Cleveland Browns Officially Broke This NFL Franchise After 27 Years
Updated: Jun 28, 2023
The Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens are one of the biggest rivals in the NFL and it has nothing to do with what has gone on the actual playing field.
In November of 1995, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell announced he would be moving the team to Baltimore. About a month later the Browns would play their last home game in Cleveland, and then they would become the Baltimore Ravens.
Cleveland didn’t have a football team for three years, and finally, the Browns came back as an expansion team in 1999.
Why Cleveland Is Still Mad At Baltimore?
The city of Cleveland is a football town, and it doesn’t matter if the team is 1-31 or heading to the playoffs the entire city is always behind them. When Modell took the Browns and moved them to Baltimore it was like the city was stabbed right in the back, and hatred for Modell and the Baltimore Ravens was formed.
Ask any Browns fan today, and they will still talk about how much they can’t stand Modell, and they are 100% right to feel that way. It just doesn’t hurt that team was taken, but the Ravens have won two Super Bowls, and the Browns have been the laughingstock of the NFL for the past 20 years.
The Browns and Ravens have met on the field a total of 48 times and the Ravens lead the series with a record of 35-13. The Browns have not done well against them on the field, but they officially broke the organization.
How Cleveland Broke The Ravens?
Last season Cleveland’s owner Jimmy Haslam gave quarterback Deshaun Watson a five-year 230 million dollar guaranteed contract. The NFL is known for players having signing bonuses and other partial guarantees but not the entire contract being guaranteed like other pro sports leagues.
Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti was not happy that Cleveland gave Watson a fully guaranteed deal because his quarterback Lamar Jackson was up for a new contract also.
Jackson has done more in the NFL than Watson winning the league MVP in 2019, and Jackson also hasn’t had any off-field issues as Watson had.
Jackson should be getting a huge payday from the Ravens, but that has not been the case. The Ravens do not want to pay Jackson, and now Jackson has requested a trade from the team.
Breaking: Lamar Jackson announced on social media that he requested a trade from the Ravens on March 2. pic.twitter.com/rXBinhczJh — ESPN (@espn) March 27, 2023
Haslam has been one of the worst owners in the NFL since he bought the Browns over 10 years ago, but he finally was able to break Bisciotti and the Ravens.
Bisciotti is about to lose out on a top-10 quarterback because he doesn’t want to give him money like the Browns did with Watson. Franchise quarterbacks don’t grow on trees, and now the Ravens are going to have to find a new one for the next four to five years and then go through this process again since the owner is scared to pay for them.
The Ravens have turned into one of the biggest jokes in the league with the way they treated Jackson, and the Browns don’t seem that bad anymore.
This could be the turning point that Cleveland was waiting for in the rivalry between the two. Even though the Browns broke the Ravens franchise off the field it is now time for them to break them on the field this fall.