It�s a sad day in Baltimore, at the NFL offices in New York, and in NFL cities across the country. One of the league�s stalwarts � Art Modell � passed away early this morning.
Art Modell was described as controversial. We�d describe him as a visionary. Long before he made the difficult, even heartbreaking, decision to move the Cleveland Browns team to Baltimore, he was among the first to recognize and embrace the impact television could � and did � have on NFL football. Along with Baltimore Colts� owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Pittsburgh Steelers� owner Art Rooney, Modell agreed to move his Cleveland Browns� team to the American Football Conference in 1970, following the merger of the NFL and AFL.
We will remember him as a good and decent man who contributed greatly to the NFL, to Baltimore and Cleveland, to the communities in which he lived, to the charities in which he believed, and � perhaps most of all � to the active and retired players whom he loved, for whom he showed compassion and whom he treated as his family. He truly embraced the league�s past, present and future.
We deeply regret that neither Art nor his wife Pat lived long enough to see him enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego, 1982-1983
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