Chick Ludwig covers the Cincinnati Bengals. He also writes about his other passions: college football, basketball and golf.Home > Blogs > Chick Ludwig At Large > Archives > 2008 > September > 16 > Entry
‘The most hated man in Cleveland’
RAVENS VS. BROWNS
SUNDAY IN BALTIMORE
MEANS BAD BLOOD
IT OPENS WOUND CAUSED
BY MR. ARTHUR B. MODELL
===LUDWIG AT LARGE wants this question answered by Cleveland Browns fans: With Art Modell in failing health at age 83, has your feelings of hatred softened for the man who moved the Browns to Baltimore in 1996?===
Fact: The Browns won seven AAFC and NFL championships prior to Art Modell’s arrival in ‘61.
Fact: Art Modell fired Paul Brown as Browns head coach on January 9, 1963.
Fact: A week later, Modell named Brown’s assistant, Blanton Collier, head coach.
Fact: The Browns won the 1964 NFL championship with Paul Brown’s players.
Fact: During the next 30 years in Cleveland, not a single Modell team won the league title.
Note — The above information courtesy of NFL Record & Fact Book, Cleveland Browns media guide and Wikipedia.
LUDWIG AT LARGE has something he’d like to get off his not-so-hairy chest.
The last thing I need to see or hear or read is Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh pandering to former Browns and Ravens owner Arthur B. Modell, the grinch who stole football from Cleveland for three years (1996-98) and anointed himself savior of the Port of Baltimore and the great state of Maryland.
I’ve heard, read and seen all the arguments attempting to exonerate Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore after the ‘95 season; how he supposedly and allegedly did all he could to keep the team in Cleveland, and I don’t buy ‘em.
Modell had promised many times he’d never move the team from Cleveland, and he lied.
All Modell would’ve had to do is call a news conference in the early 1990s, with every important media outlet in Northeast Ohio present, look into the TV cameras and say, “If the Cleveland Browns don’t get a new stadium, the franchise will be moving.”
Instead, he sat in one of Alfred Lerner’s jets and struck a deal with Maryland authorities to move the club.
The city of Cleveland will never forget or forgive Modell, considered to this day to be the most hated man in Cleveland. That’s why he hasn’t returned to the city since 1996. Even when Lou “The Toe” Groza died on Nov. 29, 2000, at the age of 76 — his Browns’ uniform number — Modell didn’t attend the funeral because he feared for his safety.
So it really comes as no surprise that Harbaugh — when asked, “What do you think of the rivalry between the Browns and the Ravens?” — washes Modell’s feet with his tears and dries them with his hair.
IN HARBAUGH’S WORDS:
“Art Modell has become a mentor, and we’ve had a chance to spend some time with he and his wife Pat. So we’ve had a chance to go through some of the history, and I grew up with the history just like you (media) did.
“What he’s done for Baltimore, and the way that whole thing played out (moving the Browns team to Baltimore), I think it’s played out in a real positive way, in a way that nobody could have anticipated.
“It’s been so great for this city and for this region. And I think he’s a hero in so many ways. He did everything he could to keep the franchise in Cleveland, and providence didn’t make that happen. And so, he made the best of it, came here and made a bunch of people really happy.
“I’m proud to be a part of this organization now and be in Baltimore. He’s a hero in my mind.”
For more information on Art Modell, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Modell
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: NFL
Comments
By John
September 17, 2008 1:01 AM | Link to this
No, he should not be hated. It’s called payback. He had to leave for having PB leave. The only way for him to go was to take the team with him. Don’t you think he felt like he lost control of the Browns when the “Dog Pound” became more notable than he was? The “Dog Pound” took the Browns away from him. No, AM had to go, and he took his team with him. (People with money have power, and people with power have money).By John
September 17, 2008 1:33 AM | Link to this
Based upon three of the last four facts mentioned above, many people were happy to see him go; to bad he had to take the team with him. Well, we may not have had the Bengals, Ravens or new Browns today, without AM.By Don In Ansonia
September 17, 2008 6:51 AM | Link to this
Art Modell and George Steinbrenner are like Fidel Castro. They take over a big organization/country and for decades run it in a controversial “ME” style. You wonder how they last so long and you yearn for an overthrow that never ever comes. Sad but true.By Robert Young
September 18, 2008 8:47 AM | Link to this
Chick, I hate the Clowns and their fans. Yet the one thing will hate more is what Modell did! Plain wrong. Years ago Gene Klein wrote a book called First Down and a Billion to go. He wrote it after he sold the Chargers to Alex Spanos. The book was on his tenure as owner, interesting read. In it he tells how when Cleveland was putting together the package for The Jake etc the Clowns were approached about a stadium. Modell declined because his company had managing rights to Muncipal Stadium. If it was replaced he knew his company would be out in the Cleveland cold. So he did have a chance to get a new stadium. When he came back a few years later it was to late as there was no way to pass a second tax for stadiums. This was also the Einstein that while owning a NFL team had to take a loan to sign a free agent. It takes a lot of stupidity to lose money as an NFL owner yet Modell managed to do it. The only other example I know of accomplishing this was Leonard Tose of the Eagles and his situation was due to gambling losses. Yet Modell has done two good deeds. First he fired PB which lead directly to Cincinnati getting a team a few years later. Then as Cincinnati was debating a tax hike for stadiums he was kind enough to announce he was moving to Baltimore. Without that announcement no way the tax passes here. To quote the old school banner “Thanks Art”