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Ohio law: Could the man who moved the Browns to Baltimore actually help keep the team in Cleveland today?

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Ohio law: Could the man who moved the Browns to Baltimore actually help keep the team in Cleveland today?


CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A report says the Haslams are close to an agreement to buying a piece of property in Brook Park.

But could the man who moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996 actually help keep the team in Cleveland today?

Within months of former Browns owner Art Modell moving the team to Maryland, Ohio lawmakers made sure what happened in Cleveland doesn’t happen again, with a new law.

This Ohio law went into effect in June of 1996, and it’s also known as the Art Modell law.

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What the law basically does is put relocation restrictions on owners of professional sports teams that use a tax-supported facility, like the Browns, whose stadium is owned by the city of Cleveland.

Under the law, owners are prohibited from moving their teams unless they either come to an agreement with the city or they give at least six months advance notice of their intention to move and give the city, or an individual or group of individuals who live in the area, an opportunity to buy the team.

The Art Modell law is what essentially helped keep the Columbus Crew soccer team from moving to Texas.

It was the basis of a 2018 lawsuit filed against the Crew’s owner by the city of Columbus and Governor Mike DeWine, who was the state’s attorney general at the time.

That lawsuit paused the relocation of the crew, and months later the team was sold to new owners who would keep them in Ohio.

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And those new owners were none other than Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who also own the Cleveland Browns.

Moving a team to another state is different than moving to a neighboring city, but there is nothing in the Art Modell law stating it only applies to out-of-state relocation.

So if this does move forward it’s possible this could wind up in court.



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Cleveland, OH

Cleveland Browns News and Rumors June 22, 2026: Not Just Org Chart Noise

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Cleveland Browns News and Rumors June 22, 2026: Not Just Org Chart Noise


CLEVELAND, Ohio (TheOBR.com) Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!

There are mornings when I sit down at this keyboard, look at the Browns quarterback discourse, and wonder whether I should have gone into a more stable line of work. Such as selling timeshares from inside an office that has been lit on fire. Because here we are in late June, with no pads, no preseason games, no live pass rush, and apparently everyone from television personalities to team-adjacent announcers to webdorks like me has solved the Browns quarterback battle. That’s 90% of the news items out there this morning.

But I don’t care, and look on that endless speculative churning as simply being noise at this point.

One story that matters this morning is Andrew Healy leaving Cleveland for Minnesota, which I wrote about several days ago. He’s joining the Vikings as an assistant general manager.

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If your first reaction was, “Okay, front-office guy changes jobs, wake me when someone throws a slant,” I get it. Executives mostly become famous when something goes wrong, which is a cruel system, but, hey, I didn’t design the planet. I just live here.

But Healy’s departure is a real loss. Alec Lewis’ Athletic reporting had two quotes that should get your attention. Browns offensive analyst Dom Borsani called Healy “a little bit like a unicorn,” because he combined research background and technical aptitude with a traditional scouting lens and an understanding of coaching schemes. Former Browns senior software developer Zach Zelinsky, now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, called him “probably the smartest guy I’ve worked with in sports.”

That’s not normal praise. That’s not “great teammate, first guy in, last guy out” boilerplate. This is people inside the machine saying the Browns just lost one of the people who helped connect the spreadsheet world to the football world. And that matters because the modern NFL is not analytics versus scouting anymore — or at least it shouldn’t be. The good organizations are the ones where the numbers people understand what the scouts are seeing, the scouts trust that the numbers can challenge their assumptions, and the coaches don’t throw the laptop into Lake Erie.

Healy’s Sloan Sports Analytics bio says that, for the last five years, he “led the integration of data and advanced insights into all parts of football operations.” It also says he started with the Browns in 2016 as Senior Player Personnel Strategist, helping to develop methods for valuing players, making game decisions, and evaluating draft assets. Before that, he created projection systems for Football Outsiders, and before that, he was an economics professor with a Ph.D. from MIT. So, yes, he is smarter than your humble webdork. This is not a high bar, but still.

