CLEVELAND, Ohio — Baltimore will host a birthday party this weekend, and some Browns fans can’t believe it.
Guests of honor at the Ravens’ 30th anniversary include Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, back to blitz the Browns one more time; Hall of Fame tackle Jonathan Ogden, forever a Cleveland bully; and former Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, who played 13 years for the Browns and worked in their front office before the team moved to Baltimore.
Oh, right. The Browns will be there, too. Call them the guests of coincidence ahead of their Week 2 matchup in Baltimore. Or you can call Cleveland the victims of Baltimore’s nasty homecoming prank.
Celebrate your stolen franchise? During this week of all weeks? How dare they!
I know how this looks through orange-and-brown-tinted glasses. Bring the Browns to town; show them what could’ve been. We stole your franchise. Look how well it’s going.
Ha, ha, ha.
But lost in the resulting outrage, per usual, is context. The Ravens announced a 30th anniversary celebration in March, two months before their schedule release. The announcement included no mention of the Ravens’ first home game, but it stands to reason they would circle the start of their season. And while Baltimore released a statement reiterating these realities Wednesday, I doubt every Clevelander read it.
Among those who did, I doubt they all believed the message. When your team plays mine, it’s hard to break through our biases. Just ask a neutral party.
“It’s funny because that isn’t the first thing that I think about, you know, not being from here, but I can understand how that looks,” Browns quarterback Joe Flacco said of Baltimore’s celebration on Wednesday. “And listen, they do these things, and I think you can take it however you want. If you’re from Cleveland, you can take it one way, and if you’re from Baltimore, you can say it’s not a big deal ...”
The former Ravens quarterback might be a double agent, but he also has a point. Perspective informs perception, and the Browns have spent 30 years looking up at Baltimore.
Might that influence certain fans’ reaction this week?
Here’s a test: Try reading this history lesson without getting upset.
After Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore in 1996, Newsome built one of the most stable franchises in football. His Ravens won two Super Bowls (2000, 2013) within 20 years of the move. They’ve only suffered eight losing seasons in 29 of existence. And they’ve won 37 of 52 matchups against the Browns.
During the same span, Cleveland leads the league in disappointment and draft busts. The Browns have appeared in just three playoff games since they returned to town in 1999. They’ve won one.
Are you mad yet? You have a right to be. The Browns had no reason to leave Cleveland until Modell invented one. The Ravens’ banners could easily hang in Huntington Bank Field. And while the new Browns have been mismanaged, their bad track record began with expansion, from which few teams build quickly.
As I’ve written before, I don’t think Browns fans dislike the Ravens enough. Their inception should draw Cleveland’s ire. But sometimes anger blinds us to reason. And in the case of Baltimore’s birthday party, I think some Browns fans are overthinking.
Put another way, I don’t think Baltimore is thinking about them this weekend. I don’t think Ravens fans are considering how their team arrived in town. They’re just celebrating it.
If anyone screwed the Browns this weekend, it was the schedule makers. Teams don’t make their own. That task falls on the league and, yes, storylines sell tickets. The Browns are a natural Baltimore birthday opponent.
Given the circumstances, this matchup feels intentional.
But I don’t think the Ravens had a say in it. I don’t hear much handwringing from the Cleveland players asked about it this week. And I don’t mean to be rude, but this week’s Dawg Pound whimpers sound like the type of conversation fans have when they don’t like talking about their football team.
When Lewis, Ogden and Newsome take the field this weekend, the Ravens will celebrate 30 years. The Browns will be forced to watch. And some fans will choose to get upset.
To those people, I would ask: Are the Ravens really punching down? Or is little brother looking for a fight?
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