Written by Jeff Rich

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Though it was a fair question, I was a bit blindsided by it.  Tis was not the season to be bitter about Art Modell; after all, we thought that one got buried in New Orleans when this year's Hall of Fame class was announced without the inclusion of the late former owner of the Baltimore Ravens on it.  Now, I've made it no secret that I object to the very mention of Modell's candidacy for Canton, but the way I answer the question varies, depending on whether I'm occupying a barstool at the local pub or representing my city and this site on the radio.

On the heels of Jonathan Ogden's Hall of Fame speech, most notably the part where he thanked the owner of the team that gave him NFL life, there were scattered boos from those in attendance at the birthplace of American Football, about an hour south on I-77 from First Energy Stadium.  I wasn't asked about the boos; they were what they were, a reaction from a still-stung fan base that despises even the faintest whisper of the name of the man who took the heart and soul of our city to Baltimore for a little bit of blood money.  Had that been the question, I would have stated, without reservation, that I disagreed with the boos.  It was Jonathan Ogden's day, and those who booed were absolutely not booing the man that was still up to no good in Inglewood when the Browns played their last game at Municipal Stadium, so I found the jeers to be inappropriate.  If years from now, any part of Joe Thomas's speech isn't well received, I would not want the man to be booed.

However, this was Canton and the hallowed structure behind Ogden was the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the last stop for the greatest to ever be involved with the game.  The busts inside represent the greats of not only the NFL, but all of professional football.  Membership is not, and has never been taken lightly.  If Browns fans could be granted just one Mulligan, it would be to undo what Modell did in re-locating the team to Maryland following the 1995 season, but we all know that ship has sailed.  Short of this expansion knock-off that will commence their 15th season on September 9th suddenly becoming successful, keeping the man who betrayed them out of the Hall of Fame is the next best thing.  Good thing for them, I don't agree with the 20-year radio veteran Fred Wallin, who asked if I agreed that there's a place for Modell in Canton, and it goes beyond the bitter.

The sign out front reads "PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME", so that tells me it is not a history museum. That's important to know, because Modell's name should be present in the annals of NFL history, but the words Arthur Bertram Modell shouldn't dillute the likenesses of the men who did great things to merit being honored there.  People like to blame Cleveland, to put it all on long-time beat-writer Tony Grossi, but there are 44 people in that room making that decision.  Grossi has just one voice and one vote, but his voice is that of Browns fans.  If the decision was ever close, maybe you could put it on the former Plain Dealer reporter, but last Febrary, Modell didn't make the first cut in New Orleans.  There are other people in the room, those not part of the cause, not that there is an actual cause to prohibit Art's entry, that don't believe the Hall is a place for Modell.

"Art Modell isn't a Hall of Famer, and it has nothing to do with what he did to Cleveland in 1996. He's not a Hall of Famer because he wasn't all that good at being an NFL owner. It's as simple as that. Or at least, it should be." -Gregg Doyel (CBS Sports)

If you don't read Doyel, I can fill you in.  Doyel doesn't placate to anyone; he just says what's on his mind and what he believes to be accurate.  In other words, he's a columnist, not unlike Terry Pluto, Hal Lebovitz, or whoever's opinion you enjoy reading.  He has fans and he has enemies, as most in his industry do, but I have never believed his agenda to be that of a zealot.  He dismisses the Cleveland bitterness, in pointing out that whatever bridges he burnt in Cleveland, he rebuilt in Baltimore.  We're reminded who Modell was not; Al Davis, Curly Lambeau, or Lamar Hunt, and I would even add Buffalo's Ralph Wilson.

Anytime you're set to wax poetic on a controversial subject, knowing you're addressing someone on the other side of the ailse, there's always a preamble.  Of course, I know what to concede; Art Modell was an integral part of the NFL's relationship with TV.  We hear a lot about Modell's role on the birth of Monday Night Football.  While it was true, let's give credit where credit is due; Monday Night Football is Roone Arledge's baby.  Modell volunteered his Browns to play the Jets in the game.  That game was blacked out in Cleveland.

Wallin had a nice little factoid about the (Colts and) Steelers essentially playing on their own exclusive network from 1959-1961; in fact, it was the idea of having the NFL compete with the very popular Major League Baseball in the TV market that motivated Modell to purchase the Browns in 1961.  In fact, keeping an open mind, I've found it difficult to find any real evidence that Modell was anything more than a lieutenant to Pete Rozelle.  Known blog-reader and notorious commenter who goes by the alias of Jim Kanicki presented a solid case to dismiss Modell's negotiating heroics in the National Football League's partnership with television.  I can offer Doyel's sense of balance on that one, in letting you know he was also the man responsible for the blackouts we all love so much.  Here's the beginning of Kanicki's case.

