Art Modell

[CrocodileDilemma]

one of the worst reads ever.

 

i know this hits clevelanders a lot harder than those fans living outside the region so i've made an effort as to stand back a little as far as my comments go just because i wasn't there. that being said yes he was on one hand the biggest scumbage in cleveland history. but on the other hand he was one of the best owners the franchise has ever seen. didn't we see a championship under his reign? didn't we have the sipe and cardiac kids? the kosar era? if not for a couple of bungled plays we could have easily been in 3 super bowls. then there is what he did for football outside of cleveland.

 

watching it from afar, seeing everything unfold via news articles and national sports tv, i truly put more blame on the city of cleveland and their city council and especially the mayor, who when he spoke was basically drawing a line in the sand. "wouldn't give in". "not be hussled" and then after weeks and months of hearing this and not getting what he needed modell was on tv saying "i'm not going to sit here and beg and plead like a little child for what i think this team deserves" kinda told me the team was gone.

 

yes he does deserve the HOF. he did then and does now. if anyone should've been burned in effigy it should've benn mayor blackie white.

 

btw. it's not just the browns doing a moment of silence for modell it's every team in the league. i'm sure goodell was a teeneager in the nfl offices running errands for the big boys while rozell and tagliabu were still at the helm so he must have seen modell many times in those offices. i'm sure he has first hand knowledge of what modell did for this league. that's why the moment of silence is being done league wide.

 

 

IMHO he wasnt a great franchise owner. He was losing money despite leasing the stadium for $1/year, and cleveland was responsible for upkeep on the stadium. Sounds like a bad business owner to me.

[hoorta]

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/09/cleveland_browns_cancel_their.html

 

 

 

This is the best decision that could have been made.

 

Yeah- at least Dave Modell and Kevin Byrne knew the odds of it getting really ugly were mighty high. I'll be at the game and disrespectful or not- pretty sure I would have booed- loudly.

[Hunt Daddy]

Yea this is a super good move to not remember him. I bet there will still be things you can hear. Maybe a chant or something, but not having a moment of silence is a good call of the team's part.

[miktoxic]

^^^That's such a gross oversimplification. He isn't just some dead guy. Benedict Arnold wasn't just some dead guy. He was a fucking traitor, and his name is still used to describe people like him 200 years later. Modell committed the worst sin that could be committed in the NFL, and this is how he's going to be remembered for it.

 

dude, i know all of this. why should you care, you weren't even a fan then.

 

listen i 'hate' people. not in a true sense, but like when you're speeding along the highway and some asshole is doing 55 in the left lane and the other 2 lanes are blocked.......and you flash your brights or honk your horn but the person is oblivious to the fact that you want to run them the fuck off the road. yeah i 'hate' that person. then. 5 minutes later i forget all about the prick. i 'hate' people that walk 3 across the sidewalks but because there are 3 of them they won't move making you step into the street or into dog shit by a tree. yeah i 'hate' people. but 5 minutes later i forget about the fucks.

 

granted modell took about 6 years to get over BUT it's over. sure he'll always be remembered as the guy who took a team from cleveland. a weasel maybe. a traitor????? i don't know. he made it a point to leave all the records and titles and colors and name behind. he could've moved the team kept everything and the new team coulda been named the baltimore browns. how about that?

 

all i'm saying is we got the browns back. and no matter how bad it's been since coming back, you can't blame that on modell. bad coaches, good coaches getting fired. bad draft picks. etc. etc. all have contributed to this fiasco. but to walk around with all the hate and blame will only lead to an aneurism, stroke or heart attack. slow it the fuck down. relax. have a smoke. it's 4:20 somewhere. (well it was 1/2 hour ago).

[BadNewsBrowns]

he made it a point to leave all the records and titles and colors and name behind. he could've moved the team kept everything and the new team coulda been named the baltimore browns. how about that?

 

 

Afaik, Those were exactly his intentions.

 

They were all set to start selling Baltimore Browns gear and the City of Cleveland sued him for breaking the stadium lease.

