Visionary Character

They say you can’t go home again, and Art Modell hasn’t bothered trying.

In the seven years since he moved Cleveland’s beloved Browns to Baltimore, Modell has gone back to his hometown only to testify in court. There, he’s seen as a carpetbagging scoundrel unworthy of the Hall of Fame despite his enormous role in shaping the NFL as we know it.

Modell, 78, who will step aside at the end of this season and turn over majority ownership of the Ravens to Maryland businessman Stephen Bisciotti, knows the move from Cleveland tarnished his legacy. He said it still pains him that he’s so disliked in the city where he spent most of his life.

“You wouldn’t be a human being if that didn’t hurt,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “It hurt me, and it hurt my family. Being hanged in effigy is not exactly the way I want to pass a weekend.”

Sunday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers will be Modell’s final regular-season game as an NFL owner, the end of an era that began in 1961 when he purchased the Browns for an unprecedented $3.93 million. The Ravens, who can clinch the AFC North title with a victory or a Cincinnati loss earlier in the day, will have a halftime ceremony honoring Modell.

When voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame gather at this season’s Super Bowl to select the 2004 inductees, some of the most passionate arguments probably will concern whether Modell should be enshrined. His decision to relocate the franchise is the only thing keeping him from being a slam-dunk candidate for Canton, even though Oakland Raider owner Al Davis is in the Hall of Fame despite moving twice.

Modell, who wanted but never received a new stadium in Cleveland, left in 1996 after a bitter dispute with city officials. The Browns had consistent sellouts and some of the most loyal fans in football. But the team was playing in a dump of a stadium, even though the Indians had a new ballpark and the Cavaliers a new arena. Modell was having financial problems and was frustrated by the city’s intransigence. So when Baltimore offered $50 million and a new stadium, he uprooted the team.

The Browns’ name, colors and records remained and were transferred to an expansion franchise when the NFL returned to Cleveland for the 1999 season -- along with, lo and behold, a new stadium.

Raven Coach Brian Billick defended Modell last week, giving an impromptu explanation of the situation to Baltimore writers.

“At some point, the day will come, and I don’t know when it will be, when the great fans in Cleveland will recognize and admit and see that they were scammed,” Billick said, “that the political powers that be forced Art Modell and the NFL out of Cleveland -- and ought to be ashamed for doing it.”

Love him or loathe him, there is no denying Modell’s contributions to the game. He played a prominent role in negotiating early television contracts, predecessors to today’s multibillion-dollar deals, then chaired the league’s TV committee for three decades.

He also helped forge the NFL-AFL merger, form NFL Films and broker the collective-bargaining agreement between the league and its players’ union. Modell had a hand in the playing of a second Thanksgiving Day game and the establishment of “Monday Night Football” as a national tradition.

“He was a visionary,” said Ernie Accorsi, general manager of the New York Giants who served in the same capacity with Modell’s Browns. “He had the guts to do things. He was just so dynamic.”

Despite a slew of health problems, Modell still attends Raven practice as much as he can and speaks with General Manager Ozzie Newsome each day at 8 a.m. sharp. Modell had a heart attack in April and a stroke in July. He has had hip replacements and needs someone to help him keep his balance when he’s walking. He also struggled with vision problems as a result of the stroke, although those are subsiding.

“I’m extremely grateful to the high commissioner above us -- and I don’t mean [NFL Commissioner Paul] Tagliabue -- who has spared my life on several occasions,” he said. “He pulled me through one crisis after another.”

One of the league’s best joke-tellers, Modell said he has relied on humor to get him through his toughest times.

“After my heart attack in 1983, I spent 17 days in intensive care,” he said. “They put me in a darkened room, and I thought, ‘How in the world am I going to pass the time?’ I had tubes coming out of every hole in my body. And I decided to tell myself my own jokes, but instead of telling myself the punch line I’d number them.

“I was lying in bed and I’d say, ‘Two-oh-two! Ha, ha, ha! And 316 is even funnier!’ The nurses thought I was going crazy. They thought I had flipped my lid.”

Modell was very serious when it came to football. He was an aid to the NFL at critical junctures of the league’s development. He was an advisor to longtime commissioner Pete Rozelle, and together they negotiated the first major network TV contract, a $4.65-million deal with CBS for broadcast rights to the 1962 and ’63 seasons.

Rozelle “was my working partner,” Modell said. “He was my friend. We made a lot of music together on television for many years. We established what the league has when it was critically important to do something.”

It was Modell and Rozelle who sold the idea of “Monday Night Football” to ABC’s Roone Arledge, who was looking for a way to bump up the ratings of the third-ranked network. The Browns played host to the first Monday game, defeating Joe Namath and the New York Jets.

“It was a smash hit,” Modell said.

“It was historic. The atmosphere, the venue was unreal. It had a Super Bowl atmosphere. It was something new -- Monday night used to be ‘I Love Lucy.’ Then we came on the scene and captured the country.

“We maintained a solid rating level for years. Now it’s falling off a little bit, but the competition level is so great. It was novel and different and very exciting.”

Modell said he “would never have dreamed in a hundred years” that the TV money would now be so astronomical. The current eight-year network deal, which expires after the 2005 season, is worth $17.6 billion.

As beneficial as that money has been to the NFL, helping make it the most successful league in history, Modell said it has removed the focus from football, something he laments. The new owners are a different breed, he said.

“All they’re interested in is profit,” he said.

“I’m not saying these guys don’t like the game. I’m sure they do. But profit is their motive, not winning and losing. It’s disturbing. It seems like the password now ought to be: How much can we make?’ It goes for all sports. It goes for society as a whole, not just the NFL. The ambience has changed.”

His detractors say it was greed that led him to leave Cleveland, and there’s no question Modell has made a phenomenal profit on his original investment. Bisciotti, who founded a high-tech temporary service, paid $600 million for the Ravens. Modell first announced in 1999 he was selling up to a third of the franchise after it defaulted on $55 million in loans earlier that year. He later decided to sell the entire franchise, which won the Super Bowl in 2000.

People who know Modell well say he would like to stay involved in professional sports, possibly by purchasing a baseball team. He and his wife, Pat, are building a home in Florida where they plan to spend the coming months.

“Ride off into the sunset?” Modell said. “Yeah, as soon as I return a kickoff 105 yards, I’ll ride off into the sunset. And how.”

*

(Begin Text of Infobox)

Art Modell and the NFL

Some of Art Modell’s contributions to the NFL as owner of the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens. He relinquishes ownership of the Ravens after this season, his 43rd as an owner:

NFL television: Modell’s foresight regarding sports and television meshed with the philosophy of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. In the early 1960s, he helped the commissioner forge the league’s first significant money-making television deal. The first contract was with CBS.

NFL-AFL merger: When realignment was deadlocked after the merger of the NFL and AFL in 1970, Modell agreed to move the Browns to the new AFC. The Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers also moved to the conference.

“Monday Night Football”: Monday night football began with the NFL-AFL merger, and again Modell was Rozelle’s right-hand man on the project. As a reward, the Cleveland Browns played in the first Monday prime-time game, against the New York Jets.

NFL Films: Modell was often involved with television and helped increase the league’s profile by aiding in the creation of NFL Films.

Collective bargaining: With help from former Green Bay Packer coaching great Vince Lombardi, Modell completed the NFL’s first collective bargaining agreement.

*

From Times news services