CLEVELAND (WJW) — The Fox 8 I- TEAM has found a new filing in federal court by the Cleveland Browns asking to move ahead on their lawsuit against Cleveland in the hope of clearing a path to move to Brook Park.
The Browns filed the lawsuit in federal court in October seeking clarity on the Modell Law, which originally restricted sports teams from moving. The Browns want the Modell Law declared unconstitutional.
The City of Cleveland asked the federal judge on June 27 to “hold deadlines in abeyance” and issue a stay in the federal case. The city’s motion was filed a short time after state lawmakers made an amendment to the Modell Law allowing sports teams to move as long as they stay in Ohio. The federal court granted the stay, but the Browns now say, in a federal motion filed July 10, that the city is still trying to enforce the Modell Law in county court.
I believe they are the only original team to never to go to a super bowl.
Not quite, the Lions also haven’t been to a SB and they are an original NFL team. The Browns technically aren’t an original NFL team, they were started as part of the “All-American Football League” in the 40s. That league folded, but the NFL absorbed the Browns, 49ers, and OG Colts from the AFFL. (This was all before the the AFL merger, which brought many of the current AFC teams into the league)
It turns out that Cleveland did have an early NFL team, the Rams, which won the NFL championship in the 1945, then immediately left for Los Angeles. The Browns were born in the aftermath of that.
Plus, technically Art Modell moved those Browns to Baltimore, where they did win a SB. The NFL may have forced Modell to keep the Browns name and colors in Cleveland, but the team went intact to Baltimore and the players finally went on to finally do it.
(Although now that I look closer, I think the roster had pretty much turned over by the time the Ravens won the SB, so there may not have been anyone left on that team who came from Cleveland)
Oof. I didn’t know that.