The NFL lost a true pioneer today as Art Modell, former owner of the Cleveland Browns and minority owner of the Baltimore Ravens, passed this morning at 4am of natural causes. Art's memory will be a looked at differently by 2 cities, which is unfortunate in my opinion because one of those cities is the sole reason one of the MAIN influencers behind making the NFL what it is today is not in the HOF...
In Cleveland Art Modell is still public enemy #1 because he took the team he owned, and the city loved enough to not give them a new stadium, and moved them from the shores of Lake Erie to the Harbor in Baltimore. Art Modell did what was best for his family business, and what other owners had done in the past. He took a team from a city not willing to provide the necessary upgrades and financial support and moved it to another city that was willing to help a man in financial hardship. The Cleveland Browns were ripped from their die hard fans because of a mutual business decision by Modell AND the city of Cleveland, yet somehow Modell is the only one to take blame here. Modell mentioned time and time again to the city leaders he was going to need financial help to get a new stadium and drive more revenue, but the city ignored it. So Modell wasnt bluffing...he was gonna leave. May I also mention that the deal to move to Baltimore was done on a private jet owned by the man who brokered the deal.....Al Lerner. Yes Cleveland, the same man you praise for bringing football back (the NFL had already assured Cleveland a team with its next expansion when Modell announced he was moving but I am sure that is forgotten in Cleveland to) is the same man that helped it leave...And so Modell brought football back to Baltimore....
Art Modell took the Browns after the 1995 season and moved them to Baltimore to become the Ravens. He left the Browns name, legacy and story to the city of Cleveland as a good faith gesture because he knew how important it was to the city. (something not afforded the city of Baltimore 15 years earlier when Bob Irsay took the Colts and everything with him to Indianapolis, so think about that the next time Browns fans when you hear about a record you got to keep and team name and colors you still keep) In 2000 he won a Super Bowl as Majority owner and struck a deal with local business man Steve Bisciotti to eventually take over as majority owner. In 2001 Modell was eligible for the NFL Hall Of Fame and was a finalist. He has never received enough voted to be enshrined due to a ridiculous, subjective and opinionated voting system.
Hall of Fame voting is and should be based simply on merit of the honor. The NFL Hall of Fame limits the number of members enshrined each year and each player is measured by a 39 member selection committee. Candidates must then reach 80% of the vote to get in. Real quickly here is Art Modell's resume:
- Owned the Cleveland Browns from 1961-1995
- Negotiated the first LUCRATIVE contracts between the NFL and the TV networks
- Was NFL league President from 1967-1969
- Chaired Negotiations in the very FIRST collective bargaining agreement with players in 1968
- Was THE driving force behind the 1970 contract between the NFL and ABC to start up a little program called Monday Night Football
The HOF finalists are reviewed by the committee with a very strange and subjective process. The player is presented to the committee by the member of that same committee from the city they represent. Modell was represented by Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Tony Grossi in 2001. As the story goes, Grossi got up in front of the committee to present and began not to speak about the above mentioned merits but how awful a person Modell was for taking the Browns from Cleveland (mind you not the first owner to move a team for financial hardship by a long shot) and the pain and misery it caused the city. Rumor is the Grossi even shed a tear.....that's fine as a fan, as a spectator...but in a process such as this it is completely out of place and unprofessional especially 5 years after the event occurred and you had a team back. It was unprofessional and just simply unfair because that speech and every year since has kept an unbelievably deserving man out of the HOF because of a broken process.
Art Modell should have gotten to see his bust in Canton....now that is lost forever. Cleveland you and Tony Grossi can stay angry if you want, but he did what any business man and NFL Owner would have done. IT has been 15 years....Pay your respects.....Appreciate what you had and then got returned to you out of good faith by a man who built what you love so dearly.
Rest in Peace Art...I bet your a HOF next year....
GOLDY