Here is the fall-back. The trump card. The ‘reasonable argument.’ The canard.

Art Modell deserves to be in the HOF because he (helped Pete Rozelle) negotiated TV contracts.

Let’s get something straight: after Wellington Mara agreed to let New York ad revenue be split equally among the franchises, I could have negotiated a TV contract. More precisely: I could have hung out on Clint Murchison’s island while Pete Rozelle opened sealed bids in NYC.

And not for nothing: do you know what would constitute a HOF TV negotiator? It would be the NOVEL IDEA of first thinking of the fans’ experience! Like how The Masters limits commercials to five minutes an hour? HEY NFL! HEY ART MODELL! You’re gonna get your 5.7 BILLION A YEAR no matter what! What say you get rid of the touchdown-commercial-kickoff-commercial thing. k, thx.

One of the cases made against Modell was driving Jim Brown to retire at the age of 29, when he demanded Brown be in Training Camp in 1966, instead of filming The Dirty Dozen.  I can even let that one go; not only was it before my time, but Jimmy Brown wasn't going to play in 1967 and the accounts of a lot of people I respect say the blame on Modell is murky at best.  What's not murky is that he fired Paul Borwn, and we have to see the Bengals remind us twice a year that the Browns are not the end all and be all of the NFL in Ohio.

While I did suggest, as Ravens fans and Browns dissenters will concur, that Blanton Collier wasn't the worst man to fire a legend for, the details of Paul Brown's termination are disgusting.  For PR purposes, Modell wanted Brown to play Ernie Davis, even though he'd been diagnosed with acute leukemia.  Stephen Jensen of the Star-Gazette reminds us of this horrific attempt to get a little return on his investment in this 2001 piece on Davis.

 "Modell came to me one day and said, `Put him in a game, and let him play,' " Brown wrote, meaning team owner Art Modell.

Brown, a coaching legend whom sportswriters called "The Brain Trust," wrote that Modell said of Davis: "We have a big investment in him, and I'd like to get some of it back. It doesn't matter how long he plays, just let him run back a kick, let him do anything, just so we can get a story in the paper saying he's going to play and the fans will come to see him."

What it comes down to for us in Cleveland is the losing.  Take your pick, the losing since Modell took the franchise to Baltimore or the overall losing since he purchased the team in 1961.  Prior to Modell's purchase of the club, the francise had won about 75% of their games (it goes up if you include their dominance of the All-American Football Conference, which I did not).  Under Modell, the Browns won about 54% of their games.  Without recapping three decades of ownership mishaps, I can cite the trades of Bobby Mitchell, Paul Warfield, and Willie Davis.  

Truthfully, the Browns came so close to putting the man in the Hall of Fame, in spite of him, not because of him.  If not for Red Right 88, The Drive, or The Fumble, perhaps the Browns get a Super Bowl for Modell's Browns, a win that would carry more value than winning with Steve Bisciotti's backing in Baltimore in 2001.  It's hard to imagine anyone else with two titles, matching Art's in '64 with the Browns and the one Ogden helped him win 13 years ago, leaving so much doubt about their greatness.  That's Modell.

On the other hand, there's Ogden, the first Baltimore Raven.  He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, as he was nothing short of spectacular in his 12-year career, that included 11 Pro Bowl appearances, a Super Bowl Championship, and an induction into the Raven Ring of Honor.  The Ravens selected him 4th in the NFL Draft, a pick that was the fruit of the Browns' suffereing in 1995.  

What eats at me most about The Move as a Browns fan, after Modell, is that the success of the Ravens and their hijacking of the rivalry with the Steelers, is built on the foundation of how bad the Browns were in 1995.  Buy into what the former coaches and front-office personnel will tell you about the distractions that came with the rumors of relocation in '95, but they even won a playoff game in 1994 and fell off the table when the conversation about Baltimore began.  A 5-11 season netted them the pick that landed Ogden.

A series of trades sent Eric Metcalf to Atlanta, the chance to draft JJ Stokes to the 49ers, the infamous Craig Powell to the Browns for a season and eventually out of the NFL, and Ray Lewis to Baltimore for 17 years.  Ogden was only around for one Super Bowl parades, but Lewis got two rings for the purple team, all after Lewis was involved with the violent deaths of two young men from Northeast Ohio.  We are going to go through all of this again when Canton comes calling for Lewis, too.  That will be the last hurrah; if death, Jonathan Ogden, and Ray Lewis preaching doesn't get it done, nothing will.  Stay tuned.

Both the big man from UCLA and the thuggish-ruggish linebacker from The U will find themselves in the Hall of Fame, and both will absolutely deserve to be there, but both will campaign for the man that owned the team that made them rich to join them.  It's fortunate that possessing a yellow jacket doesn't authorize to anyone to pass them out to those unworthy of such an honor.