'stina is a shiny special one

Thank you New York Times. I almost forgot my joy in watching the Patriots lose the Superbowl.

Football season starts soon. This makes me happy, though this year, my household will have divided loyalties in some instances, as the AFC South plays the AFC North this year. You see, Graham is a Browns fan*.

Ordinary people wouldn't think that a match between a Browns fan and a Texans fan would be one of mutual understanding, but we get each other quite well due to the history of our respective teams. I'm actually quite familiar with the Cleveland Browns, and once upon a time, I devoted much ire and frustration at them and the rest of the Rust Belt ilk that made up the AFC Central. Before realignment, before expansion, the AFC Central was made up of the Houston Oilers, the Cleveland Browns, the Cincinatti Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Oilers being in there was a little geographically odd, but it made sense if you thought about those cities in the seventies and eighties. Contrasted to the flashy, obnoxious cities that were featured in the NFC East (New York, Dallas, Washington, and Philadelphia), the AFC Central cities were blue-collar, working men cities. Places where people wore hard hats to work and built the shit that keeps this country going. These were cities based on industry (steel in those northern cities, shipping and oil down here), and these cities were football cities. Here, the whole fucking town was pale blue in the fall and winter months. So twice a year, every year, I'd root hard against the Browns, Steelers and Bengals. I got to know (and hate) those teams pretty well.

Then came the lean years. And it happened to me and Graham roughly around the same time. Two evil, greedy NFL team owners, Bud Adams and Art Modell, fucked their cities over. Bud Adams in the early 90s insisted that the Astrodome needed to be redone, or else he was talking to Jacksonville, Florida about moving the team there. So the city of Houston, at much taxpayer expense, added more luxury boxes and ramps to the Dome. A few years later, he came back and told the city that he wanted a new stadium. The city pointed at the revamped Astrodome and said they couldn't afford it. Not good enough for Adams. So he traded away Warren Moon to Minnesota, drove his football team to the ground, and by the time he annonced he was moving the team to Tennessee, everyone in town was showing him the door. I went to a few games in 1996. It was bleak. The darkness of no football clouded over the city for seven years.

Cleveland's story was worse. In 1995, Modell didn't even bother to negotiate with the city. He just fucking moved the team. He made the announcment that the Browns were moving to Baltimore, and pretty much no one else had a say in the matter. Even worse, he made the announcment the day before the election on a ballot measure (that passed overwhelmingly) to redo their stadium. This is the wikipedia description of the days that followed:

Browns fans reacted angrily to the news. Over 100 lawsuits were filed by fans, the city of Cleveland, and a host of others. Congress held hearings on the matter. Actor/comedian Drew Carey returned to his hometown of Cleveland on November 26, 1995, to host "Fan Jam" in protest of the proposed move. A protest was held in Pittsburgh during the Browns' game there but ABC, the network broadcasting the game, declined to cover or mention the protest. It was one of the few instances that Steelers fans and Browns fans were supporting each other, as fans in Pittsburgh felt that Modell was robbing their team of their rivalry with the Browns.

Virtually all of the team's sponsors immediately pulled their support, leaving Municipal Stadium devoid of advertising during the team's final weeks.

The 1995 season was a disaster on the field as well. After starting 3–1, the Browns lost 3 straight before the news broke about the team's impending move cut the legs out from under the team. They finished 5–11, including a 2–7 record in the nine games after the announcement. When fans in the Dawg Pound became unruly during their final home game against the Cincinnati Bengals, action moving towards that end zone had to be moved to the opposite end of the field. Several fans set fires in the stands, especially in the "Dawg Pound" section and assaulted security officials and police officers who tried to quell the growing fires. The Browns won, the only game the team won after the news of their move got out.

Cleveland got back in the NFL faster than Houston. I think it's because they got screwed over more than Houston did. The NFL didn't let Modell take the Browns name, stats or history with him to Baltimore. He was only allowed to take the players' and staff's contracts with him. They quickly set up a trust for Cleveland, and announced a new team and new stadium would be there within three years. An expansion team arrived in 1999.

The NFL tends to add two expansion teams at a time, in order to retain a bit of balance, and in the late 90s they announced that there would be another expansion team to balance the Browns. In 1999, there were two cities competing to get the new team: Houston and Los Angeles. A guy named Bob McNair in Houston immediately started efforts to raise money and lobby for the team to come to Houston. He was going to build a state-of-the-art facility for the team to play in, right next to the Astrodome. It was considered a massive long shot. LA had lost not one, but TWO football teams, the Raiders and the Rams, in the previous decade and the NFL was anxious to return to the second largest media market in the country. Michael Ovitz in LA was pledging $750 million for building a new stadium to house a team there. It looked bleak for Houston. Then, ANOTHER developer in LA threw his hat in the ring. Instead of buidling a new stadium, he wanted to revamp the old Coliseum. The NFL announced that they were giving the franchise to LA on the condition they could work stuff out, else it was going to Houston. LA people started fighting with each other, the city refused to put tax money into the efforts, and Houston kept trudging along.

In 1999, I had finished my coursework for my masters and I was done with law school. For the first part of that year, I had a really awesome contract job that was supposed to turn into a job-job, but that fell through. I decided to try my luck in DC, so I put my work clothes in my car, drove to DC and crashed in a friend's house for two months. I hit the pavement. I sent my resume to everyone and anyone I could think of. No luck. I hit a major depression and stopped talking to people. I accumulated credit card debt for the first time in my life. My friend wanted me to move out of her house. Someone broke into my car and stole my radio. I didn't know what to do. On October 7, 1999, I was sitting on the metro, dejected and sad and feeling lost and alone. I was looking for a sign on what to do. Someone in the seat in front of me was reading the sports page of the Washington Post. The headline said "Houston to Get NFL Team." I went back to my friend's house, packed my stuff, and drove back to Houston without telling anyone.**

I bought a Personal Seat License for myself and my father when they went on sale, even though I was living 1800 miles away at the time. On September 8, 2002, in what was one of the best games I've ever been to, EVER, I went to the very first Houston Texans game with my father, and we beat the evil Cowboys 19-10. I've had season tickets ever since.

We'll start the season by going to the Ravens game on Graham's birthday. He says he's going to wear Cleveland colors and heckle the hell out of the Ravens, as any good Browns fan should. His hatred of the Ravens is only met by his disdain for the Steelers. We will already have played them in Pittsburgh on September 7.

The Cleveland Browns will host the mighty Houston Texans in a late November match up, and Graham and I will travel to the freezing confines of Browns Stadium to witness the event. I fear I'll be very alone. If the Texans do anything to mess up the Browns playoff chances, my boyfriend may very well not speak to me until after football season is over. He thinks that this year may be their year. They played, very, very well last year, and they made some off-season deals that may improve matters. It's hard being in the AFC. I mean, Cleveland went 10-6 last year and didn't make the playoffs. Houston went 8-8 and came in last place. As the season progresses, and as the playoff picture materializes, we could very well be in a position where we're rooting against each other quite regularly. A Pittsburgh win could be awesome for me, but devastating for Graham. A Jacksonville loss could make Graham's playoff dreams come true, but kill mine. We could very well be fighting tooth and nail towards the end of the season. And lord help us if we have ever to face each other in the play offs.

It'll be an interesting season. I hope we both survive it...

*

(not an actual picture of Graham, but close enough at football season time).

**Of course, three months later, I packed the same car and moved to Berkeley, California, where I stayed for two years, but that's another story.

Tags: 'stina, football, graham, history, sports