Former NFL Player Chris Canty Makes Shocking Claim About Browns Fan Loyalty

The Cleveland Browns Fans have stood by their team during some of the toughest times in franchise history.

The 2017 season, which was 0-16, comes to mind. A 1-32 record in two seasons with Hue Jackson at the helm. The Johnny Manziel experiment. The list goes on. No moment was more serious than Art Modell’s devastating decision to move the franchise to Baltimore.

It’s a reality that still doesn’t sit well with a large portion of the fan base and remains a touchy subject. That’s why when former NFL player Chris Canty began spouting lies about why the team was moved to Cleveland nearly 30 years ago, Browns fans rallied in droves to denounce him.

“If the fans were so good, why did the team leave the team in the first place?” Canty asked on his ESPN radio show “Unsportsmanlike Radio,” alongside Michelle Smallmon and Evan Cohen. The conversation began with Smallmon creating a list of the best fan bases in football and, inexplicably — in Cohen’s eyes — omitting Cleveland.

Canty continued to question the team’s departure as the segment continued.

“Their team was taken out of the club because of the lack of interest from the fans!” he exclaimed later. “They couldn’t raise the money to build a new stadium. It’s the fans who vote for the politicians who decide whether or not they’re going to build a new stadium.”

Tell us you don’t understand Cleveland, without telling us you don’t understand Cleveland.

The one thing Canty understood about the Browns’ move in 1995 was that there was a lot of legal wrangling over financing a new stadium at the root of the situation — like most NFL team moves. However, it certainly wasn’t for lack of “fan support,” as the former defensive tackle claims.

Modell’s decision to hoard Cleveland Municipal Stadium’s box-room revenues eventually came back to haunt him once the Gateway project was approved and the Cleveland Indians moved out of the facility to their own complex. Modell was left scrambling to pay off the debts he had accrued to buy the team in the first place. He eventually proposed to city politicians that a referendum be placed on the ballot that would levy $175 million in vice taxes to help renovate the outdated stadium.

Meanwhile, Modell was plotting to move the team to Baltimore in a dubious manner, even announcing the move before the referendum was even voted on, hoping that the vote would fail, but it did not. Cleveland fans showed up and approved the plan, and then Modell moved the team anyway.

The real story of the Browns’ move to Baltimore directly refutes everything Canty has said about the Clevelanders’ alleged “lack of support” for their team.