- 1 day ago
I will still blame Art Modell (even as a ravens fan)
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:17Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame,
00:22a series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who were remembered largely
00:27for their mistakes, controversial moments, or questionable decisions. Our mission is not to
00:32further vilify these individuals, but instead to challenge conventional wisdom and re-examine what
00:37has been accepted as fact. You'll see new evidence and hear new testimony. All you need is an open
00:43mind. In this show, we'll reconsider the case of Browns owner Art Modell, who incurred the wrath of
00:49an entire city when he pulled up stakes and took his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. But before we
00:53give you the reasons why you can't blame Modell, let's take a look at how the story unfolded.
01:00When you think about the history of football, you think about the Cleveland Browns as one of the
01:04oldest teams in the NFL. When you look back at the names like Graham, Motley, Lavelle, Brown,
01:11they are icons in terms of what professional football has meant to Cleveland. The Browns
01:17were untouchable during those years. With 20 seconds left to play, Luke Rocha boots it through
01:24the uprights and the Browns win 30-28. It harkens back to the Paul Brown days. Anytime you have as
01:33many championships that they had during that time, they become a big part of the city.
01:39You won all the time, and so you knew that there was something in your life was going to go
01:43right
01:43once a week. After buying the franchise in 1961, Art Modell continued the winning tradition.
01:50In 1964, he brought Cleveland its fourth NFL title in 15 years, and over his first 29 seasons,
02:00the Browns posted 22 winning records. In a town with a blue-collar identity, the self-made millionaire
02:07from New York seemed accepted and even admired. Art's a great American success story. You know,
02:12a high school dropout who finds a way to own an NFL team with borrowed money.
02:18I don't think the NFL would be what it is today without Art Modell. He was one of the outstanding
02:25owners. He was always in the middle of everything. He was very key in TV negotiations. He had been a
02:32loyal citizen of Cleveland for an awful long time and put an awful lot of money into the stadium,
02:38into the franchise, into the city itself. He had said all along, I will never move the Cleveland
02:44Browns from Cleveland. I will never move them. The Browns are indeed coming to Baltimore.
02:50Halfway through the 1995 season, Cleveland residents were shocked to learn that the financially besieged
02:56Modell had secretly signed an agreement with Maryland officials to move the franchise, effectively
03:02shattering a 35-year relationship with one of the most loyal fan bases in the NFL.
03:08I had no choice. To not have a team in Cleveland, it was a big tragedy in my mind. I
03:14just couldn't
03:15imagine the Cleveland Browns not being in Cleveland. For the Browns to leave here, you know, it was
03:22almost sacrilege. You know, it was like the Bruins leaving Boston, the Yankees leaving New York.
03:27I don't know that Art calculated the reaction would be that severe, but it was. The enmity
03:34that Cleveland Browns fans had seemed to all center on Art Modell.
03:39Go to hell, Modell! Go to hell!
03:42I'm firmly convinced that Art Modell is kind of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
03:46He publicly said that he didn't want a new stadium in this town.
03:51Lou Groza and Mary Motley and all the old Browns lived to see that.
03:59He asked for a renovated stadium. Financing for that renovated stadium was forthcoming.
04:07And then two days later, he's on a dais in Baltimore talking about the great Colts tradition.
04:13We were just completely lied to and bamboozled. He never gave us any reason to believe that
04:18this was happening. And in the meantime, you know, they were cutting deals, you know, on
04:23planes, on tarmacs. The great irony is Art never put the gun to our head. He was very concerned
04:29about how people perceived him. And not wanting to be perceived as someone who was giving the
04:35city an ultimatum ended up putting him in an even worse light. He never threatened to leave.
04:41He just up and left. If you really cared about the city, you at least threatened to leave.
04:45You just don't sneak off.
04:50With three years left on his rental agreement with Cleveland Municipal Stadium,
04:55Modell bolted. He was the first NFL owner to break a lease.
04:59Modell's motivation was money. Modell was a terrible manager. I mean, how you could
05:04pack Cleveland Muni Stadium, you know, Sunday after Sunday and still lose money is anybody's guess.
05:10What Art Modell did to Cleveland was despicable. If he couldn't get what was needed, instead of
05:17moving, you sell the team and you let somebody else try. He spat in the face of people who had
05:23shown almost dog-like loyalty to him for the 35 years he owned the team. Art Modell is the one
05:30to
05:30blame for the death of the Cleveland Browns. Things are not always as they seem. And we're here
05:37to say you can't blame Art Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore. Before we get to our
05:42top five reasons why Modell should not be blamed, let's take a look at the best of the rest.
