Hundreds of Cleveland Browns loyalists are hoping their desperate plea will come across on national television when they travel to Pittsburgh for tonight's Browns-Steelers game at Three Rivers Stadium.
A caravan of 13 buses and many cars will leave Cleveland for the rival city as football fans voice opposition to the Browns' planned move to Baltimore in 1996. The game is the first for the Browns since team owner Art Modell publicly announced the move on Nov. 6.Duane Salls, co-chairman of the Save Our Browns Committee, said Cleveland police would lead and tail the caravan, and toll road officials in both states said they would accommodate the Browns backers - numbering at least 650.
"We want to make a real strong statement in support of the Browns, but we want to make a safe caravan," Salls said. "We're asking everyone to be ladies and gentlemen. If that doesn't happen, we'll blow our case. If you're coming to have a drunken party, you're not invited."
Bob Grace, founder of the Browns Backers, a booster club with more than 40,000 members in 120 chapters in the United States and abroad, said the nature of the rally is not to attend the game but to show the nation how angry Browns fans are at Modell.
Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White planned to meet the caravan Monday evening after spending the afternoon in Columbus talking with Gov. George Voinovich and other state officials.
White told the fans gathered at the Cleveland Convention Center on Saturday that they could be a major part of a nationwide Save Our Browns campaign.
The campaign is intended to mobilize Browns backers across the nation and "every man, woman and child" in Cuyahoga County to convince the National Football League that Modell has wronged Cleveland, White said.
Pittsburgh also wants to make a statement as Cleveland makes what is likely to be its final trip to Three Rivers. Many Steelers fans plan to wear orange arm bands in solidarity with Cleveland fans.
"I hate the Browns," said Frank Buffington, a bartender from Beaver Falls, Pa., who will be in the stands. "But what I hate more is to see the rivalry between Cleveland and Pittsburgh come to an end."