The Browns Are Back.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: Cleveland Browns football club - Brief Article

WHAT'S WORSE: being a man without a country or a football fan without a team? The latter travesty ends this year because the Browns are back in business.

When those beloved Browns hightailed it from Cleveland to Baltimore three years ago, it marked a sad watershed for professional football. Even in these modern-day times of unprecedented greed and gall, never had so successful an NFL franchise opted to abandon such a loyal city. Every football Sunday for nearly a half-century, Cleveland Municipal Stadium had been jam-packed with 80,000 of the best and truest fans the sport has ever known. Luckily for Browns' boosters, there were still a couple of years left on the lease when the club departed. So, as part of the deal brokered by the Cleveland city fathers and the league, turn coat owner Art Modell could move his club only if he left behind the team name, colors, and records. Moreover, Cleveland was assured of being awarded the next expansion franchise. The wait is over; the new Browns begin play this summer.

More important than the preservation of the team records, at least from a personal standpoint, is that the Browns' name and uniform have been preserved for Ohio. All the recent shifting of National Football League franchises has resulted in the absurdity of clubs taking their helmet logos, uniforms, and nicknames to a new location.

In the Browns' case, however, the shift to Baltimore wrought the purple-clad Ravens. The expansion Browns will be dressed like their forefathers. This is vital since their attire is unique in NFL annals. For me, to a large degree at least, the team doesn't make the uniform, the uniform makes the team. The lone NFL franchise with a color for a nickname (although they technically are named after their founding owner and head coach, Paul Brown), the Browns nevertheless hardly ever play in brown jerseys. Instead, they wear white, sparsely trimmed in orange and brown. On their helmet, the Browns have no logo. This is true of no other club. Cleveland's headgear is orange, with a white stripe trimmed in brown on either side.

Pro football's unusual uniform roles allowed the Browns to be white for most games. Baseball, basketball, and hockey command that the home teams wear white and the road clubs wear dark. The NFL, however, permits the home team to pick. In the old days, practically every football club opted for colored jerseys at home, except for the Browns and Dallas Cowboys. Thus, Cleveland and Dallas selected...