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Looking at Losing: Presentations of the Media's Narrative of the Cleveland Browns' Relocation
Ist Teil von
International journal of the history of sport, 2012-12, Vol.29 (18), p.2575-2598
Ort / Verlag
Taylor & Francis Group
Erscheinungsjahr
2012
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Taylor & Francis
Beschreibungen/Notizen
On November 6, 1995, Art Modell announced his intention to relocate the National Football League's (NFL) Cleveland Browns to Baltimore following the season. After 4 months of civic activism from Cleveland's community and legal action from the city's politicians, Cleveland, the NFL and Modell agreed to a deal that allowed the long-time owner to honour his contract with Baltimore and simultaneously provided a NFL club to Cleveland to begin play in 1999. This settlement was unique because it allowed Cleveland to retain the naming rights, colours, logo and, most significantly, the history of the Browns. Media presentations of Modell's announcement during the 4-month period illuminated a complex symbiotic relationship between the press, the public and sports entrepreneurs. The local media castigated and vilified Modell for betraying Cleveland's community and disturbing the city's supposed 'renaissance', while the national media connected with Cleveland as a leading member of the dilapidated 'Rustbelt' in the new American economy. These interconnections led fans, followers and other pundits of the NFL to question the actions of football entrepreneurs and provided a platform at the turn-of-the twenty-first century for sustained criticism of the business of professional sports, franchise relocation and the widening social class divide in the NFL.