05:47It was Al Lerner who introduced Modell to the Maryland officials with whom he would reach
05:52agreement to move the Browns to Baltimore. And in 1999, it was the same Al Lerner who would be
05:59hailed as a local hero for bringing the NFL back to Cleveland.
06:02I was always amazed that Lerner escaped without some sort of blame for the assist in all this,
06:10you know, because he obviously made it possible.
06:12Al was Art's friend, his business partner. Art was a friend in trouble and Al helped him.
06:19Al Lerner was the enabler. It was his jet that the negotiations took place and the papers were signed on.
06:25There's always some people that do question Mr. Lerner's initial motives in introducing Art to the
06:33people in Baltimore. There are some people who think there's sort of a Machiavellian streak in
06:39Lerner that he would play these cards a certain way and that he would get off scot-free and become
06:45the savior of Cleveland. Alfred Lerner will be the new owner of the Cleveland Browns.
06:50You shake your head, you say, wait a second, Al Lerner bought the team, but he also helped Art Modell
06:55move the team to Baltimore. So should we like this guy or should we despise this guy?
07:00He screwed over Cleveland to make himself the hero.
07:06The look, the throw, touchdown!
07:09In three AFC Championship games, John Elway broke Cleveland's heart. The most painful episode,
07:16known as The Drive, occurred in January of 1987 when he took Denver 98 yards late in the fourth
07:22quarter to tie the game. While the home fans watched in dismay, the Broncos won in overtime.
07:29The Broncos never were quite the same after that and less than a decade later they didn't even exist
07:34anymore. I don't think things were ever the same in Cleveland, at least for the Browns after that
07:38day. If we had got the job done that day against the Denver Broncos, our team would have still been
07:43here. I don't think the team would ever move. That would have changed the relationship between
07:49Art Modell and the city and they'd have been able to sit down and accomplish whatever they needed to
07:55get worked out. That damn John Elway kept us from three Super Bowls. Baltimore's to blame for that
08:00because they drafted him and then traded him. Although blame may be a bit harsh even for
08:07Cleveland residents, it is interesting to consider what might have transpired if the Colts had convinced
08:12Elway, their number one pick in 1983, to change his mind and play in Baltimore. Maybe John Elway plays
08:18so well and the Colts are so good that Ursa doesn't move the Colts and therefore there isn't a need
08:24for
08:25a move of the Browns to Baltimore. It's what, the six degrees of John Elway. We can just blame it
08:30all on
08:30John Elway. The dog pound is the best thing that ever happened to the NFL in my opinion. You just
08:38felt a certain adrenaline when you got on the football field and I think that the dog pound was
08:45behind that push. Never wanted to go down that side because you knew what was going to happen.
08:51Either it was going to be so loud you couldn't hear yourself think or you're going to get hit in
08:53the
08:53back of the head with a dog bump. If you got close to the dog pound, you were going to
08:57feel the wrath
08:58of our fans and we knew it, they knew it and there was all advantage.
09:05Welcome back. Let's get right to our countdown of the top five.
09:11Reason number five, Bill Belichick. Had he been anywhere near as effective as he would become
09:17at New England, the future of the Browns may have been different. Maybe we'd have gotten to the
09:22playoffs sooner, got the euphoria of the city. Maybe that could have changed some things. Can you
09:28imagine if we'd have been a Super Bowl team and not been able to get what we wanted? Between 1985
09:33and 1989,
09:35the Browns failed to reach the Super Bowl despite making the playoffs each season. After Cleveland
09:41went 3-13 in 1990, Belichick, a defensive coordinator fresh off a Super Bowl victory with the Giants,
09:47the Browns took the helm. But Cleveland and Belichick were never a perfect match.
09:53There was a lot of anti-Bill Belichick sentiment at that time. There was just a lot of negativity
09:58surrounding the team. You combine his personality at that time and one winning season in five years,
10:05he took a lot of the blame. I think there was a feeling that he had this sort of Eastern
10:10superiority about him and like we don't know anything about football here. The fans have become upset with
10:15the product that was on the field and also with the attitude that was thrown in their face. But
10:21there was a lot of difficult Belichick in his attitude. He really was kind of clueless and had to
10:25handle media, ran off a bunch of very popular players and he did it in a very kind of unfeeling
10:33way.
