BY The Associated Press
GRAPEVINE, Texas -- NFL owners approved a plan Tuesday for stocking the expansion Cleveland Browns, who will begin play in 1999 as a replacement for the team that moved to Baltimore.
The Browns will get at least 30 veteran players from other teams and 14 extra draft picks in their first two years, including next year's first overall pick, commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. Tagliabue and several owners said the goal was to make the Browns competitive immediately, just like the last two expansion teams, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars.
"I think the Cleveland Browns will be contending for a Super Bowl very soon," Dallas Cowboys owners Jerry Jones said. "They certainly end up with a No. 1 pick ... and multiple draft picks."
Said Pat Bowlen, owner of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos: "I think they'll be very competitive. That's what happened in Jacksonville and Carolina. They were both in the playoffs their second year."
At least six groups are bidding to buy the Browns, and a seventh, possibly including basketball star Michael Jordan, surfaced Monday. Tagliabue said owners will meet again Aug. 19 to hear from bidders with the goal of picking a buyer by mid-September.
The Browns' price tag was a major subject of speculation Tuesday. The NFL has hired investment bankers Goldman Sachs to oversee the bidding, which Jones said could go as high as $900 million.
Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints, said nothing in the way of price would surprise him, considering the meteoric rise of NFL television contracts, player salaries and even the stock market.
The more, the merrier, said Red McCombs, who had just received unanimous approval of his $250 million purchase of the Vikings. "Well, now that I'm a member of the lodge, I hope it is very high," he laughed. "I think these franchises are just worth significantly more than I paid."
NFL coverage from Associated Press
