NFL Trying to Heal Scars

Art Modell got NFL approval to move his team to Baltimore on Friday, then joined the league and the city of Cleveland in asking that the bitterness of the past three months be forgotten.

Approval came by a vote of 25-2 with three abstentions. Pittsburgh and Buffalo voted against Modell’s move, and abstentions came from the Raiders, Rams and Cardinals, three teams that have moved in the past.

“It’s discriminatory and selective as to who gets what in this league,” said Al Davis of the Raiders, who has moved his team twice and who won the lawsuit that the league cites as an obstacle to prevent movement.

But the emphasis was on healing.

“What has been done has been done,” said Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, who Thursday got the promise of a new team within three years; $48 million toward construction of a new stadium, and the guarantee that the name “Browns” and the orange, brown and white colors would remain in Cleveland.

“It is time for us to let the past go and look to the future with clearer eyes, better eyes and softer eyes.”

“These past 90 days have been emotional and trying,” said Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. “We now have a win-win situation that should satisfy both Cleveland and Baltimore.”

Tagliabue had a totally different reaction--primarily negative--to Ken Behring’s announcement that he wants to move to Southern California.

“I think there is a very serious concern on my part, on the Seattle situation,” he said. “We will have to see what will happen. But the Seahawks have to know that they are the league presence in the Pacific Northwest. They represent the league there.”

In other business, the owners also approved extension of the collective bargaining agreement through 2002. It moves the uncapped year from 1999 to 2000 in time for the free agent signing period, which begins Thursday.

But it was in many ways a day for the 70-year-old Modell, who was making his first public appearance since Nov. 7 in Dallas, the day after he announced he was moving the team he has owned for 35 years to Baltimore.

In the ensuing three months, he stayed away from Browns games, traveled with a bodyguard and stayed primarily at his home in Palm Beach, Fla.

An emotional man in the best of times, he showed some bitterness, some remorse, and some flashes of the sense of humor that once had made him among the league’s most visible and popular owners.

“Where have you been the past few months?” he asked a room packed with reporters.

He also said the new Baltimore team, yet to be named, will essentially build from the bottom up, pursuing no free agents and perhaps divesting itself of its more expensive players.

“We’re starting from scratch,” he said at one point.

“Scratch” is unlikely to include Coach Bill Belichick but could include Don Shula, whose 33-year coaching career began in Baltimore before ending in Miami a month ago.

Modell said Belichick remains the coach, but added “I don’t know what the future holds. I haven’t had time to address the situation.”

He was more positive on Shula, who has indicated he would be more open to being president and general manager than to return to coaching.

“Don’s an old friend of mine,” said Modell, who dined with Shula last Tuesday.

“I think anyone would like someone like Don to join him in any football venture. He’s one of the greatest football minds that I’ve ever encountered. Right up there with Vince Lombardi.”