 

Then they came to terms that Cleveland would keep the history,colors etc. and Modell would be allowed to leave.

 

So it's not like he threw us a bone,pun intended... he wanted the whole enchilada.

[VaporTrail]

dude, i know all of this. why should you care, you weren't even a fan then.

 

listen i 'hate' people. not in a true sense, but like when you're speeding along the highway and some asshole is doing 55 in the left lane and the other 2 lanes are blocked.......and you flash your brights or honk your horn but the person is oblivious to the fact that you want to run them the fuck off the road. yeah i 'hate' that person. then. 5 minutes later i forget all about the prick. i 'hate' people that walk 3 across the sidewalks but because there are 3 of them they won't move making you step into the street or into dog shit by a tree. yeah i 'hate' people. but 5 minutes later i forget about the fucks.

 

granted modell took about 6 years to get over BUT it's over. sure he'll always be remembered as the guy who took a team from cleveland. a weasel maybe. a traitor????? i don't know. he made it a point to leave all the records and titles and colors and name behind. he could've moved the team kept everything and the new team coulda been named the baltimore browns. how about that?

 

all i'm saying is we got the browns back. and no matter how bad it's been since coming back, you can't blame that on modell. bad coaches, good coaches getting fired. bad draft picks. etc. etc. all have contributed to this fiasco. but to walk around with all the hate and blame will only lead to an aneurism, stroke or heart attack. slow it the fuck down. relax. have a smoke. it's 4:20 somewhere. (well it was 1/2 hour ago).

 

He probably should've kept the name. Then, maybe, I wouldn't have such high expectations for the team I root for, given its past greatness. None of that really matters to me, like you said, I wasn't even a fan then. What matters is what happened when I was a fan. I was 9 years old when the team got taken away. Given what I've learned about the situation, no one was more to blame, more selfish than him.

[PoeticG]

Guys over 200 Games have been played since we've came back... I know this because coming up against the Eagles; our very own Phil Dawson will make his 200th Start!!! That's the way we metaphorically kick Modell ass and memory out of Cleveland forever. Modell may have taken the team from the city but... he could never take the team from the city. It's a wash now; Now lets go win our Championship.

[VaporTrail]

^Worse than Modell?

[nickers]

What this man did to this city?...are you people fuckin crazy?...He raped this city while he was here...when he moved the Browns...Im My mind...that erased any good hes hes ever done...Piss on you,Art!

[Vincent]

Friends of the AFC North,

 

Legend has it that Art Modell talked Art Rooney into moving to the new AFC with him to avail himself of the financial rewards and continue the rivalry, which to that point had gone the Browns' way. Our position in the league and best record since the merger might have been very different if our Art Rooney hadn't listened. Say what you will about Art Modell, but we owe him a debt of gratitude.

 

With respect Mr. Modell, rest in peace.

 

From Dan Rooney...http://www.steelers.com/news/article...6-e6d8dd2659b7

 

"Art Modell was a good friend to our family and he will be sadly missed. He was instrumental in helping the National Football League become what it is today, and he always had the league’s best interest at hand. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family as he will be missed dearly by the Steelers organization and the Rooney family."

 

Every post I have read on Steeler boards echoes that sentiment.

 

Here is to much success with your new ownership and a renewal of the intense rivalry we have enjoyed in the past.

 

Best,

 

Vincent

[miktoxic]

What this man did to this city?...are you people fuckin crazy?...He raped this city while he was here...when he moved the Browns...Im My mind...that erased any good hes hes ever done...Piss on you,Art!

 

you've got problems. hopefully you don't have any firearms.

 

wouldn't want to be at mcdonalds that day when you show up with an ouzi and take out 20 people cuz your fries were cold.

[VaporTrail]

you've got problems. hopefully you don't have any firearms.

 

wouldn't want to be at mcdonalds that day when you show up with an ouzi and take out 20 people cuz your fries were cold.

 

You're accusing everyone who's got any passion about this topic of pulling a Columbine. Really? Weren't you the one that made the thread about Tim Tebow's Focus on the Family commercial? Indignation is part of life. Deal.