10:34Bernie Kosar, cut tonight by the Cleveland Browns. You don't cut Bernie Kosar and then say
10:40diminishing skills. His overall production and I think the diminishing of his physical skills.
10:47The business community was turning off to the Cleveland Browns and I think part of the reason
10:52was that Bill Belichick's personality was hard to swallow. The Bill Belichick years did not lend
10:59themselves to good feelings. It was those years as much as anything that led to the team leaving.
11:07Notify everyone one month before you move. Before we reveal reason number four, here's a look at other
11:14teams who have moved. The Browns were not the first NFL team to leave Cleveland. In 1946, the Cleveland
11:20Rams moved to Los Angeles after beating the Redskins for the NFL championship, starting a westward trend
11:27that would include other sports. In 1956, Giants owner Horace Stoneham and Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley
11:34took the air out of New York when they announced they were moving their teams to the west coast.
11:39The Dodgers success prompted Lakers owner Bob Short to move his team from Minneapolis to L.A. in 1960.
11:46The Lakers won nine championships to the five they won in Minnesota.
11:50If you look at all these moves, it has more to do with team owners simply see a new pot
11:55of gold
11:55somewhere else and move to take advantage of it. That brings us to reason number four.
12:01NFL owners Al Davis and Robert Ursay. Ursay and Davis showed that the money can be obtained
12:07and if you're willing to turn your back on the community and the people that were your friends.
12:13They made it possible to just pick up your team and move it. They set the precedent that it could
12:20be done.
12:21After the 1981 season, Davis defied the NFL and moved the Raiders from Oakland to Tinseltown.
12:28He never put it to the league for a vote. He just moved. He snubbed his nose at the league's
12:35rules and bylaws.
12:36He was going to challenge the system and he did and he won.
12:39The Raiders move in 1981 was really started a domino process that created a whole different atmosphere relative to the
12:49move of teams.
12:51Two years later in 1983, Ursay packed up the Mayflower and left Baltimore for Indianapolis under the cover of night.
12:59You can talk about Ursay moving from there to Indianapolis where it opened Baltimore where Art eventually went.
13:09So, you know, you could say that that had, you know, a lot to do with it.
13:14Baltimore, I think, took it on its own accord to go out and do whatever it could to get a
13:20team back.
13:21And, you know, so it had no qualms about pirating somebody else's team.
13:26There was tremendous hope that the NFL would veto the move, that they would somehow block this move,
13:32and that the Cleveland Browns were not leaving town.
13:34Oh, a ton of blame on the NFL. It's the owners. It's a fraternity. They're all about money.
13:39Their thinking is, well, if we vote against Art, what if I want to move one day? I may need
13:44his vote.
13:45A good chunk of the owners were just very good friends with our .
13:51And this was a case where maybe friendship trumped what was best for one of the flagship cities in this
14:00league.
14:02Cleveland is the most tortured sports city in America.
14:08Here's Michael at the foul line. A shot on Elo.
14:10Go away! The Bulls win! They win!
14:13The Bulls win!
14:18Fortunately, I drank at that time in my life.
14:27As a Browns and an Indians fan, you get real used to being left at the altar.
14:33Feiner loses the ball. Denver recovers the bundle!
14:41Back to the countdown. The Cleveland Indians check in at reason number three.
14:45The Indians came out and they won their first pennant since 1954. And it just, it became a love affair.
14:51It became Indian summer. And the Browns were completely overshadowed.
14:55The fact that we had a good young team that started to capture the fancy of the fans of Cleveland,
15:01it put them in some unfamiliar territory. You know, they ruled Cleveland for decades.
15:07I think in a way that the popularity and the acclaim that the Indians were getting heard art in some
15:14way.
15:15In 1994, the Indians packed up their gear and moved out of Cleveland Municipal Stadium
15:20and into their new home, Jacobs Field.
15:23When the Indians left Cleveland Stadium, the Browns lost a major tenant that was responsible for additional income.
15:36There's only so much corporate money in Cleveland. We're selling 108 loges and then a year later,
15:43we're selling 62, 63. Well, that's 40% of our revenue. Gone. 81 games. Gone.
15:51It was a financial disaster at Cleveland Stadium.
15:54After he saw, you know, how people reacted to a brand new, beautiful facility like Jacobs Field,
16:02I think that stung a little bit. Football was the number one sport here,
16:06and Mr. Modell probably felt that he should get preference over the Indians. That didn't happen.
