Maryland Gov. Parris Glendenning celebrated the day he stole the Browns from Cleveland with a sweetheart stadium deal. (neosportsinsiders.com)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
(First in a series.)
The Great Sports Pause of 2020 has created an obvious void in our daily sports conversations. It’s being filled by lists. Gobs and gobs of lists.
Instead of debating LeBron James’ chances of claiming an NBA Championship with a third team or calculating Frankie Lindor’s trade value after his latest three-hit game, we’re left with ranking the greatest games we’ve witnessed or most under-rated players named Joe.
With more than 40 years in the business of covering Cleveland sports, I feel qualified to compile some personal lists from my own archives. This is one of them.
Events I Wish Would Have Turned Out Differently
1.Art Modell’s ‘I had no choice.’
On a brilliantly sunny early November day in 1995, I waited in a massive parking lot behind Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore for the arrival of Art Modell to officially announce he was taking the Browns out of Cleveland. My gut ached. Those minutes before the scheduled outdoor news conference were spent hoping some 11th-hour snafu would cancel the clandestine deals that were reported for weeks.
Finally, a parade of black Cadillac limousines loaded with Maryland and Baltimore politicians and Modell family members, lawyers and advisors, snaked inside the parking lot. It looked like a funeral procession. The only thing missing was the hearse.
When the procession stopped near the wooden stage erected for the occasion, Modell emerged with sons David and John, and other accessories to this all-time sports crime. Befitting the grimness of the day, they all wore the darkest suits.
Three indelible images:
Smarmy Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening waving paperwork above his head and declaring to a few hundred cheering Baltimore football fans who showed up, “We have a deal!”
A red-faced and guilt-ridden Modell, then aged 70, pleading to Northeast Ohio media, “I had no choice.”
And Modell answering a final question about the team name as he exited the stage. “They’ll be the Baltimore Browns,” he snapped.
Cleveland’s history of heartbreak on the field may be unmatched by any city. But all the game losses added together will never exceed the hurt of this one event.
2.Indians blow Game 7 of 1997 World Series
With the Indians up, 2-1, heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, Major League Baseball officials rushed to prepare the visitor’s locker room in Pro Player Stadium for the traditional post-game celebration of the World Series champions.
Aides sprinted inside to tack on plastic sheets to protect the lockers from champagne uncorked from magnums. I was 10 feet from the locker room door when a cordon of security officers ushered in Indians owner Dick Jacobs. Shortly behind were men in suits carrying the distinctive champion’s trophy bearing the flags of every MLB team.
Needing just three outs for the Tribe’s first World Series championship since 1948, ace reliever Jose Mesa allowed two singles and then a sacrifice fly to right field by career .255 hitter Craig Counsell to send the game into extra innings.
I knew everything else would be anti-climactic when the baseball suits made an about-face and lugged the plastic sheets, the trophy and Jacobs the hell out of there.
The Florida Marlins – all of five years old as a baseball franchise – won the title in the 11th inning when a Tony Fernandez error on a routine grounder unraveled the far superior Tribe.
3.The Drive
On Jan. 11, 1987, the Browns were 5 minutes, 32 seconds from their first Super Bowl appearance. They led the Denver Broncos, 20-13, after a Brian Brennan 48-yard catch, pivot and scamper for a touchdown.
When Denver returner specialist Ken Bell muffed the ensuing kickoff and fell on the ball inside the 2-yard line, Cleveland reporters in the cramped Municipal Stadium press box hurriedly contacted travel agents to book flights to Pasadena, CA.
Under a thunderous, relentless roar inside the cavernous stadium, Denver quarterback John Elway trotted pigeon-toed to the Broncos huddle in the end zone. For the first time in his young career, which already was illustrious, Elway was the underdog.
No way does he lead his team to the end zone, right? Way.
In seven plays, Elway had the Broncos across mid-field. On the ninth play, Elway was sacked by nose tackle Dave Puzzuoli to set up third-and-18. After Elway converted it on a 20-yard pass to Mark Jackson, every one of the 79,915 in attendance knew it was a lost cause.
Elway completed the epic, tying drive on a 5-yard TD pass to Jackson. The deflated Browns won the coin toss in overtime but punted after three plays. The Broncos won it, 23-20, on their first possession when bare-footed Rich Karlis kicked a field goal from 33 yards directly over the left upright. Under today’s rules, the kick would have been reviewed by replay.
4.The Fumble
One year and six days after the Drive, the Browns and Broncos met in a rematch in Denver’s rickety Mile High Stadium.
The Browns gifted Elway a 21-3 halftime lead with a series of turnovers and dropped passes. In a breath-taking third quarter display, Bernie Kosar led the Browns to three touchdowns. Another TD tied the game, 31-31, early in the fourth quarter. Earnest Byner was a wild man running and catching, setting up two touchdowns and scoring two himself.
Denver went ahead, 38-31, and Kosar and Byner roared back, starting from their 24. With less than 2 minutes to go, the Browns had the ball at the Broncos 8-yard line. Byner got the call on a draw play and headed for the end zone. Cornerback Jeremiah Castille poked the ball loose and fell on it at the 2.
Denver conceded a safety a few plays later to account for the final score of 38-33.
After the game, Byner solemnly answered every question about the fumble.
5.Red Right 88
On Jan. 4, 1981, the Browns hosted the Oakland Raiders in an AFC playoff game. It was the coldest day I’ve ever covered a game – 4 degrees with 20 mph winds and a minus-20 wind chill reading.
A newbie on the Plain Dealer coverage team, I was forced to view the first half from a frozen wooden chair outside the overloaded press box. Somebody handed me a cup of hot chocolate after the first quarter. When I took a sip, it froze instantly on my mustache.
I thought the Browns were in trouble when backup quarterback Paul McDonald wore rubber scuba gloves when holding on place-kicks. Never seen that before or since.
Alas, usually reliable kicker Don Cockroft, playing with torn cartilage in his left (plant) knee, missed two field goals and an extra point, keeping the Raiders ahead, 14-12, in a brutal battle of frozen wills.
Befitting their Kardiac Kids nickname, the Browns drove for a winning score behind quarterback Brian Sipe’s charismatic leadership. From the Raiders’ 13 – directly in front of what would years later be coined the Dawg Pound -- with less than a minute to go, coach Sam Rutigliano called a pass play on second down with the instruction to Sipe to “throw it to the blonde in the mezzanine” if the intended receiver, Dave Logan, was covered.
I was standing on the Browns sideline, which then was on the north side of the field, shivering with excitement. By then, I was assigned the story to reconstruct the winning drive.
Sipe looked left for Logan, then turned to his right and saw Ozzie Newsome breaking to the middle of the end zone. Sipe’s pass was intercepted by safety Mike Davis.
You know the phrase “the silence was deafening”? It’s not just a figure of speech. I heard 77,655 roaring fans go dead quiet in the snap of a frozen finger.
6.The Shot
The 31-year anniversary of Michael Jordan’s winning shot over Craig Ehlo has been relived ad nauseam in “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s ongoing documentary of Jordan’s last season with the Chicago Bulls in 1989.
I don’t even remember what my Plain Dealer assignment was on that day in Richfield Coliseum. All I recall was the locker room was a morgue after the game, which made the Cleveland Cavaliers truly the Cadavers on that day.