RIP Art Modell

[BurnsWhenIPee]

RIP Mr. Modell.
The man picked up a dinner tab for me and about 8 other greedy scribes a few moons ago in Cleveland. He didn't have to do that.

Why would you let him?

When we went to pay for the tab, the waiter said "Mr. Modell is picking up the bill. Don't worry about a thing and enjoy yourself." We purchased another round of drinks and tacked on a bottle of vino.
When I saw him the next day, I personally thanked him and he said "No problem."

Jesus. Forget the ethics for a minute, that's just tacky as heck.

I hope you at least left the tip yourselves, and were generous.

I keep forgetting your elevator gets stuck. There's not a damn thing tacky and nothing unethical. The guy picked up a dinner tab. It was a nice gesture and yes, there was a generous tip.
What's the problem?

Not to speak for YF, but I read his response of finding it tacky because it sounds like you found out Modell was footing the bill, then decided to add another round of drinks and bottle of wine because it was free.

Like Chef2 said when I was posting.

 

[Drip]

RIP Mr. Modell.
The man picked up a dinner tab for me and about 8 other greedy scribes a few moons ago in Cleveland. He didn't have to do that.

Why would you let him?

When we went to pay for the tab, the waiter said "Mr. Modell is picking up the bill. Don't worry about a thing and enjoy yourself." We purchased another round of drinks and tacked on a bottle of vino.
When I saw him the next day, I personally thanked him and he said "No problem."

Jesus. Forget the ethics for a minute, that's just tacky as heck.

I hope you at least left the tip yourselves, and were generous.

I keep forgetting your elevator gets stuck. There's not a damn thing tacky and nothing unethical. The guy picked up a dinner tab. It was a nice gesture and yes, there was a generous tip.
What's the problem?

It is if any of the 8 scribes were Browns beat writers.

None were Browns beat writers.

The tackiness comes in when you added more drinks and a bottle of wine.

No it wasn't. We were told to do so by the waiter, courtesy of Mr. Modell.

 

[YGBFKM]

Modell didn't break Cleveland's heart, its shirtty sports teams did.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

I really think he got a sick thrill enforcing the NFL blackout rules when the stadium was a couple thousand short of a sellout. The memory may be a little hazy, but something tells me that he even gave bars a hard time (even those like 50 miles outside of the city) for showing those games that were blacked out.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

This is a weird day for Baltimore. My wife's family is from Baltimore, so I feel it.

On one hand, no one understands the way Cleveland felt the day the Browns left better than the city of Baltimore. It's like having a piece of your soul snatched away by someone you desperately wanted to trust. It's like having your heart broken for the first time. You never, ever completely get over it, because the rest of your life, you'll never love a sports team without reservation, without holding something back to guard against that feeling again.

On the other hand, I grow a little weary of Cleveland's martyr complex when it comes to Modell and the Browns. Mizzou is saying earlier in this thread, "Imagine Pittsburgh without the Steelers, Green Bay without the Packers, Dallas without the Cowboys..." but you don't have to imagine it at all. Imagine Baltimore without the Colts.

Imagine if, instead of the Browns being back in Cleveland in less than three years, there was a team called the Jacksonville Browns. Or the San Antonio Browns or the Las Vegas Browns. And that team tried to pretend Jim Brown was part of its legacy, and the NFL Hall of Fame was like "Yup, as far as we're concerned, the Las Vegas Browns all-time leading rusher was Jim Brown."

When Modell stabbed Cleveland in the back, the NFL bent over backward to give the city another team in the next round of expansion. When Baltimore lost the Colts, Paul Tagliabue literally told the city to "go build a museum" downtown because they were never going to get another team. Modell said "Sorry to screw you, but I'm leaving after this season." The Irsays said "We are absolutely not leaving, we absolutely did not meet with Phoenix and Indianapolis, anyone who says so is a liar, and no that's not bourbon on my breath" and then packed up a truck in the middle of the night and left. And it was 13 years, not three, before Baltimore got football back. If the city hadn't romanced Modell, they'd still be begging for a team or rooting for a CFL franchise. Instead, they sell out every single game.

I understand that the Browns leaving prayed on some of Cleveland's sports insecurity, because their departure was woven together with years and years of heartbreak from the Indians and, over time, the Cavs. I guess I don't quite get, logically, how people can feel no one in the history of the NFL was wronged the way they were wronged, when Baltimore was wronged for far longer and much worse. The league was determined to fix what happened in Cleveland. The league actively tried to prevent football from ever returning to Baltimore. Art Modell may be the devil in Cleveland, and perhaps justifiably so. But he literally saved professional football in Baltimore, and in the end, Cleveland fans still get to cheer for the same uniforms and feel like they're a part of the same history that their parents rooted for.

The NFL was forced by the people of Cleveland to give a new franchise to the city. Football was over in Cleveland. Gone. Kaput. Clevelanders went berzerk. They shut down the fax machines in the NFL offices with demands to give Cleveland a new team. The City of Cleveland sued Modell to force him to play out the final three years of his lease in Cleveland. Baltimore sued the NFL over antitrust violations.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I interviewed him at the owners' meetings in 2004 right before he stepped down.

