UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, January 18, 1996
3B
Browns' fate still in debate
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Saying he was ready to get on with his life, Art Modell wants a green light to move the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore as soon as possible. That heated up speculation today that a compromise was in the works to move another team to Cleveland.
Newspapers in Florida and Ohio reported that talks between Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer and Cleveland officials have intensified. Glazer, who wants a new stadium in Tampa, declined to comment as he entered the NFL owners meeting today.
Cincinnati, Arizona and Seattle also have been mentioned as candidates for relocation.
Cleveland fans who traveled to Atlanta to make one final pitch to keep their team were joined outside the meeting by a small contingent from Tampa.
"We're devastated. We all think we're about to lose our team," said Mike Whittington, holding a "Hey Bucs, I Love You Man" sign as he stood with about 35 Buccaneers fans.
More than 160 Cleveland fans made a 16-hour bus trip to Atlanta, where NFL owners were meeting at an airport hotel to discuss the Brown's proposed move.
"We're definitely the best fans in the world," said John Thompson, the highly-visible Cleveland fan known as Big Dawg. "To you 29 owners, I just have to say, 'Please give your heart and give your loyalty to Cleveland the way we have given it to you.'"
Mayor Michael White led the Cleveland delegation in a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening and presented a petition with more than 2.2 million signatures urging the Browns to stay in their home of 50 years.
Modell, though, claims to have more than emotion on his side. In a two-hour session Tuesday night with
the NFL's Stadium and Finance committees, Modell and four other team officials tried to explain how a franchise that has consistently played to sellout crowds lost $21 million the past two years and millions more since he purchased Cleveland Stadium in 1974.
At least one owner appeared swaved by Modell's argument.
"I wish the politicians had acted earlier," said Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots said. "That was quite a compelling story he told in there."
Another owner, Robert Tisch of the New York Giants, said Modell had left most of the financial arguments to his attorney, Robert Weber, but had spoken to the committees about his desire to have a quick resolution of the heated issue.
"He was emotional," Tisch said. "He would like to get his life set as early as possible in 1996. He has a wife, children and grandchildren involved in this decision."
Modell declined to speak with reporters either before or after Tuesday's meeting, avoiding the high-profile tactics of his opponents in Cleveland who have gone to the court in an attempt to hold the Browns to the last three years of their stadium lease.
Largely because of unresolved legal issues, the owners did not plan to vote on the issue until after the entire group met yesterday to hear one-hour pitches from Modell and a Cleveland delegation that included White, Ohio Gov. George Voinovich and business leaders.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is not expected to make a formal recommendation to the owners until a March meeting in Palm Beach, Fla.
"You can't take up the Browns move in a vacuum," league spokesman Joe Browne said. "There's a lot of other teams out there rumored to be moving."
One NFL source said a possible
compromise was to leave the Brown's name, logo and colors in Cleveland and allow Modell to take his franchise to Baltimore with a new nickname. That would clear the way for another team to move to Cleveland, where voters have approved a $176 million tax package to renovate the aging, 80,000 stadium that Modell said was inadequate.
With two teams moving from Los Angeles last year and two others plotting changes this year — Houston has signed a deal to shift to Nashville, Tenn., in 1998 — the entire subject of franchise relocation was addressed by the owners today, along with the expected approval of a new collective bargaining agreement with the players through 2002.
But clearly, the Brown's move was dominating the agenda. Former Cleveland running back Greg Fruitt, who accompanied the fan delegation to Atlanta, said he would settle for another team in Cleveland as long as it was named the Brown's.
"I don't know how we'd get a team in there, but at the beginning of next season I think we'd take any team named the Cleveland Browns," he said.
But Cleveland's mayor continued to insist he would demand nothing less than the entire franchise remaining in the city.
"I have not come to Atlanta to accept a non-binding piece of paper that we will get a team sometime down the road," White said.
Tisch said Cleveland might be better served building a new stadium rather than renovating the present facility, but said he thought either plan would be feasible. He also called on Browns fans to halt their bombardment of letters, e-mails and faxes.
"The league is very cognizant of the city of Cleveland's desire and the fans' desire," Tisch said. "Now it's just overkill to send it."
Notre Dame women: nothing but net
The Associated Press
Their 51.7 percent of field goals made is the best in the country.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There is still one undefeated team left in Big East play, and this time it isn't defending national champ Connecticut.
Playing its first season in the Big East, Notre Dame has surprised even itself with its early success. The Irish are 11-3 overall. 6-0 in the Big East and are eighth in the nation in scoring, averaging 82.9 points a game.
"I'd say that this was something that we thought was possible, but certainly not something we expected," Irish coach Muffet McGrawsaid.
Notre Dame's biggest victory so far was earlier the month at Seton Hall, when the Irish defeated the Pirates 88-79 in overtime. Syracuse was expected to be tough after the Orangemen knocked off UConn, but Notre Dame easily beat them 91-52 last week.
The real test comes today, when Notre Dame plays host to UConn. The Irish have never played a team as big as the Huskies and are going to have their hands full with 6-foot-7 center Kara Wolters.
Though UConn has lost three games this year, the Huskies are still the toughest team Notre Dame will see. McGraw and her players said.
("A win) would really make the program, in a way," McGraw said. "I
think we'd kind of have the feeling that we have arrived."
Junior guard Beth Morgan agreed.
Junior guard been Morgan agreed. "When you're playing the defending national champs, any win is going to be a big boost — confidence-wise, for the program, national recognition," she said.
Notre Dame has had its share of success in the past, winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference the past two years. But moving to the Big East was a huge jump for the Irish, whose schedule used to include teams such as Wright State and Cleveland State.
"We didn't really know what to expect; that was probably my biggest worry was that we just didn't know any of the teams very well," McGraw said. "We thought it was going to be hard for us to come in and play everybody the first time."
Now the Irish are facing teams like UConn, which last year finished the season undefeated and won a record 35 games, more than any other perfect squad — men's or women's — in Division I history. The Big East alone had two teams in last year's NCAA tournament. UConn and Seton Hall.
But the Irish have settled in nicely. In Big East play, Notre Dame leads the league in steals with 12.2 a game, and three-point shots, making 38 percent. And are second only to the Huskies in scoring.
The Irish offense is led by Morgan, whose 22.1 points a game is 18th-best.
"Other teams have tried to put their best players on them, and they've certainly tried to do things to stop them from scoring." McGraw said of Morgan and Gaither. "So far they haven't been able to."
in the nation, and by Katyrana Gaither,
who is averaging 21.1 points. Only
Nadine Malcolm of Providence's 23.7
point average is better among Big
East players.
What has made Notre Dame's success even more surprising is that the team has done it without Lettia Bowen. When Bowen graduated last year, she was Notre Dame's all-time leading rebounder with 999, and seventh on the Irish scoring list with 1,205 points. While Bowen was strong offensively, it was on defense where she really made the difference. The Irish rallied on her to shut down the opponent's best player, McGraw said.
"We still really haven't found the person who can rebound like (Bowen) could," McGraw said. "We're trying to get a lot of different people to do her job."
"We knew it was going to be a lot of competition," she said. "We adjusted our offense and defense to their games, and we've adjusted our style of game to the Big East."
Now much of the load falls to the 6-3 Gaither, who has been averaging 9.3 rebounds a game. Gaither shrugs off her new role, saying the entire team has stepped up its play.
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