DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum The name on the door is Cleveland.

The name on the door is Cleveland.

The new official moto of the Cleveland browns. I read the article on the official site, and all I can think of is "awesome" . I love it.

How lucky are we to somehow after all these years to have an owner and gm who get it? That they are stewards for us all. I'm already excited beyond belief about the season almost starting, but this was icing on the cake.

Phrase drawn from history, community
Zac Jackson, Staff Writer
07.23.2008

It started as a thought, maybe more than a simple conversation point but certainly nothing with a grander plan attached.

It was early 2006, and the Browns were rebuilding. Two of those overseeing the project, in this case team owner Randy Lerner and general manager Phil Savage, were talking about the many steps that still remained.

For the Browns, change had become a constant. The names of coaches, players, and personnel had been changing at an alarming rate.

That had to stop.

The 2005 Browns found a way to win six games, but any discussion of the playoffs or even the bright lights of prime-time football seemed to be galaxies away. Such discussion couldn't be considered realistic until other things were discussed and a plan was not only hatched, but fully committed to. There had to be something everyone could believe in.

This particular moment, Savage remembers, came during one of those talks about getting closer, taking some of those steps and making sure the people working during those uncertain times still ahead could see light at the end of the tunnel.

"We had been talking about the organization needing a mission statement," Savage said. "There had been so many different leaders and regimes and management styles that we just wanted to try do something simple enough that everybody could get behind.

"We started trying to put a statement together and emphasize that we were working to do great things on the field and off the field, that there was kind of an ultimate goal out there."

Savage believed he had plenty of willing people. He thought they wanted something to buy into, something to rally around and share with the community.

At some point during the conversation, Lerner uttered the phrase: "The name on the door is Cleveland."

That, Savage thought, was something.

So now, more than two years after Savage handed out credit-card sized cards with the phrase and a mission statement printed on the front to every Browns employee in an organization-wide meeting, the name on the door is branching out to the city it's named for.

You'll find The Name on the Door is Cleveland in lots of places this fall, including on this Web site, on the scoreboard (among other places) during Browns home games and on the front of the team's freshly-released 2008 media guide.

Those who go to work for the Browns each day have adopted it as an M.O. Everyone in the organization - from the players, to the coaches and front office personnel - works for the team. But more importantly, they are stewards. Stewards of the Browns and the Browns' history, serving the fans of the team and the people of Cleveland.

"That's Randy's phrase," Savage said. "I think he's always felt like it's not just the Browns. It's the Cleveland Browns. When I heard him say it, I mentioned to him that would be a good title, so to speak, to our mission statement.

"That's where it was born. It came out of his mouth and it kind of stuck. It's important to him that the emphasis was on Cleveland."

Savage now proudly talks of building a team Cleveland can embrace. Some of the names still change - such is the nature of the NFL beast - but many have remained. "There are players that Cleveland can really root for," he says, and names like Cribbs, Thomas, Lewis, Wimbley and Anderson are just a few of those that come to mind.

"The connection between the team and community is so important," Savage said. "We have players on this team the community can enjoy. And that's important because as I've said many times, when I first got here you'd look at the fans wearing the jerseys in the stadium and most of the jerseys were from guys who were already gone or on their way out.

"Now we have some players that people can feel comfortable wearing their jerseys for the next X-number of years."

More names like Edwards, Jones, Winslow, McDonald, Steinbach and Lewis come to mind, and Savage thinks back to all the building, all the work it took, and all the good times Cleveland can now believe will come sooner rather than later.

"We're just going to try to sustain what we have going and make sure we're building the organization with the right philosophies and objectives," he said. "Whether you're winning or losing I think there are certain building blocks you're operating from. We feel like over the course of time we're going to win more than we lose. If you reach that objective, it gives you a chance to get in the playoffs. And we've seen that if you get in the playoffs, everybody has a shot of winning the Super Bowl."

If the Browns get there, whether it's this year, three years from now or five years from now, it's safe to say at least a few of those little cards are coming along for the trip.

"The mission statement has pretty much stayed in-house," Savage said. "The theme's being rolled out there a little bit, and I think everyone likes it. A lot of people have kept that card in their pocket or in their desk. It's been a good thing, something to look at and remember.

"It's easy to remember: The Name on the Door is Cleveland."


http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=8580

sweet, i want a t shirt

Yeah, I like it as well. I even got rid of my old sig in place of it when I first saw it on the official site a few months ago.

Wow. I got chills reading that article.

Like it as well


For us die hards, The name has always been Cleveland and always will be Cleveland....It's just now when the Cleveland door slams ya in the .... behind, it's gonna hurt alittle more and people are gonna take notice......


As I've said for years on this sight, There isnt a better city in the Fall Early winter when the Browns are winning, Browns win the snow is whiter, the air is crisper, the Christmas decorations are brighter, people are friendlier, somebody pulls out infront of ya with a Browns sticker on thier car, ya dont flip them off, ya yell were gonna kick butt on sunday brother Dawg...I've been down town many times when the Browns were in the playoff hunt or in the playoffs and the electric is special, I wont even try to discribe it, no words can discribe it, you either have experianced it or you havent. and for you fellow dawgs that havent....strap yourself in for a ride of your life this fall, if it dosent effect you deep inside, your not a Browns fan..it is a feeling that will stay with you forever..it's the 4th greatest feeling I've felt in my life is being down town Cleveland during a payoff year, The top three are my three kids.

The name on the door is Cleveland..& it takes a special type of fan to pass thru that door, not everyone can go thru it.

awesome.

Cool,, so that's the title of the mission statement,, what's the mission statement say? Just wondering

lol... I got chills reading your post too.

I did, too.

I'm ready to strap 'em on and run through a brick wall......

Awesome!

It is true, the Browns ARE Cleveland. This is and always will be a football town. You can tell in the people when the team is doing good and what kind of Monday (or Tuesday) your gonna have depending on the outcome of yesterdays game I know for me after a loss I am mad till Wednesday at least when I finally read the paper or watch ESPN again to focus on the next week After a win I am all smiles and have a lil extra pep in my step.