The Greatest Letter Ever Printed on a NFL Team Letterhead

This is an actual complaint letter sent by a season ticket holder to the Cleveland Browns in 1974.

Here is an enlarged image of the text.

 Here is the response that Dale Cox received.

 

Here is a larger version of the text.

 

The year was 1974. Mike Phipps was the quarterback, and the Browns were having a lousy season. They would finish 4-10. (The more things change . . .)

Dale O. Cox, a season-ticket holder and attorney from Akron, was bothered by fans making paper airplanes out of game programs and sending them out onto the field and into other areas of the stands. He expressed his displeasure in writing -- and threatened legal action if anyone in his party were injured by one of the airplanes.

The letter found its way to Bailey's desk. He responded with a two-sentence note: "Dear Mr. Cox, Attached is a letter we received on Nov. 19, 1974. I feel you should be aware that some a - - - - - - is signing your name to stupid letters."

He copied team owner Art Modell.

Bailey, 66, now lives in San Diego, where he is a senior consultant with Brailsford and Dunlavey, a sports-facility planning company. "I was all of 28 years old when I wrote that letter. I should have been more cautious. I'm just glad my mother's not around to see that letter."

And what was Modell's reaction?

"After I wrote it, I heard about it right away from Art. He said something like, 'What the hell are you doing?' He was not a guy lacking passion," Bailey said.

"That stadium was a big place to fill. And there were plenty of seats behind poles. But I have good memories about those times."

Cox, 72, who wrote the complaint, is now in private practice as a lawyer in Orofino, Idaho.

"I'm still a Browns season-ticket holder," he said. "I found out that Bailey and I both went to the University of Michigan Law School."

Was he angry at Bailey's response?

"No. I thought it was pretty cool," he said with a laugh. "I've used that letter a couple times myself since."

Modell, reached at home in Baltimore, doesn't remember either the letters or chewing Bailey out. But:

"If Bailey says it happened," Modell said, "then I'd believe him."