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Art Modell

The Browns Board
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  • I wore a Browns coat to school (3rd grade) a day after they moved. I wore a Browns tie to school today (teacher) without knowing he had died. Talk about coming full circle. Although I'm not happy that he's dead, I don't feel any sadness by it. It's a weird feeling.

  • You all know Lerner Sr. helped Modell move to Baltimore right? Before he bought the Browns? Just saying.

  • Heard he is already trying to relocate his afterlife's team to Heaven.

  • I'm teaching in my Browns jersey today!

  • I'm teaching in my Browns jersey today!

    @vaportrail said:

    I'm teaching in my Browns jersey today!

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  • if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

  • if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

    @miktoxic said:

    if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

    I agree here, but don't you think that should of more reason he should kept the team here.

  • I suddenly feel the urge to urinate....in Maryland.

    @furnier said:

    I suddenly feel the urge to urinate....in Maryland.

    Look who crawled out of his spider hole! I guess it took the death of Art Modell to get Furnier back in action.

    Was that your self imposed exile? You wouldn't show up until the Wicked Old Witch was dead?

  • @vaportrail said:

    That reminds me that I saw Margaret Hamilton perform live at The Cleveland Playhouse back in the 70s. She was up there in years at the time...in her 70s, but gave an outstanding performance. In that play, the name of which escapes me, she played an elderly lady being terrorized by an intruder, she played the heroine, not the baddy.

  • I feel no remorse for the greedy bastard but I dont wish the man dead.

  • You all know Lerner Sr. helped Modell move to Baltimore right? Before he bought the Browns? Just saying.

    @diehardbrownsfan said:

    You all know Lerner Sr. helped Modell move to Baltimore right? Before he bought the Browns? Just saying.

    Bottom line on Modell: the NFL outgrew him financially and he could not keep up. He should have sold the team to Al Lerner in the first place in order to place it in firm financial hands. No matter what...moving to Baltimore/whatever was going to save him from his own financial inadequacies. Two years after the move he was forced to sell the team anyway despite being given certain financial considerations.

    He simply didn't have the foresight to see that he was done long before he was done, and he maintained the venality that would never allow him to admit that until Paul Tagliabue came around and did his Heidi Klum on him: "You're out. Aufweidersehn".

  • if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

    @miktoxic said:

    if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

    You are confusing him with Arthur McBride. Only one title was won by the Browns while Modell was Owner, 1964. Seven were won under McBride.

    And it was McBride and Paul Brown who brought in the black players when others didn't, like Motley, Willis, etc.

    By the time Modell became an owner in 1960 every NFL team but the Redskins were loading up on black players. Look at the Colts and Giants title teams of the 50s. Plenty of black players.

    But you are right about the Ozzie thing.

  • No comment

  • Hello Browns fans. Just wanted to add some thoughts from a Redskins fan, living in Maryland.

    I can't even fathom the idea that someone would do to Redskins fans, what Art "Greedy Lying Bastard" Modell did to you guys. The most embarrassing thing about saying I live in Maryland, is knowing that my tax dollars went to stealing your football team. Believe me, it wasn't my choice. Baltimore was, and still is, undeserving of having a team, the way they hijacked it. I'm glad Cleveland retained it's rights, and history. And am thrilled you got another team. I have, and will, continue to cheer for the Browns to win, unless it's against my Redskins. I'm a vindictive SOB, and if I were a Browns fan, I'd be dancing a jig today. And, wouldn't care who didn't like it.

    To Baltimorons everywhere, it's a friggin Crow!

  • My sincere condolences to the Modell family. However, Art can still KISS MY ASS.

  • @miktoxic said:

    if art modell would have never bought this team we might never had won those championships way back when. he was an innovator. he drafted black players when it was frowned upon. he gave ozzie newsome the first black GM position.

    if anyone is going to hell it's the assholes that make fun of someone's death.

    You are confusing him with Arthur McBride. Only one title was won by the Browns while Modell was Owner, 1964. Seven were won under McBride.

    And it was McBride and Paul Brown who brought in the black players when others didn't, like Motley, Willis, etc.

    By the time Modell became an owner in 1960 every NFL team but the Redskins were loading up on black players. Look at the Colts and Giants title teams of the 50s. Plenty of black players.

    But you are right about the Ozzie thing.

    @the-gipper said:

    You are confusing him with Arthur McBride. Only one title was won by the Browns while Modell was Owner, 1964. Seven were won under McBride.

    And it was McBride and Paul Brown who brought in the black players when others didn't, like Motley, Willis, etc.

    By the time Modell became an owner in 1960 every NFL team but the Redskins were loading up on black players. Look at the Colts and Giants title teams of the 50s. Plenty of black players.

    But you are right about the Ozzie thing.

    yeah i know about mcbride, but wasn't modell a part of the ernie davis deal? i know jim brown loved the guy (which some will say means dick, but the guy is the best running back of all time) which means something to me.

    yeah i hated the guy at the time of the move but i blame it more on the non-movement of the political base in cleveland to assure modell of certain things, than i do the man himself. it is what it is. there's no time machines (yet). i'm sure there wasn't a night go by since he moved the team that he didn't cover his head wishing he had done things differently, shaming himself without having to hear a bunch of angry hateful fans that he left in cleveland still bitching about it.

    having grown up a lot since then, i think that hate is such a strong word and should be left to those such as serial killers and terrorists or just plain psychotics. when you start growing long in the tooth and are questioning your own mortality you realize that 'hating' anything is just a waste of time. there's a lot more to do in life than walk around with a chip on your shoulder.

    let the guy die in peace.

