Ravens explain why they’re celebrating their 30th season since Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore with Cleveland in town Sunday

BEREA, Ohio — The Ravens on Wednesday explained why they’re celebrating their 30th season since Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore with the Browns in town on Sunday.

The move has sparked outrage on the part of many Browns fans who lived through the horrible experience of their beloved team leaving Cleveland and being gone for three years, until they returned as an expansion team in 1999.

The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl after the 2000 season, just five years after landing in Baltimore, and one year after the Browns returned to play. They won it again after the 2012 season, with current Browns starting quarterback Joe Flacco as their QB. He also won Super Bowl MVP for that game.

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“Planning for our 30th season began last year, with the home opener as the official kickoff of our anniversary celebration,” a Ravens spokesman told cleveland.com in a text response. “The plans to celebrate the 30th season were publicly released in March prior to the announcement of the league schedule and before we knew who our home opening opponent would be.”

Once the Browns were announced as the home-opening opponent, the Ravens proceeded with plans for the celebration.

Flacco, for one, is turning the celebration into a positive for his return to Baltimore for the first time since they traded him to Denver after Lamar Jackson’s rookie year.

“It is funny because that isn’t the first thing that I think about not being from here, but I can understand how that looks,” Flacco said.

“Listen, they do these things and I think you can take it however you want. If you’re from Cleveland, you can take it one way and if you’re from Baltimore you can say it’s not a big deal, it’s just one of those things. Honestly, for me, it kind of makes it more exciting. We get to go in there when they’re having some people back and just more ex-players, more eyes on you. It’ll make it more interesting.”

The Ravens will roll out special pre-game recognitions celebrating the Browns’ move to Baltimore, and a halftime show featuring many Ravens Legends, a Marching Ravens performance and a dramatic mixed-reality show on the RavensVision video boards. Additionally, all fans attending the game will receive a Ravens Forevermore 30th season flag.

Ironically, the Ravens will also honor the members of the 1975 Baltimore Colts – known as the Miracle on 33rd Street – to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first of three consecutive AFC East titles. Former Colts owner Bob Irsay moved the Colts out of Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984 in the middle of the night.

Baltimore’s starting defense will be introduced out of the tunnel, while the 1975 Baltimore Colts Legends form a gauntlet for the Ravens to run through.

Browns Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens two-time Super Bowl winning GM and current executive vice president of player personnel, will be honored before kickoff as Sunday’s Legend of the Game. He’ll be flanked by his first two draft picks in 1996 – Pro Football Hall of Famers Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.

The Ravens will also recognize the key players involved in bringing the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore as honorary captains: John Moag (former executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority), Parris Glendening (former Maryland governor), Kurt Schmoke (former Baltimore City mayor) and John Modell, who will represent the Modell Family, including his late father and original Ravens owner, Art, and brother, David.

Browns cornerback Denzel Ward, a Cleveland native, was born in 1997, a year after the Ravens played their first season in Baltimore. The celebration isn’t foremost on his mind.

“No, it doesn’t really mean much to me,” he said. “Just the same goal every week to go in, focus on what we got to do to get the win and that’s the main focus.”

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski will try to keep his team focus on the task at hand, which is trying to avoid going 0-2 and losing its second straight division game.

“Our players know the history of our franchise,” he said. “Our focus really is on this week, on this opponent.”

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