Quote:Umm no it's not. We're playing in the same city in front of the same fans. And either way if Art didn't move we would have built him a new stadium or when we came back it way it was gonna be a new/different stadium so that point is moot. I mean I don't get your reasoning to be honest.

 

Okay, we'll just ignore the fact that the team that earned all the history played in Baltimore for 3 seasons while no team was playing in Cleveland.  The entire organization was active, and still is, in Baltimore. 

 

The reasoning isn't that difficult to understand.  The Browns didn't go on some hiatus for 3 seasons.  They simply left the city they were in and moved to greener pastures.  The Ravens didn't inherit the Colts history when they arrived in Baltimore.  The Colts took it with them.  The Cardinals didn't leave their history in St. Louis when they moved to Arizona, and the Rams didn't assume that history when they back filled their spot in Missouri.  When the Oilers moved to Tennessee, and the Texans replaced them in Houston, the team didn't acquire the Oilers history.

 

The league made a concession to the city of Cleveland because of the long history there, but the bottom line here is that the Cleveland Browns are an expansion franchise that entered the league in 1999, assuming the history the Baltimore Ravens forfeited in order to get out of there.

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