BROWNS TO BALTIMORE: Mark Viviano Shares The Story Behind The Story

[AirFlacco]

Thanks guys. All the info is archived in the Sun. Anyone can look up anything that
was said in here by Hott and me but it's like Blue said, I lived thru it all. I'll never
forgive Irsay and Tags for what they did to us. The NFL made us look like 2-bit
whores.

Even Herb Belgrad, stadium authority, rented a room across the hall from
where the owners met when discussing expansion teams. He cooked crab
cakes and handed them as they walked in.

Tom Clancy, who would have been an owner, sent autographed copies of all
his books to each NFL owner during their meetings. I mean, there was some big
ass kissing going on big time.

I met Belgrad once. He used to work out at Balley's in White Marsh and brought
Boogie Weinglass in with him. Boogie might have been an owner too but Tags
didn't like him because he had a long poney tail. He owned one of the biggest
retail giants in the country called Merry Go Round, I think it was. He was from
Baltimore but headquartered in Aspen at the time.

I was the only one in the gym who knew who they were so when I stepped into
the hot tub they were sitting there. I was besides myself. I said Boogie, Boogie
how you doing man and I thanked Herb for trying to bring us a team.

Boogie was also one of Barry Levinson's best friends in Baltimore and he was
featured in his movie DINER and played by Mickey Rourke. I asked Boogie if
the movie was true and he said everything but when I hit on that girl riding
in the country and she was on a horse. I never made it north of Belvedere
Ave. I said that's where I grew up and we all laughed.

I told Boogie about Herb and the crab cake story and he laughed his ass off.
Herb was really pissed off and said how do you know so much about our
business. I said I read it in the papers and Boogie laughed again.

Before that I asked Herb if Lerner sabatoged Art by making him leave Cleveland
to take the Baltimore package so he would get the team in Cleveland. Herb
said that's not true. Al's a friend of mine. He knew what the Baltimore package
was and Art owed him a lot of money.

Lerner was also a prospective owner for Baltimore and went to the final meeting
where they voted on the new teams. He was supposed to give a speech for
Bmore and himself but never said a word. He just kept his plane running and
left the meeting out the back door. He never spoke to the media.

Then he ends up owning the new Browns. I said hey Herb, you might want to
say that to Art because he's writing a book about how Lerner set him up. Don't
know if he ever did.