Russell Street Report 20 For 20 The Story That Changed Baltimore Forever

BREAKING NEWS: Browns Move to Baltimore

Sports teams move. I should know, I’m from St. Louis.

The St. Louis Browns baseball team moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles. The St. Louis Hawks basketball team moved to Atlanta. The St. Louis Cardinals football team moved to Arizona and as I write this, the St. Louis Rams are rumored to be heading back to Los Angeles.

Yes, sports teams move. I should know because I live in Baltimore, former home of the beloved and legendary Colts.

Prior to my move to Baltimore I worked at a television station in Dayton, Ohio and while there I reported on the Cleveland Browns. That team was beloved and legendary, too. The Browns lacked the winning tradition of the Colts, but there’s no disputing the die-hard passion Ohio football fans have for that franchise. I moved from there to work for WBAL-TV in Baltimore in 1994. It came as stunning news to me (and eventually everyone else) when I first learned the Browns had plans to move to Baltimore, too.

I received the initial tip while I was doing a fill-in shift on the WBAL Sports Line radio show on October 23, 1995. A caller told the show producer that he wished to speak to me off-air during a commercial break. That caller identified himself as a local businessman and sports fan. He told me he had some inside information on plans to bring Art Modell’s Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

The caller would identify himself only as “Chris.”

Over the next several days I had follow-up conversations with “Chris” and we eventually scheduled a face-to-face meeting at a restaurant in South Baltimore. He knew what I looked like from television, but I had no idea who to look for when I pulled into the restaurant parking lot. Turns out the restaurant he chose was closed that day and our two cars were the only vehicles in the parking lot, so by process of elimination that was “Chris” in the other car.

He got out of his vehicle and came to my window.

“I’m Chris,” he said. “Sorry, this place is closed. Follow me, I know another place.”

At this point I have serious doubts about the motives of my “source” and I begin to fear the worst as I follow his car to a nondescript bar a few miles away. We walked into a dimly lighted room with booths and tables. There’s no one else there but a bartender. “Chris” and I sit across from each other in a booth in a corner. He orders iced tea and pulls out a folder.

“Chris” then tells me his real name is Kevin. He proceeds to fill me in on his background and business history. He’s an Anne Arundel County guy, a University of Maryland graduate, a die-hard Baltimore sports fan and a mortgage broker with access to banks that loan large sums of money to businesses. He’s one of the “money men” in Art Modell’s plans to move to Baltimore, and he has the documents to prove it. The source is legit. The story is about to explode.

Armed with this powerful information and documentation, the WBAL-TV sports department embarked on a roller coaster ride of reports that thrilled Baltimore, shook Cleveland and stunned the nation.

My WBAL-TV co-worker Gerry Sandusky and I worked the story like a Baltimore sports version of Woodward and Bernstein (Writer’s Note: if you don’t know of the famed Washington Post reporter duo, please Google them and learn a great lesson in American journalism history).

With Sandusky’s NFL contacts, my connections in Ohio and the inside information of our Baltimore source, we led the nightly newscasts with reports that no other TV station, radio station or newspaper could touch. 1995 pre-dated Twitter, Facebook and widespread use of social media. Today, breaking news stories can be easily claimed, reproduced and “stolen” without real background work or attribution.

In 1995, Gerry and I were the sole source of information on what was a historic development.

At one point I called the NBC-TV affiliate in Cleveland and asked if they had gained any insight on the story on their end, and if so could we collaborate information. I’ll never forget the reaction of the sports director there who said to me: “We’ve heard this song and dance about Art Modell leaving for years. You’re chasing a ghost, man. We’re busy with the Indians in the World Series right now. Good luck with your story (click).”

Even in Baltimore there was skepticism and doubt.

While we reported the story, another TV station in town ran ads that said of our reports: “Don’t believe the hype,” and a sports anchor at another competing station referred to the reports of the Browns moving to Baltimore as “whistling past the graveyard.”

Cleveland radio stations called us daily. On one occasion, I was set up in what seemed like an attempted ambush. While on the air with a Cleveland talk show, discussing what I knew about the planned relocation, the host interrupted me and said he had someone with him in studio who disputed my reporting: it was Cleveland Mayor Michael White.

The mayor was furious to hear a reporter from Baltimore telling people in his city that their beloved Browns were skipping town. He directly disputed my credentials and scoffed at my information. As it turned out, it was Mayor White’s indifference to Modell’s request for a new football stadium that motivated the Browns owner to seek a new home for his team. As I respectfully told the mayor on that radio show, “I stand by my reporting. Don’t blame the messenger.”

We pushed the story across the goal line on November 3, 1995 and it was Baltimore’s mayor who gave us the final confirmation we needed.

WBAL-TV news director Dave Roberts stood by Sandusky and me throughout. At one point our general manager Phil Stolz stuck his head in our office and said: “You guys are right, right? I don’t have to worry about being embarrassed, right?” We assured him we weren’t being reckless. Still, there were many sleepless nights.

Then, one afternoon, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke confirmed to Dave Roberts in a phone call that our reporting was accurate and a press conference to announce the move had been scheduled. I quickly typed up a press release on station letter head and sent a fax to ESPN. Later that evening, ESPN anchor Bob Ley read that press release on the air to a world-wide audience. The Cleveland Browns were indeed moving to Baltimore and it was our news team that had broken the story.

The November 6, 1995 press conference was held on what was then a parking lot and is now the site of M&T Bank Stadium. Sandusky and I exchanged a few high fives between live reports that day. We could finally exhale from the stressful thrill ride we had endured.

After the press conference, I boarded a plane to Dallas to cover the NFL’s meetings the next day to address the Browns’ announced relocation. The NFL was back in Baltimore and the Ravens would soon take flight. To be on the leading edge of reporting that historic move is certainly a professional and personal joy. Whenever I host a Ravens post game show on WJZ-TV or I hear Gerry Sandusky doing play-by-play of a game, I can’t help but think of where we once were at the beginning of the story’s timeline.

20 seasons of Ravens football in Baltimore, and we trust there are many more to come.

Post Scripts

I did not speak directly with Art Modell in the time that I was reporting on the move of the Browns but we did have multiple personal conversations in the time that he owned the team here in Baltimore. We each shared our perspectives on what had transpired. Those are private conversations Art has taken to his grave and I will take to mine.

Cleveland received an expansion franchise and a sparkling new stadium that brought the “re-born” Browns back into the NFL in 1999. I lived and worked in Ohio as a journalist, and I believe without doubt those devoted fans deserve that team. They lost the Browns due to circumstances beyond their control. Baltimore is all too familiar with the scenario in how the city lost the Colts.

Kevin and I grew to become best friends and remain so to this day. What started as an anonymous phone tip 20 years ago became a brotherly bond. Kevin bought in as a Ravens charter PSL owner and season ticket holder, and I stop by his family tailgate parties on my way to the press box at home games. I’ve seen Kevin’s children grow up. He was a groomsman in my wedding in 2013. Our families are close and we are forever linked.

I owe my role in the Browns-to-Baltimore story to the guy I once only knew as “Chris.”