Browns Most "Snakebit" Franchise of All-Time

When I was browsing through sites to think of  a story to write this morning, I came across NFL.com's ranking of The Ten Most Snakebit Franchises of All-Time. I cracked up seeing the winner (?) of this list, as the Cleveland Browns were ranked #1. Even the hated sportswriter, Tony Grossi from The Cleveland Plain Dealer, who annually campaigns against voting former Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had to laugh and say, "at least we're #1 in something!"

From plays with their own names ("The Fumble" and "The Drive"), Cleveland has historically been able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over and over again. The two biggest daggers in the city's heart might have been when the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens and when all Cleveland fans had to watch five years later when the former Browns now Ravens win Super Bowl 35.

Should we Ravens fans have any sympathy with the city from whence our team came? For the life of me, I cannot think of any reason to, given the fact that they hate Baltimore and Art Modell as bad as anybody an hate anything or anybody. Modell deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, not for what he did for the Ravens, but for what he did for the Browns as well as the NFL. Their continuous blocking of his induction is an embarrassment to the city of Cleveland and their fans and until they wake up and recognize the guy for what he did while there, not focus on the reasons he left, Baltimore fans will continue to ridicule them as they fight every season to stay out of the basement of the AFC North.