  • Lerner stated modell did not want to sell, he wanted to keep the team for his family. Ultimately he had to sell anyway, but that's another story I guess.

  • @the-gipper said:

    You are confusing him with Arthur McBride. Only one title was won by the Browns while Modell was Owner, 1964. Seven were won under McBride.

    And it was McBride and Paul Brown who brought in the black players when others didn't, like Motley, Willis, etc.

    By the time Modell became an owner in 1960 every NFL team but the Redskins were loading up on black players. Look at the Colts and Giants title teams of the 50s. Plenty of black players.

    But you are right about the Ozzie thing.

    yeah i know about mcbride, but wasn't modell a part of the ernie davis deal? i know jim brown loved the guy (which some will say means dick, but the guy is the best running back of all time) which means something to me.

    yeah i hated the guy at the time of the move but i blame it more on the non-movement of the political base in cleveland to assure modell of certain things, than i do the man himself. it is what it is. there's no time machines (yet). i'm sure there wasn't a night go by since he moved the team that he didn't cover his head wishing he had done things differently, shaming himself without having to hear a bunch of angry hateful fans that he left in cleveland still bitching about it.

    having grown up a lot since then, i think that hate is such a strong word and should be left to those such as serial killers and terrorists or just plain psychotics. when you start growing long in the tooth and are questioning your own mortality you realize that 'hating' anything is just a waste of time. there's a lot more to do in life than walk around with a chip on your shoulder.

    let the guy die in peace.

    @miktoxic said:

    yeah i know about mcbride, but wasn't modell a part of the ernie davis deal? i know jim brown loved the guy (which some will say means dick, but the guy is the best running back of all time) which means something to me.

    Bringing in Ernie Davis doesn't mean Modell broke any racial barriers. Jim Browns was on the team when Modell bought it. And so were many other African-Americans.

    yeah i hated the guy at the time of the move but i blame it more on the non-movement of the political base in cleveland to assure modell of certain things, than i do the man himself.

    Oh, no. It WAS the man himself, most assuredly. Being ousted as an NFL after moving to Baltimore is definitive proof of that. He couldn't make it here, he couldn't make it there, he couldn't make it anywhere.

    it is what it is. there's no time machines (yet). i'm sure there wasn't a night go by since he moved the team that he didn't cover his head wishing he had done things differently, shaming himself without having to hear a bunch of angry hateful fans that he left in cleveland still bitching about it.

    having grown up a lot since then, i think that hate is such a strong word and should be left to those such as serial killers and terrorists or just plain psychotics. when you start growing long in the tooth and are questioning your own mortality you realize that 'hating' anything is just a waste of time. there's a lot more to do in life than walk around with a chip on your shoulder.

    let the guy die in peace.

    I have no problem with that. I just want the record to be straight.

  • @king-ghoolie-lives said:

    I think that too many Browns fans have a fetish about Art Modell.

    The Browns team was the only real job Modell had. Nobody can lay blame for his money problems but him. Surely, he could have sold teh team once he realized he was craching and burning, but really, who among you, if you were so blessed to own the Browns would have done anything different than to cling to it as long as you could?

    Browns fans hate to hear this but the city leaders also had a lot to do with this mess.

    The piece that REALLY pisses me off, and that for some reason nobody every reported on was this Al Lerner business. Here are the givens we know about Lerner.

    He was filthy rich

    He was a friend of Modell

    He loved Clevenad and the Browns

    So where was this captain of industry in providing wisdom and leadership to keep the Browns? He sure found a quick $100 million to loan so that Modell COULD move teh team to Baltimore.

    Sorry, but this kind of shit doesn't just happen. LIke Lerner thought to himself, " gee, let me, out of the goodness of my heart, lend Modell 100 mil almost interest free so he can move the team to Baltimore.

    As if Modell moving to Baltimore was one of the important goals of Lerners financial portfolio?

    Bullshit. Lerner wouldn't have helped Modell move the team if he knew damned well there wasn't going to be a big financial reward for him.

    If you guys think that Modell's decision to move to Baltimore caught the NFL by surprise, then you are nuts.

    The fan protest changed nothing other than forcing the NFL to announce that Cleveland would get a new team a little earlier than it wanted to announce it.

    MMM, it really was the legal barrell that the city had Modell under that clinched the restoration....but I don't know about the timing issue. Perhaps you are right....though I think the three year hiatus was part of the settlement agreement.

    By the time Lerner was on the plane with Art, there was already a plan in place to restore the Browns, IF AL could be successful in moving Art out.

    As if 30 NFL owners are just going to assemble on a moments notice and decide on a whim to expand to Cleveland just because the fans in one NFL city were pissed.

    PULEEEEZ spare me the simple mindedness.

    Well, we all like a good conspiracy theory. You have come up with one. The truth may be out there somewhere.

    I shared many years of glory and heartbreak with Art Modell's Cleveland Browns. I feel sad that he has passed away. He was a generous and kind man.

    He is the only owner to win 2 NFL championships, one with each of two different teams. His accomplishments in the league are many. It is a shame the NFL didn't have the testicular fortitude to let the man into the HOF while he was alive. Now? It means nothing.

    I disagree that he has HOF credentials...even if he didn't move.

    But I won't piss on his grave.....at least not until I know where he will be buried. And probably not even then.(Rest assured, he will be cremated or put into a secure mausoleum just so that doesn't happen)

  • A Happy reunion today!

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