Zac’s profile of Mike Rhyner, from the April issue of D Magazine, isn’t yet online. If you subscribe, you’ve already got it. If you don’t, you can listen to our podcast with Mike. In any case, a fellow named Tim Werner read the story, and it jogged a memory. Werner writes:
It is a relatively warm afternoon on November 7 of 1995. I am one of about 35 very angry Cleveland Browns fans protesting Art Modell’s announced relocation of our beloved Browns to the city of Baltimore. We are walking back and forth with our protest signs on the median of Highway 26 in Grapevine, in front of the Hilton Hotel where NFL owners are having a meeting. Modell has announced what became known as THE MOVE during a press conference in Baltimore Harbor the previous day, and it just so happens that a regularly scheduled meeting of NFL owners is occurring the very next day at that particular Hilton in Grapevine.
Yes, we are upset, and, yes, we are doing our very best to make our displeasure known to all the NFL owners there at the Hilton. On that particular day, The Hardline is having a radio remote nearby at a Hooters restaurant. Someone driving by our protest calls in to the show to tell them about Browns fans protesting on the median in front of the Hilton.
In a very classy move, all of us Browns fans that day have forever appreciated Mike Rhyner and Greg Williams, as they arranged to have a Hooters waitress deliver two buckets of wings for us to munch on during our protest. This is just one example of the wonderful things The Ticket did to respect all sport fans. It contributed greatly to their overall success!
Now, almost 25 years later, I say THANK YOU, MIKE RHYNER!