I certainly understand why Cleveland fans hate him. But the NFL as we know it, probably would not have the revenue sharing that most believe has made it successful without Modell giving up the TV contract he had at early on... There was another owner (maybe Mara) who did the same thing.

RIP...

I don't have the time to go exact dates and look this up but combined TV contract required an act of Congress, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, to be implemented. Modell bought the team in 1961. When Modell bought the team the agreement to give up the rights had already been made by the previous owners. And while history is the propaganda of the winners the chief impetus for the owners to combine the rights is that the AFL already had a combined contract, and in 1960 earned more per team than the NFL. Which freaked the owners out and given the political skills of Rozelle moved them to a combined contract.

Now did Modell take credit for this at owners meetings 35 years later? Probably.

 

[Chef2]

RIP Mr. Modell.
The man picked up a dinner tab for me and about 8 other greedy scribes a few moons ago in Cleveland. He didn't have to do that.

Why would you let him?

When we went to pay for the tab, the waiter said "Mr. Modell is picking up the bill. Don't worry about a thing and enjoy yourself." We purchased another round of drinks and tacked on a bottle of vino.
When I saw him the next day, I personally thanked him and he said "No problem."

Jesus. Forget the ethics for a minute, that's just tacky as heck.

I hope you at least left the tip yourselves, and were generous.

I keep forgetting your elevator gets stuck. There's not a damn thing tacky and nothing unethical. The guy picked up a dinner tab. It was a nice gesture and yes, there was a generous tip.
What's the problem?

It is if any of the 8 scribes were Browns beat writers.

None were Browns beat writers.

The tackiness comes in when you added more drinks and a bottle of wine.

No it wasn't. We were told to do so by the waiter, courtesy of Mr. Modell.

Rubbish. Pick up the extra drinks out of your own pocket. While you were at it, the 8 of you should have gotten 3 or 4 Filet Mignons..a couple of T-Bones...Maybe a lobster or two to go......

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Cleveland has every right to hate Modell until the end of time. My sympathy for what happened, however, lessens when I see fans justifying that hate by saying "no one can ever understand our pain." Actually, the people of Baltimore understand all too well. In the grand scheme of it, the screwing Cleveland took was not nearly as bullshirt as what happened in Baltimore. Cleveland doesn't have to acknowledge or understand it, but other people should before they go repeating the claims that no city ever suffered the heartbreak Cleveland did.

You're seeing something which isn't happening. There's no one saying this, and if there are it isn't many people. It's definitely not a major sentiment here in Cleveland. The one person you're citing on this thread as saying it probably hasn't been in Cleveland for more than a 12-hour stretch.

One of the things talked about when the Browns moved was that maybe Cleveland could take the Vikings. There were plenty of people who said Cleveland could not do that after what just happened with Baltimore taking the Browns.

 

[YGBFKM]

Ok, let's get to the real question: shirttier town, Cleveland or Baltimore?

 

[Drip]

RIP Mr. Modell.
The man picked up a dinner tab for me and about 8 other greedy scribes a few moons ago in Cleveland. He didn't have to do that.

Why would you let him?

When we went to pay for the tab, the waiter said "Mr. Modell is picking up the bill. Don't worry about a thing and enjoy yourself." We purchased another round of drinks and tacked on a bottle of vino.
When I saw him the next day, I personally thanked him and he said "No problem."

Jesus. Forget the ethics for a minute, that's just tacky as heck.

I hope you at least left the tip yourselves, and were generous.

I keep forgetting your elevator gets stuck. There's not a damn thing tacky and nothing unethical. The guy picked up a dinner tab. It was a nice gesture and yes, there was a generous tip.
What's the problem?

It is if any of the 8 scribes were Browns beat writers.

None were Browns beat writers.

The tackiness comes in when you added more drinks and a bottle of wine.

No it wasn't. We were told to do so by the waiter, courtesy of Mr. Modell.

Rubbish. Pick up the extra drinks out of your own pocket. While you were at it, the 8 of you should have gotten 3 or 4 Filet Mignons..a couple of T-Bones...Maybe a lobster or two to go......

Dude, the guy treated us for dinner and told the waiter that we could add drinks. No need to act like a freakin pig, ya know what I mean?
It was a genuine and generous offer that I have never forgotten. And the times that I had seen him since, he was always very cordial. I've got nothing but respect for the man.
RIP.

 

[Drip]

Ok, let's get to the real question: shirttier town, Cleveland or Baltimore?

Depends. I love Baltimore because it's on the East Coast. I love Cleveland because I have family there.
I will say this much: you can get your ass kicked in both of them and Cleveland fans can be brutal.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

RIP?

The man's historic impact on the game itself was minimal....

If not for Rozelle, Mara and Modell, there would be no revenue sharing, and that socialist principle is probably what made the NFL what it is today. Modell also came up with the idea for Monday Night Football, which played a huge role in the growth of the game. Hate him all you want, but his impact was not minimal.

He only volunteered the Browns for the first MNF contest on ABC ni 1970. He did not come up with the idea of MNF. That credit goes to Pete Rozelle and Roone Arledge. heck, the first MNF game was played in 1964.