I'm done with the Cleveland Browns and the NFL

[Tribetime]

The new owner has given millions to the Bush and Romney campaigns . His father started Pilot corporation and his brother is the republican Govenor of Tennessee. The NFL won't let anyone with gambling ties own a team, but pay of politicians with millions for political favors is okay. I just can't root for the Browns anymore, this is not the Paul Brown blue collar Browns team I grew up with . Its now a business for profit by paying min wage to his employees Donald Trump type attitude that is killing this country and making the spread between the rich and poor more pronounced than ever. I am now myself working for $8 hr with no benefits, 4 years ago I had my own business with 10 employees. this will continue to spread as long as people like this can buy politicians.

[Pizz]

1. I wonder if perhaps

Last edited Sun Aug 5, 2012, 03:35 PM - Edit history (1)

all the Black stars on the Browns would ever
question their owner's decision to support a political
candidate who feels no compassion at all to the plight
of minorities and the poor not to mention the middle class?
Then again if anyone knows of a progressive owner of a
professional sprts franchise, please advise. Mark Cuban?
Maybe 2or3?

[WCGreen]

6. Right after Modell left the scene...

I was working for and the Treasure of the Cuyahoga Democratic Party. When Lee Fisher was running against Bob Taft for Governor in 1998, I suggested that we point out the fact that Taft had received over $15k in donations from Modell.

I worked up a Baltimore Ravens schedule with Taft's name and the fact he received $15k from Modell.

Lee Fisher's campaign didn't want anything to do with it.

I tried to get some money to print it up and hand it out during the Cleveland Indians Play offs.

I bring this up because this is why democrats loose. They always want to be the nice guy. Modell had just moved the team and it would have been perfect.

By the way, I went to the second to last home game at the old stadium after they announced they were moving and I thought the fans were going to tear down the place.

[loli phabay]

14. As long as they get paid they probuably dont care.

[Jamaal510]

2. I feel sorry for Browns fans.

It's obvious that the owner of the team prioritizes profits over winning. With all that money, surely he could've put together a more quality team. He could've paid big bucks for some stars in order to make the team good again and even win a Super Bowl or two, but instead he donates to the Scrooge McDucks of America just so he can fatten his own pocketbook.

This is just my opinion, but I feel sort of the same way about the Raiders. I've been a Raiders fan all my life, but I recently found out that the late Al Davis donated to a few Goppers in the past. I don't know what his son's politics are, but that made me feel a little guilty about buying tickets to their games. But yeah...unfortunately, a lot of these professional team owners do happen to be Republicans. They're steady making money off of working-class Americans, and then donate to causes that are at odds with our interests.

[HiPointDem]

3. all the teams are like that, and have been for years. not only are they owned by moguls, they

force the taxpayers to build their fucking stadiums for them.

[WCGreen]

7. Privatize the benefits and socialize the costs....

that's how the GOP looks at the world.

[Tribetime]

8. I listened to the local sports radio talking

about how such a hard worker he must be to be pumping gas at 14 and rise to chairman of the board by age 20 (his dad owning the company had nothing to do with it) and how being such a great businessman would mean he could turn the Browns around also.....I worked hard too as have millions and millions of others and we're not rich. Hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is not what it was 50 yrs ago. Thanks mainly to the death of unions.


This guy made his money off of the hard work of others paying them min wage......the republican way

[Pizz]

17. So sad

That most of the working stiffs in this country were not paying
attention when the assholes when they started to dismantle Unions.

"Roth played it beautifully"Right wingers Kept distracting union workers with social issues:
Law and Order, Gay issues, Welfare Queen shit, all stuff which really had little
to do with their real world. I blame union leaders for most of it.

[Tribetime]

4. that was Randy Lerner who just sold the team

I could live with that, its entertainment. But I feel so strongly about this new owner I could never enjoy watching them as lomg as he is the owner. I can find other things to do on Sunday

[WCGreen]

5. I agree whole heartedly..

They get all sorts of special deals and financial consideration and then wail about people getting help from the government.

Our new stadium sucks. It costs to much to go and see them play and

[dogknob]

9. Don't know if this is still the case, but...

...when the NFL opened up their official office in Washington D.C. about 2 years ago, Rachel did a piece on it.

She showed that The San Diego Chargers donate more money to politics than all of the other teams in the NFL combined.

Their owner, Alex Spanos, is a legendary brigand of the Pacific Rim who owns most of Stockton, CA. He had a sweetheart deal with the city of San Diego where if a home game failed to sell out, the city would pick up the tab to buy the unsold tickets, thereby avoiding a TV blackout. After the 2008 collapse, the city decided it couldn't afford that anymore and the local reaction to the first TV blackout was fierce. Now Spanos is back to the old tactics of threatening to move the team every year unless he gets a spiffy new stadium like the Padres have -- built with public funds, of course.

We're building a new downtown library instead.

I will personally buy everyone involved with the San Diego Chargers a one-way ticket to Stockton if they promise to go away and never come back. Local demigod Junior Seau's recent suicide has a lot of hardcore Chargers fans scratching their heads these days -- wondering how important football really is.

ComiCon brings more money into San Diego's economy in a single weekend than an entire season of Chargers home games. The fact that we didn't lose ComiCon to Aneheim or Las Vegas -- and that we didn't build Spanos a new stadium -- gives me hope that people are beginning to wake up a little.

*Although the stories are now a little dated, I recommend anyone interested in how sports moguls pillage local economies give Howard Cosell's I Never Played The Game a read.

[Tribetime]

10. I guess its widespread throughout the pro sports..thanks

I was naive to think this was new. Screw the owners, they surely screwed us. I'm jealous of Green Bay. When the Browns left before I found other things to do Sunday until they came back....now with this owner I don't care if they're playing or not ..I have no interest anymore.

[dogknob]

15. Cosell's book was written when Al Davis was city-hopping the Raiders.

He spends much of the book biting the hand that fed him for many years.

Pro boxing also gets a pounding with Howard's POV on the infamous 1982 Boom-Boom Mancini match, which resulted in the death of Mancini's opponent, Duk Koo Kim. Kim's mother committed suicide shortly afterward, as did the fight's referee.

[woolldog]

11. You could always become a steeler's fan *

[Scuba]

12. The publicly-owned Green Bay Packers welcome you as their newest fan!!

[A Simple Game]

13. I remember hearing a story on the radio a while back that the NFL

passed a rule(or something) that no more NFL teams could be community owned. Not sure of the details, I didn't catch the whole story.

I don't follow the NFL much anymore since Jones bought the Cowboys. Can't stand that man.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. You are correct...

The Packers are and will remain the only community-owned franchise in the NFL.

Socialism Rules!