles may be a disaster. Los Angeles went from zero teams to two, but on the other hand, they have never been strong supporters of the NFL.  The city failed to support the Chargers in the AFL, and also previously chased the Rams out of town to St. Louis, and the Raiders went back to Oakland after a gig in Los Angels.  Will the city ever embrace either the Rams or the Chargers?  Currently they struggle to get 25,000 fans to show up.  If the hostile reception continues after getting a new stadium in 2020, there may need to be a drastic solution.  In that case, I could see one of those teams moving.  

3.  Other teams have more to gain.  The Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills seem to be in worse long-term shape than the Browns, locked into smaller markets. There are other small market teams that are comparable, such as Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennesee and New Orleans. For a long time Jacksonville was considered the odds-on favorite to move, but recently they have become more stable under owner Shahid Khan.  Oakland wants to move, but they have Las Vegas on the radar.  

2. The Browns would probably have to be sold in order to move, and Mr. Haslam doesn't want to sell.   Because he's considered a pariah by the other NFL owners, they would probably try to force him to sell to new ownership in order to approve a move.  That's one good thing about the Pilot Oil scandal--it limits the power of Mr. Haslam to get his way.  

1. Ohio's Congressional Representatives would fight the NFL bitterly and try to take away the Antitrust exemption.  Losing their monopoly power is one thing that the NFL fears. It's worth billions of dollars to legally prevent anyone from competing against them.  Ohio would react angrily to being ripped off yet again by the NFL,  and it's politicians would fight hard and fight dirty. Would they have the same clout as in 1995?  It's hard to say, given the terrible product that now exists.  If they ever try to move the Browns again, Browns fans will go nuclear.  We will be lobbying politicians nationwide to remove the antitrust exemption--i.e., legalized extortion--and we will organizing boycotts against NFL advertisers.  Our rank and file will get the trucking companies to boycott Pilot Flying J, and support their competitors.  Hit them hard where it hurts--right in the pocketbook.

NFL, You Had Best Not Mess with the Dawg Pound!