[calfoxwc]

Apparently, mik is angry that the Browns and even the dirtbag is getting more

 

attention than him.

 

Drop the violence insinuation, mik - it's stupid and uncalled for.

[FairHooker11]

count me as one among those here who think we should just let this go, and not feed the hate machine that is all things Modell. The family requests that we dont offer any memorials today

 

for the fear (Im sure) of the negative reaction.. CMON is that how we want to be thought of? well its too late... we will be seen as classless bunch because we havent learned to move on... sheesh

 

 

SO yes we had our hearts ripped out with the move... Show a BIGGER heart to prove that we are

 

over it and give the man the respect as a guy like the rest of us who loved football.

[VaporTrail]

count me as one among those here who think we should just let this go, and not feed the hate machine that is all things Modell. The family requests that we dont offer any memorials today

 

for the fear (Im sure) of the negative reaction.. CMON is that how we want to be thought of? well its too late... we will be seen as classless bunch because we havent learned to move on... sheesh

 

 

SO yes we had our hearts ripped out with the move... Show a BIGGER heart to prove that we are

 

over it and give the man the respect as a guy like the rest of us who loved football.

 

I really can't stand this "Be the bigger man" mentality. Yeah, your feelings are hurt, "just rise above it. Just pretend it doesn't hurt. It'll just go away."

 

Bottling your emotion isn't healthy. Being pressured by the NFL to pay respects to a guy who screwed us is something I find completely demeaning and disrespectful to myself and the city. It's a false show of emotion, and it just goes to show you that the NFL and ESPN care more about political correctness than, you know, being honest. The national media would have made us out to be assholes like they always do (remember the kid getting tackled, remember people burning lebron jerseys?). To hell with being the bigger man and to hell with the national media. I don't have to respect the guy because he's dead, now. Pretending that you have respect for someone you don't is NOT a healthy way of dealing with your pent up anger.

[The Cysko Kid]

Holding a grudge for 16 years especially since the browns are now back isn't healthy either, vapor.

[Smokin' Weeden]

At the request of the Modell family, Cleveland will be the only team without a moment of silence.

[firebiker911]

At the request of the Modell family, Cleveland will be the only team without a moment of silence.

 

This is one Modell family decision I agree with. Would have made us look bad. There is no reason for us to honor this a-hole.

[manbearpig]

I agree too. I can see that moment of silence or anything like that going totally bad here in Cleveland.

[The Gipper]

one of the worst reads ever.

 

i know this hits clevelanders a lot harder than those fans living outside the region so i've made an effort as to stand back a little as far as my comments go just because i wasn't there. that being said yes he was on one hand the biggest scumbage in cleveland history. but on the other hand he was one of the best owners the franchise has ever seen. didn't we see a championship under his reign? didn't we have the sipe and cardiac kids? the kosar era? if not for a couple of bungled plays we could have easily been in 3 super bowls. then there is what he did for football outside of cleveland.

 

watching it from afar, seeing everything unfold via news articles and national sports tv, i truly put more blame on the city of cleveland and their city council and especially the mayor, who when he spoke was basically drawing a line in the sand. "wouldn't give in". "not be hussled" and then after weeks and months of hearing this and not getting what he needed modell was on tv saying "i'm not going to sit here and beg and plead like a little child for what i think this team deserves" kinda told me the team was gone.

 

yes he does deserve the HOF. he did then and does now. if anyone should've been burned in effigy it should've benn mayor blackie white.

 

btw. it's not just the browns doing a moment of silence for modell it's every team in the league. i'm sure goodell was a teeneager in the nfl offices running errands for the big boys while rozell and tagliabu were still at the helm so he must have seen modell many times in those offices. i'm sure he has first hand knowledge of what modell did for this league. that's why the moment of silence is being done league wide.

 

If he deserves the HOF, then at the same time they put him in they must also induct Robert Irsay, Georgia Frontiere, Bill Bidwill, Bud Adams and others.....because that is the company he keeps.

