The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy, sometimes referred to as "The Move", was the decision by then Browns owner Art Modell to move a National Football League team from its longtime home of Cleveland, Ohio, to Baltimore, Maryland, for the 1996 NFL season.
Subsequent legal actions saw a unique compromise that would later set a precedent in American professional sports: Modell would be able to retain the Browns' existing player and staff contracts, but his team officially would be an entirely new franchise in Baltimore, later named the Baltimore Ravens. Meanwhile, the Browns' name, history, and archives would stay in Cleveland, and a new Browns team would begin play in 1999 after a nominal three-year period of "deactivation".
Read more about Cleveland Browns Relocation Controversy: Early Stages of The Move, Announcing The Move, Settlement, Aftermath, Effect On Teams in Other Sports Leagues, See Also
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“It is a condition that confronts us—not a theory.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)