Art Modell
It is widely known that Cleveland—and the entire state of Ohio—loves its football. From the packed houses for high school games on Friday to the 105,000 people that fill Ohio Stadium for the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, that love is always evident. Yet, no more so than between the city of Cleveland and its team—the Cleveland Browns. Clevelanders don’t just like football, they LIVE for it. Despite Cleveland’s many economic and social woes, a Browns game has always been the place that all Clevelanders could escape from the realities of life. The Browns players and coaches have always understood that fact, and for that reason, they always say that Cleveland is truly a great place to play. Yet, for three years from 1996 to 1999, the joy stopped. The Browns left town. And one man---Art Modell—was to blame.
Art Modell made a big splash when he first hit town in 1961, arriving as the new owner of the Cleveland Browns, a franchise only a few years removed from its days as the NFL dynasty and probably headed back to the top soon under the NFL’s best coach, Paul Brown. An advertising hustler in New York, Modell purchased the Browns for less than $4 million and less than $50,000 of that was his own money.
Art was hardly more than a passive investor. Soon he was sure he had the game all figured out and started getting involved in football operations. Paul Brown was patient at first, then became increasingly irritated. Art then fired Brown in 1963, his first cardinal sin against Cleveland. The fans howled, but calmed down when Blanton Collier coached the team to the NFL title the following year. Sadly, that was the Browns’ last appearance in a title game.
Things didn’t go well over the next 31 years. In spite of repeated emotional promises from Modell, a series of hopeful coaching changes and more than a few years of Stadium-shaking excitement (especially in the late 1980s), the Browns never appeared in a Super Bowl or won a title. Through it all, the Cleveland fans remained loyal. They packed the stands, cheered the team, roared with the victories and moaned with heart-wrenching defeats. The NFL’s stock soared with TV rights and merchandising. Modell went along for the ride. By the mid-90s, in spite of the team’s distinctly mediocre record over three decades, Art was a millionaire. His $50,000 investment had grown over 1,000 times in value.
Yet, Art wasn’t happy. He wanted more. To summarize the situation, Modell owned Cleveland Stadium which hosted the Browns, the Indians (C-Town’s baseball team), and numerous rock concerts. While the teams on the field were never that great, the revenue from luxury suites generated large cash flows for Modell and his company. By the mid 1990s, Modell became frustrated with the stadium; and the Indians became frustrated with Modell. The City of Cleveland agreed to fund a new project to build a stadium for the Indians in the heart of downtown, which would cut Modell’s revenue due to the loss of luxury suite sales. The City of Cleveland repeatedly asked Modell to become a part of the new downtown project, but he declined. He wanted his current stadium remodeled. The City of Cleveland then agreed to renovate the stadium, but no one could have foreseen what Art was doing behind Cleveland’s back.
After a series of clandestine meetings and layers of skullduggery to confuse the city, Art announced he was moving the Browns to Baltimore, citing the need for financial security. The reaction in Cleveland was, not surprisingly, very hostile. Modell had promised numerous times never to move the team. The City of Cleveland sued Modell, the Browns, and Stadium Corp. for breach of the Browns' lease. Surprisingly for Modell, many Baltimore fans sympathized with Clevelanders' outrage. Baltimore was still smarting from the Colts move to Indianapolis, culminating in the team being literally sneaked out of town in the middle of the night in late March 1984. Many people in Baltimore felt their football history was stolen as well. They felt that Modell would be doing the same thing to Cleveland.
Eventually, the NFL, Modell and the two cities worked out a deal. The Browns' franchise would be placed on inactive status for three years. Modell had to leave behind the Browns' name, colors and heritage (including team records) for a replacement franchise, in the form either of a new team or another relocated franchise. In return, Modell would be allowed to take his players and organization to Baltimore as the Ravens. Cleveland received a loan from the NFL for a new stadium. The Browns were resurrected in 1999.
In spite of that underwhelming victory, resentment toward Modell is still extremely high in Cleveland. When the Ravens traveled to Cleveland, Modell would never come due to fears for his safety. He was definitely right, as the burning effigies of Mr. Modell in the parking lot before the game tell the tale of Cleveland’s anger. Modell has never returned to the city since the move in 1996, and he most certainly never will. Yet, the criticism for Modell was not from Cleveland solely. National sportswriters and columnists reviled him, stating that the honorable action would have been to sell the team to local investors. It is widely believed that acrimony keeps Modell out of the Hall of Fame. Modell sold the Ravens in 2003, but the team still remains Cleveland’s #1 enemy.
Yet, in 2010, a new question arose. Who is Cleveland’s #1 enemy: Art Modell, who moved the Browns to Baltimore, or LeBron James, who famously made “The Decision” to leave for Miami?
Without a doubt, it is Art Modell by a landslide. For all of the awfulness in “The Decision” and watching LeBron parade around Miami like the 2nd coming of Christ, it pales in comparison to Modell. LeBron left Cleveland, but also left us the Cavaliers. Art Modell took everything to Baltimore.
The fact of the matter is that LeBron James is just one player with a determined career length. Even if LeBron plays for 20 years, he’s still only one man, not a franchise. When Art Modell moved the Browns, it could have cost the team, its history and future. Thanks to the passion of Browns fans, we only lost the team, not its history and future. In the end, it cost Browns fans 1996-99, but it could have been so much more and so much worse.
Even though LeBron handcuffed the Cavaliers franchise, dominated the city and then skipped town for some contrived dream team, he didn’t take anything but himself with him. He couldn’t threaten to take our past, even if he did sour those seven years of his basketball greatness in Cleveland. At the end of the day, even Clevelanders have to admit LeBron’s dominance as a basketball player. He’s a hall of famer, one of the game’s greatest, even though we all hope he finishes his career as the “Best Player of All Time without a Title.”
Art Modell threatened (and nearly succeeded) to take the history from one of the most storied franchises. He did all of this to make up for his complete and utter ineptitude as a business man and NFL owner. How in the world can you fail in Cleveland as an NFL owner? Football is life in Ohio.
Bill Belichek, the 1995 Browns coach and now 3-time champion with the New England Patriots, summarizes the situation perfectly: “To take a franchise like that out of that city, which is 30 miles away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and with what high school and college football means to people around there, that place is football. For that franchise to move at that point, it was monumentally wrong.”
That’s the difference between LeBron and Modell. For Clevelanders, basketball is a hobby; football is life. It took the world’s greatest player to make the Cavaliers the co-#1 team in Cleveland with the Browns, a team who has made the playoffs once in the last decade and usually finishes at the bottom of the AFC North Division. So, while angry as everyone was over LeBron’s departure, the Browns exodus in 1996 struck at the very core of society in Northeast Ohio. Art Modell tried to rip Cleveland of a unifying bond that has lasted for nearly a century, and that’s completely unforgivable.
In the aftermath of “The Decision,” a local paperasked Modell if he was now the 2nd most hated man in Cleveland behind LeBron. His response: “Nonsense.”
Hit the road, Art, and never come back. C-Town has never seen worse.