[The Gipper]

Friends of the AFC North,

 

Legend has it that Art Modell talked Art Rooney into moving to the new AFC with him to avail himself of the financial rewards and continue the rivalry, which to that point had gone the Browns' way. Our position in the league and best record since the merger might have been very different if our Art Rooney hadn't listened. Say what you will about Art Modell, but we owe him a debt of gratitude.

 

With respect Mr. Modell, rest in peace.

 

From Dan Rooney...http://www.steelers.com/news/article...6-e6d8dd2659b7

 

"Art Modell was a good friend to our family and he will be sadly missed. He was instrumental in helping the National Football League become what it is today, and he always had the league’s best interest at hand. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family as he will be missed dearly by the Steelers organization and the Rooney family."

 

Every post I have read on Steeler boards echoes that sentiment.

 

Here is to much success with your new ownership and a renewal of the intense rivalry we have enjoyed in the past.

 

Best,

 

Vincent

 

Fair enough

[The Gipper]

I sincerely can't grasp how so many of you feel. The guy was loved and respected by so many, including most of you until he did what he felt he had to.

 

The city so many of you call home continues to affect your lives in many ways, most of them negative, but you cheer and make ignorant comments about a man's death.....a man you used to love?

 

It's funny that the facts surrounding the departure of the Browns is seen by everyone in the football world on one end of a spectrum and seen at the extreme opposite end by Cleveland. Doesn't that tell you something?

 

When Ozzie talks about what a genuine human being Art was, do you also hate Ozzie?

 

A. Just because a guy does so many "good" things in his life doesn't mean that he shouldn't be judged for the bad things he does. Like Jerry Sandusky. Many called him a genuine, nice human being. Loved by his colleagues and players. Pedophile.

 

Art Modell, loved by players and colleagues. But whatever pejorative you can use about him, that is what he is. He wasn't thought highly enough of by his fellow owners not to have them vote to have him kicked out of the league.

 

B. That in NOT just a Cleveland view....trust me. Not everyone in the football world thought that much of him.

[BaconHound]

I sincerely can't grasp how so many of you feel. The guy was loved and respected by so many, including most of you until he did what he felt he had to.

 

The city so many of you call home continues to affect your lives in many ways, most of them negative, but you cheer and make ignorant comments about a man's death.....a man you used to love?

 

It's funny that the facts surrounding the departure of the Browns is seen by everyone in the football world on one end of a spectrum and seen at the extreme opposite end by Cleveland. Doesn't that tell you something?

 

When Ozzie talks about what a genuine human being Art was, do you also hate Ozzie?

 

We agree

 

Art wanted a new stadium, city said no, so he moved his team to a place that would build him one.

 

Then, miraculously, a new stadium is built and Modell is the bad guy?

 

It stinks that the team left but you did what he wanted just wouldn't do it for him...

[The Gipper]

We agree

 

Art wanted a new stadium, city said no, so he moved his team to a place that would build him one.

 

Then, miraculously, a new stadium is built and Modell is the bad guy?

 

It stinks that the team left but you did what he wanted just wouldn't do it for him...

 

If you are as light in your loafers as you are on your facts, you are Tinker Bell motherfucker.

[Bodogjoe]

I know I will honor him. First, I will find where he is buried, then, find the worst hole in the wall mexican restraunt I can. Spend 100 dollars on food there. Go to Art's grave naked, except for a Browns helmet, squat above the grave and let the honoring begin.

[BaconHound]

If you are as light in your loafers as you are on your facts, you are Tinker Bell motherfucker.

 

Ok what are the facts?

[The Gipper]

Ok what are the facts?

 

Jesus, do I have to recite all the facts surrounding Art Modell's departure here for you?

Not gonna do it.

Go back and read about the last 5 years of my posts, you will find them in their somewhere.

 

I go back to one of my favorite movie lines, from Casablanca:

 

Ugati: "You despise me, don't you Rick".

 

Rick: "If I gave you any thought, I probably would".

 

I would like to try to not give that guy any thought, any more.

