Former NFL owner Art Modell Dies at 87

In Cleveland. Monday night. For employment contracts of the past.

Along with his colleagues named Rozelle, Halas, Brown and Rooney - all pillars of a nascent league - Modell helped transform the NFL preeminent sport in the United States.

The Ravens first owner died early on Thursday, leaving behind a legacy that was safe uncontaminated by a decision that had dogged him for the rest of his life: his mobile team from Cleveland to Baltimore.

David Modell, said he and his brother, John, was with his father when he died peacefully of natural causes.'''' E 'was 87.

'' Football has lost one of its all time'', Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr. said. '' The contributions of the Art in the NFL during his five decades in the game are immeasurable. I think that art has done as much as any owner to help the NFL what it is today. Art was a pioneer, a visionary and a loving owner who always saw the picture and did the right thing.

'' Our game would not be what it is today if not for Art Modell.''

Modell spent 43 years as an NFL owner, overseeing the Browns from 1961 until the team moved to Baltimore in 1996. Hel he served as president of the League from 1967 to '69, he helped develop the first collective bargaining agreement with the players in 1968 and was the key man for lucrative contracts in the NFL with chains television.

Long before his Ravens won the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 2001, teamed up with Modell Lombardi, the commissioner Pete Rozelle and others to lay the foundation for the success of the league.

'' Art Modell was an influential member of the Commissioner Rozelle `kitchen cabinet 'for many years, along with Dan Rooney and the late Tex Schramm,'' said Joe Browne, the largest player in the role of the office of the alloy. '' Ironically, art is the only member of this group is not enshrined in Canton. Hopefully the Hall of Fame selectors media rectify that oversight in the near future -. Not as an emotional reaction to the death of art, but as a legitimate reflection of his long contribution to the NFL''

Commissioner Roger Goodell NFL praised the work of Modell in the league, gaining momentum as it was half a century ago.

'' Art Modell leadership has been an important part of the success of the NFL during the explosive growth of the league during the 1960's and beyond,'' Goodell said in a statement. '' Art was a visionary who understood the vital role vision massive NFL games on broadcast television could have on the growth of the NFL.''

But Modell's reputation has taken a blow from which it could not recover when he retired from the Cleveland Browns as a result of a series of secret talks with officials from the city of Baltimore. The move was not made because of the low turnout in Cleveland, Baltimore, but because it gave the opportunity for a better deal.

It is widely believed that the movement is the main reason Modell died without admission to the Hall of Fame. It's been a pariah in Cleveland and a hero in Baltimore.

When was the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in 1984, Baltimore has 12 years pining for another team. After the Cleveland Browns left an expansion team, a new stadium and kept their colors and team history, thanks in large part to Modell.

Some NFL owners have other sources of income. Modell had his football team. Period. And even if the move to Baltimore helped keep afloat during a 'even though the end was a deal that made Steve Bisciotti a minority owner. Part of the deal was that Bisciotti would take a majority stake, and that's what happened in April 2004.

Bisciotti has since invested millions in equipment, funding the construction of a wasteful practice in Owings Mills, Maryland As a tribute, Bisciotti insisted that a huge oil painting hanging over the fireplace Modell in the entrance to the complex.

Modell had an open invitation to come to camp, and though his health was declining in recent years, from time to time to watch practice, flip the field on a golf cart.

Lewis never failed to come and say hello, and their relationship was so close that happened a few emotional moments together in the hospital Wednesday.

'' The things I share in my ear, I will keep that between me and him because he is like a son and a father,'' said Lewis. '' I loved the man dearly.''

Born June 23, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York, Modell left school at 15 and worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard clean the hulls of ships to help her family in financial difficulties after the death of his father.

Night completed high school class, he joined the Air Force in 1943, and then enrolled in a school of television after World War II. He used that education to produce one of the first television programs scheduled during the day before moving to the advertising industry in 1954.

A group of friends led by Modell bought the Browns in 1961 for $ 4 million - a figure that he called'''' totally excessive.

'' You get like this sometimes,'' he said at the time. '' To take advantage of this opportunity, you must have money and friends.''

Modell work as a civic leader, including service on the board of directors of several companies, including the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., Higbee Co. and 20th Century-Fox Film Corp.

Modell and his wife, Patricia, have continued their charity work in Baltimore, giving millions of dollars in seed Maryland School, a boarding school for disadvantaged youth, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Kennedy Krieger Institute. The couple also gave $ 3,500,000 to the lyrics, which he named Patricia & Art Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric.