Terry Pluto is an award-winning sports journalist, but FALSE START,
his latest effort, isn't really a sports book. It's a book about
the business of professional sports, in this case the
business of running the National Football League franchise known as
the Cleveland Browns. Perhaps you've heard of them.

The Cleveland Browns had a long and glorious history of Rust Belt
football, including the 1964 national championship and fairly
regular playoff appearances. Win or lose, the fans loved 'em, week
after week filling the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium to its
80,000-seat capacity even on the nastiest of North Coast winter
days. Then one day, at the end of the 1994 season, the entire team
was hijacked to Baltimore, transformed into the Ravens, and a
lifetime of Cleveland football came to an abrupt end. What happened
after that -- the big buck deals and unquestionably questionable
business decisions that led to the reappearance and subsequent
failure of a bunch of guys dressed like the Browns -- fills the
pages of FALSE START.

Pluto asserts that the new Browns never had a chance, doomed from
the start by greed on the part of the NFL and dysfunctional
management on the part of the team's new owners. Coming out on the
short end of the deal, naturally, are the fans. Pluto brackets each
of the chapters in this short but satisfying read with brief
testimonials from Browns fans whose devotion to the team was in
many cases passed down from one generation to the next. Many of
these testimonials reveal a sense of family tradition and an
appreciation of the Browns as a conduit to memories of Sunday
afternoons that brought families together. These brief anecdotes
put a sharp point indeed on Pluto's observations concerning the
mismanagement of the team and the NFL's utter disregard for the
fans, who represent little more to the league than a vast
collection of eyeballs with credit cards, to be delivered to
advertisers.

Pluto makes his case with wit, energy, and a deep appreciation for
what it means to be a sports fan in general and a Browns fan in
particular. FALSE START makes solid contact, but in a tone that is
all about tough love. "The fans still care," Pluto observes, "but
the team needs to shape up."

While FALSE START is unlikely to appeal to readers with little or
no interest in sports, it nevertheless offers a fascinating and
disturbing look at a train wreck of a team and the loyal but
increasingly impatient and disappointed fans who long to see
something of the past in the future.