[The Gipper]

A. You're missing one big difference, it's being methodically proven that Sandusky was a disgusting human being. Cleveland hating Modell is just opinion.

 

You usually compose and write well...........that being said, the circular words and multiple negatives are hard to follow here. Are you saying he was kicked out of the league?

 

 

I don't think I stuttered. Art Modell: kicked out of the NFL. It is an historical fact.

 

Where were you?

[BaconHound]

Jesus, do I have to recite all the facts surrounding Art Modell's departure here for you?

Not gonna do it.

Go back and read about the last 5 years of my posts, you will find them in their somewhere.

 

I go back to one of my favorite movie lines, from Casablanca:

 

Ugati: "You despise me, don't you Rick".

 

Rick: "If I gave you any thought, I probably would".

 

I would like to try to not give that guy any thought, any more.

 

If the City of Cleveland said, "Art we are going to destroy the mistake by the lake and build you a new stadium" do you think he would have moved the team?

 

I don't and I don't think most reasonable people do

[The Gipper]

If the City of Cleveland said, "Art we are going to destroy the mistake by the lake and build you a new stadium" do you think he would have moved the team?

 

The answer is: absolutely YES. See below.

 

I don't and I don't think most reasonable people do

 

First off...it wasn't "the city" that controlled the purse strings. It was the county. All of the Gateway money was county money, not city money.

 

Otherwise, ssentially, that is exactly what the county did say....or a variation of it.

 

They said....we need to find the way to raise the money to make the renovations on the stadium that you...Mr. Art Modell....have asked us to make. We will put an extension of the sin tax on the ballot and raise your money that way. (did you think the money grew on trees?)

And that is exactly what happened. The measure passed that would have financed exactly what Modell had proposed. Remember, the renovation proposal was HIS idea, not the county/city's.

 

But he decided to take the turnkey offer that Baltimore made him....why? Because it contained a provision...a bribe really...that said "we will pay YOU directly 75 million dollars" (or whatever the figure was). The county/city sin tax extension renovated the stadium...but didn't put cash in his pocket. He wanted that cash...NOW.

That is what it all came down to for him. Not a new/renovated stadium...but an immediate cash payment made personally to him as an inducement to relocate.

He wanted/needed that money to get out of debt that he had irresponsibly saddled himself with.

When he said "I have no choice" he really meant "If I want to maintain ownership of an NFL team...and not have to sell it to someone else (like Al Lerner) to pay off my debt, and not have it foreclosed on by the banks I owe money to, I have to take Baltimore's cash inducement.

The key is: he could have avoided foreclosure by selling it to AL. He could have made a profit from that sale. But, he could NOT retain the ego massage of being an NFL owner if he did that. He could not maintain the team in his family after he died if he did that. THAT was the everloving MOST important thing to him. That is why he took the inducement to move.

 

Did you really not know these facts?

 

Now....another perspective:

 

Having announced that he was going to move.....I don't think he ever could foresee the firestorm that that attempt would bring upon him and his family.

The lawsuits, the bitterness toward him from here (and elsewhere), probably death threats, etc. all overwhelmed him.....but worse was the fact that when he moved to Baltimore, after he took their money, after all the bullshit that happened he realized two things:

A. Taking that money and moving STILL did not solve his financial problems. Within two years the banks were hounding him for repayment and still threatening foreclosure on his "asset" that secured his loans...which were never paid off even after all the "bribe" money....and even with the revenue streams from the new Baltimore Stadium. He realized "I still can't make it".

B. He realized that David didn't need or want the ownership to boost his ego as he did. Davis like to play at ownership...the superficial part....glad handing, going to parties, etc. but he didn't want to run an NFL team.

 

With all that he went through...and with this new perspective about his finances and his son's lack of interest in the team ...and with the rest of the league owners telling him "you can no longer be a part of our club" he probably said finally "Fuck it" Sell it. "I'm 70 some years old, get me out of this racket". So he took the Biscottie money, allowing a few years of transition so that he could bow out somewhat gracefully.

 

Did I answer your question? Yes, he would have "moved" regardless.