And we shouldn’t let the passage of time dim our recollection.
Modell’s dastardliness in taking the Browns to Baltimore stands alone to this day, or maybe it stands right alongside the Dodgers vacating Brooklyn, as the greatest gut-punch to any fan base in sports history.
At least San Diego fans saw their devastation approaching. Residents even had a little say in the matter, choosing to reject a ballot initiative that would have built Chargers chairman Dean Spanos a stadium and kept their team.
Give the dissenters credit for standing up to a greedy owner and refusing to be fleeced, even though it cost them a civic treasure.
Cleveland fans, whose team was born in 1946, were given no such say. Not even a little one. They woke up one morning in 1995 to find Modell, whose team they had supported for more than three decades, giggling on a tarmac with Maryland governor Parris Glendening (Governor Hee Haw as famed Cleveland columnist Bill Livingston would dub him) announcing they no longer had a football team.
There had been no warning. In fact, Modell lied all the way to Baltimore, saying a planned renovation of old Cleveland Stadium would keep the team there, then declaring a moratorium on the subject.
In contrast, rumors of the Chargers heading up the coast had been rampant for years. There was time to prepare emotionally.
And then the bomb fell.
Browns fans know the pain.
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