In 1961, at about the age I am now, he purchased the Cleveland Browns from a group of owners that included the team's namesake and coach, Paul Brown.
"I am cheering at his death, and frankly I don't care if anyone else thinks that makes me a bad person. My father worked his ass off to support us kids (I'm in my 30's now) and this football team was one of the few things that brought joy to his otherwise very hard life. Outside of my grandfather dying, when they announced that the Browns were moving it was the saddest I've ever seen him. For that alone, I will piss on his grave if its location ever becomes public knowledge." - A comment under the Deadspin post "Art Modell, 1925-2012: Grifter, Traitor, Model NFL Owner"
If you go back 16 years before Modell purchased the Browns you find a newly named Cleveland coach, 36 year old Paul Brown.
"A winner never whines." - Paul Brown
Only moving to Ohio in 2006, I realize that I'm an outsider to the Browns legacy. I grew up a Northern Virginia farm boy cheering on the teams in the Washington DC area. But that's not to say I know nothing of Cleveland because Cleveland, to an outsider, is just as much an ideal as it is a place. What ideal, depends on your perspective though.
The Cleveland I know is the cradle of the game of football. The Cleveland I know doesn't have lakes that catch on fire to fuel someone's feeble attempt at socially conscience comedy - they catch on fire because some truly fucking hard work was done there that caused that fire.
Art Modell was born in 1925. Paul Brown in 1908.
The age that both these men grew up in is so vastly different then our own. The Northeast Ohio both of them knew was the one that was big enough to be a regular bidder for the Olympics. It was an age that saw us to the moon on nothing more then something less then a C64 type powered computer and packs of smokes (as opposed to a Xbox 360 and fast food).
The very game of football was forged in Cleveland's backyards and she regularly won every title the game put in front of the city.
To track the playoff appearances of the Browns is the track the manufacturing prowess of this great country post WWII. 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1994... and 2002.
Only during the Ford and Carter presidencies did the Browns struggle, something I find amusing. The Reagan years saw a Mr. Bernie Kosar take the team to new heights. Some might say that the 1980s saw the first screws being removed from the United States mighty midwestern industrial complex.... That General Motors incesent penny pinching was what brought it down, but I say that Roger B. Smith's handling of General Motors during that time is still being (re)written. Yes.
Where was I?
Perhaps it's fitting that Cleveland lost a team in 1995. In a lot of ways it's like some old factory getting shutdown for operations in a far off land, just as many were during that time. As if the football gods wanted to book end what the game was (mud, piss, blood, sweat) before it turned completely into what it is now (domes, fake fields, pass interference, roughing the passer and challenge flags) Perhaps it's a bit of a mistake that the city was able to retain the teams history and restart the franchise in 1999. Perhaps that was just too soon.
What I see from my little corner of manufacturing in Ohio is the tilt and shift away from building things where labor is cheaper and long shipping timelines made sense. I personally see the thirst for domestic manufacturing coming back and have been part of meetings that prove the economic stupidity of moving things away. Now we face a different problem... we have forgotten how to do shit here.
But you know what? We can figure it out.
I recall a conversation I had with my boss shortly after Steve Jobs died. "Take a good look at what's on your desk," he said. "It's not going to change for the next 10 years." As soon as he said it, I nodded in complete agreement. I even jotted it down in my notebook.
A couple days later I brought this profound statement up with my father over the phone. Now, my father helped found what is now known as Skills USA / VICA. It's an organization that trained folks how to DO things. Ask an electrician, bricklayer, mason, pipe fitter, iron worker, welder, machinist... they probably know about VICA. My father ran it from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s.
His response to the comment my boss made about our desktops that I thought was so profound? Dismissive.
"No. Someone else will push things forward. Things will change. This is America, boy."
They will. It is.
I was up in Cleveland this past Sunday for the 13th opening game of the 2nd iteration of Paul Brown's Browns. I witnessed tens of thousands of fans scream their hearts out for a team that has its 3rd owner and 2nd version since the 1960s. An owner that walked into it willingly and seemingly has his head screwed on straight. It's the start of a new day in Cleveland. A fresh new day.
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