Browns beat out Bills for Kevin Costner movie

Two of the more snakebit franchises in the NFL went head to head off the field recently. But for once it was the Cleveland Browns that came out on top.

The Browns reportedly beat out the Buffalo Bills for the right to be the franchise in the Kevin Costner movie, Draft Day.

The movie, which was to depict Kevin Costner as a fictitious Buffalo Bills general manager trying to restore his team to past glory, will instead be shot in Cleveland, with the actor portraying the Cleveland Browns GM.

Like most reasons for anything related to business decisions, it all came down to the money. Shooting in Cleveland was cheaper than shooting in Buffalo therefore the Browns will get the nod.

“At the end of the day, it was a money thing. I think Mr. [Ivan] Reitman really wanted to shoot here, but it just came down to the cost factor. What we were told is that the Cleveland incentives were better,” said Tim Clark who heads the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission .

“I feel the worse for the Buffalo Bills, because they worked real hard to convince the film company that Buffalo was the place to shoot this, and that Buffalo was America’s team.”

Buffalo Bills being America's team. Since when? I guess I missed the memo on that one.

This will be the second time a movie will be based on a Cleveland sports franchise as Draft Day hopes to be as successful as Major League. I guess the silver screen is the only place where a Cleveland franchise gets to be a winner.