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So, naturally, I was worried about this and did what I always do when I’m looking for common-sense answers: I talked to Lane. He let me know what he “was told all the systems have been in place, with others handling the process. It doesn’t feel like they are overly concerned with his departure. As they have told me previously, you never like to lose assets, but you plan accordingly.”

The Browns still have Andrew Berry. They still have people in the research department. This is not a one-man shop collapsing because the smartest guy took his stapler to Minneapolis. But when you lose Paul DePodesta to the Rockies and Healy to the Vikings in the same general era, you lose institutional memory, decision-making frameworks, and the people who knew why certain models were built the way they were. Don’t expect the loss of the two to indicate much about how the Browns use analytics – it hasn’t fallen out of favor or suddenly joined Maurice Carthon’s playbook in the annals of football history.

This is the type of stuff fans don’t see until two years later, when the draft board feels different, the fourth-down decisions get twitchy, or the team suddenly stops finding value in places it used to find value. Maybe Berry replaces that brainpower cleanly. Maybe the remaining group steps forward. Maybe the Browns are fine. But losing a “unicorn” from a front office is like losing a left guard: nobody talks about it until the pressure starts coming up the middle.

Have a good one! GO BROWNS!

Newswire Bloviation Archive

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OBR GOODIES

OBR ARTICLES

  • Cleveland Browns News and Rumors June 21, 2026: Fighting for Football Lives
  • Rookie Year Expectations For The Cleveland Browns 2026 Draft Picks – Day Two

FROM THE FORUMS

INSIDER DISCUSSION (VIP)

  • Cleveland Browns News and Rumors June 21, 2026: Fighting for Football Lives

THE WATERCOOLER

THE LIFT

Positive news from the world of sports and beyond…

Space.com reports that scientists are drawing up a research blueprint to examine whether warming Mars is actually feasible — not because anyone should be selling lakefront property in Olympus Mons by Thursday, but because the work could help humanity understand what sustainable habitats beyond Earth would require. University of Chicago geophysical scientist Edwin Kite told Space.com, “We do not yet know enough to create a biosphere from scratch,” which is both humbling and oddly comforting. We can’t even get everyone to agree on the Browns quarterback depth chart, but sure, let’s keep the option open for Mars.

WRAPPING UP

When not trying to identify the precise moment quarterback analysis becomes interpretive dance, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.

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Cleveland, OH

3 dead in Lakewood double murder-suicide

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3 dead in Lakewood double murder-suicide


Three people are dead after a double murder-suicide in Lakewood.

Police said a man called his ex-wife early Sunday morning, saying he shot two people at a home on Chesterland Avenue.

According to investigators, the man threatened to shoot himself.

When officers arrived at the scene, they saw a man in a truck speeding away.

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Police chased the truck until it stopped on Warren Road.

The 45-year-old man exited the vehicle with a gun to his head and shot himself moments later, police said.

Police found 35-year-old Richard Eastin and 33-year-old Amanda Wakut dead inside the kitchen of the home on Chesterland Avenue.

The investigation is ongoing.





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Cleveland, OH

Cleveland police investigate fatal shooting; man detained

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Cleveland police investigate fatal shooting; man detained


CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Officers from the Cleveland Division of Police Fourth District responded to the sound of gunshot Saturday evening.

According to police, officers were in the area of the 3200 block of E 93rd Street when they heard gunshots around 8:30 p.m.

Officers responded to the area and located an adult man with gunshot wounds.

They immediately began to provide first aid until EMS arrived.

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When EMS arrived on scene crews continued care and transported the man to the hospital.

Police said during the course of the investigation, officers identified and detained a 33-year-old man.

Officers also located two firearms and several casings from the scene.

The victim was treated at the hospital, but was later pronounced dead by hospital staff.

The Cleveland Police Homicide Unit is investigating the incident, and no further information is available at this time, police said.

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Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.



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