16:12The Cleveland Browns wouldn't have moved if they weren't basically forced to take a second-rate citizenship there.
16:18Everyone saw the potential now of what a new stadium would do in terms of attracting fans
16:22and excitement and dollars. And the Browns were starting to fall to the back of the pack
16:26in terms of attention and affection for the fans.
16:30Three reasons down and two to go. Here's reason number two.
16:33Art Modell had no choice. He was on the brink of financial ruin.
16:38He was going down the tubes financially. He bought everything on credit. And by borrowing money
16:44his entire life, it finally capped out and drowned. He's got that huge debt. He has
16:52a bad stadium lease. So if he sells the Browns, what that would do for him personally is break
17:02even. He'd be left with no franchise, no money, and a legacy as a failed businessman.
17:10We forget that football is a business. There is the element of making a profit to stay equitable with
17:17the rest of the league. Contributing to Modell's cash flow problems was the changing face of the
17:23NFL. Free agency came about. And so your ability to have cash to pay signing bonus was needed.
17:30And if you didn't have the revenues to do that, then, you know, it was just going to put you
17:35further
17:35behind. I had to go out and borrow five million dollars to give Andre Reisner a bonus. I didn't have
17:40the money. 75 percent of our revenues were going to our players to pay the salary cap. Around the league,
17:48those with good stadium deals, only 40 percent of their revenue was going to players. That's a huge
17:54disparity. We didn't know the details of his financial circumstances, how desperately he needed
18:03the enhanced stadium revenue to remain viable. That ball club would have gone bankrupt and he would have
18:09lost the franchise if he'd stayed in Cleveland. So he really had no choice but to go to Baltimore.
18:14I know that he wouldn't have done it unless he thought it was absolutely necessary because he
18:20really felt that his only financial survival would be to make that move. If they were put in that same
18:28situation, they would do the same thing. I was brutalized at the move, but I had to do what I
18:34had to do
18:35to keep my family business alive. Period.
18:45They built the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before they gave Art Modelo Stadium, and so I'm blaming the
18:49Beatles, Elvis, whatever.
18:55How do you go and build the Hall of Fame of Rock and Roll in Cleveland and not a new
19:00stadium for the
19:01Cleveland Browns? It seemed like the city was more interested in keeping the baseball team and having
19:07a rock and roll legacy than keeping the Browns. When they built the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on
19:12the
19:12banks of the lake, that was the straw that broke Art's back. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was
19:19just
19:20part of an urban revitalization project that cost $685 million. But the Browns were left to play in a
19:27crumbling relic. I put $72 million into that old, old barn, that old stadium, and then they proceeded to
19:36build a basketball arena for the Cavaliers, Jacobs Field for the Indians, built a science museum, and I
19:44couldn't get the Johns fixed on my upper deck. He was literally patching and putting together that
19:49stadium with bubble gum and bailing wire. There were pieces of cement falling, you know, we'd get the
19:54safety inspectors over there saying, well, you can't have a game here until you fix these things.
19:59It was constantly costing money. Art felt like he was waiting patiently, you know, losing all this
20:05money on Cleveland Stadium Corporation, and they were just building all these other things and ignoring
20:10Art. The Browns was probably the number one sports franchise in Cleveland, and yet the Cavaliers and
20:17the Indians got new arenas to play in. Why not us? Modell insists he made his financial situation known to
20:24Mayor Michael White. I know that he was appealing to the mayor and the city fathers, and I know that
20:31they did not come to his aid. It didn't take a Romanian gypsy to figure this one out in the
20:37tea leaves.
20:38It was pretty obvious what was going to happen, but the primary blame is White's not having taken
20:43Modell seriously from the get-go. We established one deadline after the other, and it would come to
20:49pass and nothing would happen. I feel very strong that the politicians knew the seriousness of the
20:54situation and turned their backs on it. They didn't have the money and had really lied to Art telling
21:00him that they would take care of him when the time came. They just assumed that there's no way he
21:06was
21:06going to do this because this was a storied franchise. How could he possibly ever think about
21:12moving that team? They played a political game with me, and it came back to haunt them and haunt me.
21:19Well, there you have it, the top five reasons why you can't blame Art Modell for moving the
21:24Browns to Baltimore. Maybe it changed your mind, maybe you didn't. Maybe even those reasons,
21:28and a new team with the same name, won't allow you to understand. We hope
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