Dawg days return

Sporting News, The, August 9, 1999 by Mark Pesavento

Beginning Monday, you'll be hearing a lot more about the return of the NFL to Cleveland, as the brand new Browns play the Cowboys in the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio--the first to be held under lights.

It's an exhibition but still the first game for the what's-old-is-new-again franchise, which has regrouped and reorganized since that fateful day of November 6, 1995, when Art Modell announced he was moving the beloved Browns to Baltimore and became public enemy No. 1.

But now that they're playing football again in orange and brown helmets, all is well, if not forgotten. Single-game Browns tickets sold out in just over an hour for the entire season, and enthusiasm is at an all-time high. Tickets for the September 12 opener against Pittsburgh were gobbled up in eight minutes.

Browns backers will get to build new memories around "The Shot, .... The Drive" and "The Fumble," but for fans expecting to relive the "three yards and a cloud of dust" days of Marry Schottenheimer and Bill Belichick, these aren't your father's Cleveland Browns. Gone, but not forgotten, are names such as Byner, Mack, Slaughter and Kosar. In their places are the likes of Tim Couch, Jamir Miller, Kevin Johnson and Corey Fuller.