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False Start: How The New Browns Were Set Up To Fail | 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Pluto
Publisher: Gray & Company Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $7.93
You Save: $12.02 (60%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 335166
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 161
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1886228884
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332640977132
EAN: 9781886228887
ASIN: 1886228884
Publication Date: October 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
It was supposed to be the dawn of a grand new era of football in Cleveland. Instead, it was a rude wakeup call. When the new Cleveland Browns took the field in 1999, legions of loyal fansonce heartsick, abandoned, and disgusted at the loss of their team in 1995were ready to forgive the past and embrace the future . . . a new owner, a new team, a new stadium. They just wanted their Browns back. They didnt get what they bargained for. In the five years since a new team called the Browns arrived to play on Clevelands lakefront, this has become clear: Browns fans got a bum deal. The NFL traded one of the most storied teams in football history for a franchise mired in mediocrity. These were the fans who, after owner Art Modell skipped town with their beloved Browns, became the only fans ever to take on the NFL, demand their team backand win. Yet while they were celebrating the supposed victory that kept "our name, our colors, our team" in Cleveland, fans should have been looking over their shoulders and keeping a close watch on the NFL. There would be few reasons to celebrate in the years to come. In this book, award-winning sportswriter, Terry Pluto takes a hard look at the first five years of the new Cleveland Browns franchise and doesnt like what he sees. Pluto chronicles the backroom deals, big-money power plays, poor decisions, and plain bad luck that have dogged the new Browns franchise since its inception. Browns fans still stand by, waiting for a return to glory. How much longer must they wait? Pluto sifts through the clues from past seasons and looks for answers. This frank analysis will offer fans some solace along with an explanation for their misery.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Run of the mill book as far as enjoyment value November 1, 2006
Basically the Browns:
1) Weren't given enough time to prepare for their initial season;
2) The expansion draft rules were < favorable than 1995;
3) Carmen Policy had no frame of reference on running an expansion team and he was overrated because he fell into a good situation in SF where Walsh did all the heavy lifting;
4) Dwight Clark was over his head as GM;
5) Because of the short time before their initial season the candidate field for head coach was limited unless they wanted a college coach;
6) Brain Billick didn't want to coach an expansion team, nor did any other perhaps better qualified coaches. The Browns were desperate for a head coach and tried to pressure Billick into the job;
7) Because of the constraints placed on hiring other NFL assistant coaches, Chris Palmer's pool of NFL assistants was limited to coaches who had been fired from NFL jobs; and,
8) Did some lousy drafting.
That's just about it.
 A compilation of previous material December 5, 2005
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
For those who are looking for new material on the birth of the new Browns, forget this book.
Terry Pluto, a long-time columnist for the Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal newspaper, takes the lazy way in spinning his conspiracy theory on how the new Browns were doomed to fail due to league officials literally tossing dog biscuits to Cleveland's political leaders, competing ownership groups and fans who demanded a new franchise when the team relocated to Baltimore.
One should expect that a journalist with the years of experience like Pluto would pen a book based on new information or new angles to previously published information. Instead, he covers old ground through old columns; simply a cheap "best of" format.
Time doesn't stand still, but for Pluto it had to so his theories would hold up in this thin book. Soon after False Start was published, an expose on the anatomy of the new franchise appeared in the sports section in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. It used tangible statistical information culled from other expansion periods (Carolina & Jacksonville, Houston) which should have put to rest the fiction that many feel is fact concerning the new Browns.
But Pluto as a columnist in the period covered in the book and Pluto as a columnist today will continue to play the everyman's victim card with the Browns. It is much too late in the game for him to turn back toward the field filled with the truth.
Heck, in a year or so he may even get another book deal out of it.
 ANOTHER GREAT BOOK BY TERRY PLUTO September 3, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
THIS IS A VERY SHORT YET DETAILED STORY CONCERNING THE CURRENT ADDITION OF THE CLEVELAND BROWNS. MR PLUTO STARTS FROM WHEN ART MODELL MOVED THE TEAM AND ENDS WITH THE RESIGNATION OF CARMEN POLICY RIGHT BEFORE THE START OF THE 2004 SEASON. HE TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, ESPECIALLY THE MANY BLUNDERS FROM CARMEN POLICY AND DWIGHT CLARK. THE TEAM WAS DOOMED FROM THE START, LITTLE TIME FOR PREPARATION THE MAIN PROBLEM. THEN THE MANY DRAFTS THAT WERE OF NO HELP TO THE HIRING OF BUTCH DAVIS. CARMEN POLICY PUT ALOT OF TRUST IN PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB AND HE TOOK A QUICK EXIT AND RETURNED TO WINE COUNTRY IN CALIFORNIA WHERE HE SHOULD STAYED IN THE FIRST PLACE. NOW BUTCH DAVIS HAS BEEN FIRED AND A NEW REGIME IS IN CHARGE NOW. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ALL BROWNS FANS AND FANS OF FOOTBALL TEAMS WHO START OR HAVE STARTED AS AN EXPANSION TEAM. TERRY TAKES HIS SHOT AT THE NFL GREEDY OWNERS AND IS 100 % CORRECT IS HIS ASSESSMENT THAT ALL THEY ARE INTERESTED IN IS $$$$$$$$. A MUST READ.
False Start March 17, 2005
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
A very light, superficial account of the new Browns. Terry Pluto is one of my favorite writers because he lacks any pretension, but I expected more from this book.
There was obviously little heavy research that went into the story, other than a few interviews with the major players. The page count was fleshed out by dozens of only slightly interesting anecdotes from Browns' fans. Pluto also quoted liberally from his past columns.
Pluto's done better, and I'm sure he knows it, too.
great book for true browns fans January 13, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Terry Pluto has proven again why he is the top sports journalist in northeastern ohio..this book describes the ways Browns fan were ripped off and let down by the NFL for giving us an inferior team @ higher costs..it's not a total negative read,it's just an honest assessment from someone who truly cares about the Browns.a must read for "True" Browns fans...
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