Art Modell. What the media WON'T Tell you.

Art Modell has passed on and of course, a lot of The Media and The NFL is spinning it as if he was the greatest owner in the History of The NFL. (Now granted, some in the media are also bringing up his shortcomings and controversies.)

Now, you're about to hear the WHOLE Truth about him.

Yes, I am a Browns Fan, and this is A LOT more than just him moving the team to Baltimore.

This is a man who after purchasing the Browns in 1961:

1. Fired The Team's Namesake, Paul Brown after the 1962 Season. All Paul Brown did was Coach The Browns to Ten Straight League Championship Game Appearances between 1946 and 1955. Four in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1948, '47, '48 and 1949. (The 1948 Browns went Undefeated, 24 Years before The '72 Dolphins pulled it off.). Make it to Six Straight NFL Championship Games between 1950 and '55, winning it in 1950, '54 and 1955. (The Modern Version is making it to six straight Super Bowls.) and come up with many innovations that are now common practice in football.


2. Outside of listing them in the Official Record, Refused to acknowledge the Browns Past Championships won in the ways an owner can acknowledge them all because The Man he Fired, (Paul Brown) built and coached those teams. (...and none of them took place while HE owned the team.) Later, this policy was adopted by The NFL after the NFL/AFL Merger judging by the League's treatment of most things from the Pre-Super Bowl Era.


3. De-Emphasized the one NFL Championship he did win in Cleveland (1964) all to adhere to the NFL's Culture of "If it happened before The Super Bowl Era, It doesn't count." because he was a "Good Company Man" when it came to The NFL. (Translation: He cared more about The NFL than he did The Browns.)


4. Crippled the Browns with Bad Trades, Bad Drafts, Bad Decisions and Incompetent Meddling in General, and ran The Browns into the ground for years. Not to mention The Financial Blunder known as The Stadium Corporation.

You would swear that The Browns were always a sorry, moribund franchise from Day One, when in fact, they were at one time, THE Model Franchise of Pro Football. (...and a Top Franchise in all of Pro Sports.)

Their first decade of existence (1946-1955) can be categorized as a True Sports Dynasty. Of course, Modell screwed all that up denying generations of Browns Fans Championships that they could enjoy.

Memo to The Media and The NFL: This Weasel

doesn't deserve any praise and respect, just

condemnation. Him winning The Super Bowl in

Baltimore is proof of three things:

1. God does not care who wins ball games.

2. Karma is a Myth.

3. Sends a bad message that "Crime Does Pay".

So, how did an owner who is this incompetent and smarmy gain so much Political Power within The NFL?

1. Because they were of the same Generation, and the fact that he was The NFL Commissioner, Modell sidled up to Pete Rozelle and they remained friends until Rozelle's death in 1996. Yes, I know that any team owner needs to have some type of relationship with the League Commissioner.

2. Because of his business background, which was predominantly Television Production. (Along with Advertising and Public Relations.) He was The NFL's Lead Negotiator in the Television Contract Talks with The Networks. These Contracts reaped Hundreds of Millions, (...and eventually, Billions.) helping The NFL to become one of the most profitable businesses in The World.

If he were as good in running The Browns as he was negotiating The TV Contracts for the NFL, The Browns wouldn't have become a moribund, snake bitten laughingstock that they became under his watch. Maybe he wouldn't have moved to Baltimore and maybe have some Super Bowl Titles in Cleveland and not seen as a Pariah.

It's also amazing how he ran that Illegitimate Bastard of a Franchise known as The Ravens in a manner that is the complete opposite of the way he did  The Browns when it comes to On The Field. Off The Field, Same Crap, Different City. In spite of the fact that The State of Maryland paid for virtually everything and the NFL is very profitable, he STILL LOST MONEY so he had to sell most of the team to Daniel Biscotti. (Modell still owned 1% just to stay in.)

MODELL AND MONEY

When he bought the Browns in 1961, officially, he bought them for $4 Million (Around 29.2 Million in 2011 Dollars.) which was then a record. However, he only used $250,000 (Around 1.82 Million in 2011 Dollars.) of his own money while Borrowing $2.7 Million (Around 19.7 Million in 2011 Dollars) from The Bank and finding partners for the rest.

To finalize the Merger in 1970, three of the old school NFL Teams had to move to the newly formed AFC so that the AFC and NFC would each have 13 teams. After a lot of discussion, The Baltimore Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns agreed to move to The AFC. The NFL makes it sound like they did this for the good of The League when in fact, The three Teams were paid $3 Million each to do so. (Around 16.8 Million in 2011 Dollars.) So much for the "Doing it for the good of the NFL" Propaganda.

Modell's biggest Financial Blunder was the "Stadium Corporation" which he formed in 1973. The Stadium had become a debt ridden liability to The City of Cleveland. In this deal, he would rent the stadium from the city for One Dollar a year and assume all operating and repair costs of the stadium and sublease the stadium to both The Browns and The Indians. (Making it where The Browns were essentially paying rent to themselves.)

