Let's begin with a dream: Imagine if Paul Tagliabue thought it was a good idea for Peter Angelos to buy the Tampa Bay Bucs and move them to Baltimore.
Imagine if he liked us.
We'd be printing up '95 season tickets now. With good reason.
Tagliabue's opposition is all that's keeping the franchise out of town. The rest of the evidence points to a move. The Culverhouse trust has a fiduciary responsibility to sell to the highest bidder, and no one in Tampa can come close to matching Angelos' $200 million offer, because the franchise isn't worth as much down there. Left to their own devices, few other NFL owners would oppose a move that gives life to a tired franchise and doubles the per-game payout.
If Tagliabue thought it made sense, we could start planning the parade.
But, of course, he doesn't think it makes sense. In fact, it would appear that he hates the idea of the NFL's coming back to Baltimore.
What did we do to get him so mad at us? Did he maybe have a bad meal here once when he wasn't on an expense account? (I asked around town about this. If it did happen, no one can remember it.) Did he get a rude cabbie one night at the airport? (The ones I asked all said they'd been nice to him.) Could it be that we don't have enough doublespeaking lawyers in town to make him feel at home?
No, of course, Tagliabue doesn't like us for a couple of reasons that surfaced during the expansion abomination in 1993:
1. We're a Washington suburb. (So he believes.)
2. We're not in the Sun Belt.
The suburb thing is pretty typical of many people who live in or around Washington, as Tagliabue does. They tend to think of Baltimore as a campy/cute little place with a nice ballpark. Isn't that sweet?
Tagliabue sees no reason for us to have a team when we can get behind one playing right down the road in a for-real big city.
Like many Washingtonians, he can't fathom that the vast majority of the people in Bawlmer would rather not have a team at all than cheer for the Redskins. But that's the case. Oh, sure, there are some folks in Redskins jackets around town now and a lot of kids who don't remember when the Colts were here, but it's just a peep of support compared with the kind a real home team gets.
Wouldn't you give up your Christmas haul for a chance to sit down with Tagliabue and set him straight? The regional franchise idea works well for the Orioles, but in football, a sport that touches a raw nerve here, the cities are distinctly separate markets. And there clearly is enough support for two teams, as demonstrated by the 35,000 fans who kept coming out for CFL football at Memorial Stadium. Imagine how the real thing would go over.
But Jack Kent Cooke wants the whole region to himself (even as he discovers that a stadium in Laurel is the one thing his money can't buy), and Tagliabue is going around telling everyone that it's better for the league if the Bucs stay in Tampa. Apparently, he can't read a revenue projection.
One thing is certain: If our stadium offer were coming from a "new" city in a warmer climate, Tagliabue would be a lot more interested. He is fixated on the Sun Belt. It's the only real explanation for why the league expanded to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville instead of a new stadium next door to Camden Yards.
His fascination with warm-weather cities in "growth" areas borders on the irrational. Are football fans in Phoenix or Tampa more loyal than football fans in Buffalo or Philadelphia or New York or Green Bay? Of course not. Los Angeles (sunny, warm) isn't exactly distinguishing itself as a football town these days, but Da Bears (snow) sell out in Chicago regardless of the team's record.
Get the point?
Tagliabue doesn't.
His motto: Give me the sun, I'll give you a team.
Makes a ton of sense.
It is possible that the NFL owners are afraid of Angelos and his pro-labor history and will conspire with Tagliabue to keep the Yuks from moving. And if it so happens that the Tampa people get their act together and upgrade their stadium and renew their support for the team, fine, whatever. There's no need to rob fans who deserve a team.
But if the owners take a hard look at the situation now, as things stand, they will see that it isn't a close call. The franchise is worth much more here. The team would sell out for years here. The city, having lost a team once, would value a new franchise as it did few other assets. Good fans are good fans, in any weather, and our record speaks for itself.
It's a no-brainer.
What that says about Tagliabue, well, you figure it out.