Modell built Loges in the Stadium, but the Indians didn't see a penny of that money, and what profit Modell did get from them did not go towards offsetting The Stadium Debt. (...and those Loges were always used during Browns Games, which usually had great attendance at the Old Stadium.)

MOVING THE TEAM TO BALTIMORE. HOW LONG WAS HE REALLY PLANNING TO DO THIS? (...AND ALL THE DECEPTION ALONG THE WAY.)

One Myth that Modell Apologists love to tell is that Modell was never offered a piece of The Gateway Project which was formed around 1990. (The Project that led to the building of what is now Progressive Field, QuickenLoans Arena and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

Not true. He in fact was offered a piece of this (Which was to be a Domed Stadium.) but Modell instead asked the City for more money for the old Cleveland Stadium.

Around 1992 when The NFL expanded with The Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, there were of course other cities bidding for an Expansion Team. Among them of course was Baltimore. Art Modell went out of his way in using his Political Power within The NFL to ruin it for The Baltimore Expansion Effort (The Team was to be known as "The Bombers".) and smugly stated "The NFL has no business being in Baltimore". Was he saving it for himself?

In the Browns Media Guides dating back to the early 90's, the mailing address for the Browns Backers Headquarters (Where people could apply to form an official Browns Backers Chapter.) is in MARYLAND.

With all that, Modell still managed to persuade The City of Berea Ohio (Home of Baldwin-Wallace College, where The Browns practiced for years.) to build a brand new practice and administrative complex at this time. (...and yet, they still didn't move the headquarters for the Browns Backers Clubs into the new building.)

HOW I FINALLY CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT MODELL WAS PLANNING THE MOVE FOR YEARS.

This is the Logo I designed for what would have been The Cleveland
Browns' 50th Anniversary in the 1996 Season. Something that
Browns Fans never got to celebrate thanks to Art Modell.

Okay, you have the events with The Gateway Project, The Mailing Address of The Browns Backers being in Maryland, NFL Expansion and the building of the Facility in Berea OH, all while many believe that Modell was planning the move to Baltimore.

Well, what I am about to tell you really happened in February of 1995 (About Nine Months before Modell officially announced that he was moving the team to Baltimore.

In February of 1995, I went to a charity event in Strongsville OH hosted by Debby Belichick and "The Browns Wives". (Bill Belichick at the time being The Browns Head Coach.) This was attended by The Browns Front Office, Coaches and their Wives. Art Modell and his Wife were there briefly as well.

Me, being a bit of an artist, decided to create a logo for the 1996 Season as it was to be The Browns 50th Anniversary of coming into existence in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) along with The San Francisco 49ers who also began in the AAFC. Both The Browns and The 49ers went into The NFL in 1950.

So, the NFL does not recognize the AAFC and will not allow
a team that started there to Commemorate their beginning in
the AAFC? Really? Then explain this 49ers 50th
Anniversary Logo they wore on their jerseys in 1996.
(Courtesy of Sports Logos.net)

I showed the "Browns 50 Logo" (as I call it, and seen above.) to Kevin Byrne, who at the time, was Vice-President of Public Relations with the Browns. (and retained that position with the team when they moved to Baltimore.) Byrne told me that the NFL does not recognize the AAFC Years and wouldn't allow The Browns to commemorate this. I took Byrne at his word since The NFL does have a history of not recognizing certain aspects of Pro Football History that did not involve them.

Of course in October of 1995. Modell made The Announcement.

So The 1996 NFL Season comes around. I'm watching an Exhibition Game involving The 49ers and what do I see. A 50th Anniversary Patch on the 49ers Jerseys. (You can see that to the left and above this text.) The same 49ers who like The Browns, began life in the AAFC in 1946 and went to the NFL in 1950. This after being told by Kevin Byrne (Who is a Higher Up in the Browns/now Ravens Front Office.) that the NFL would not allow it.

This is what convinced me once and for all that Art Modell was planning the move for years and only certain high ranking members of the front office also knew he was planning to move the team.

I am also willing to sign a Legal Affidavit stating that what I have stated above is true.

The Irony is that Modell is a native of Brooklyn. Remember the Dodgers?

Now, I don't lay all the blame on Modell. But I do blame him for the overwhelming majority of this.

Some (ESPECIALLY Modell Apologists.) blame the local and state politicians in Ohio. I blame them a little, but nowhere near the level that others do.

I also put a big part of the blame on then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Before Modell moved the team to Baltimore, Tagliabue stopped then Seattle Seahawks Owner Ken Behring from moving them to Los Angeles, forcing him to sell the team to Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen. This means that if he wanted to, he could have stopped Modell from moving the team and forcing him to sell them.

In my opinion, the reason why Tagliabue did not stop Modell is because Tagliabue wanted all the teams to build new stadiums and I think he was looking for that one excuse where he can say "This is what will happen if you don't have a new stadium." and the Browns were that excuse. Huge, Loyal Fan Base with a National Following, etc. So Tagliabue in my opinion was an enabler. Believe me, Tagliabue isn't highly thought of among Cleveland Fans.

As the late Paul Harvey would say: "Now You Know THE REST of The Story."