Cleveland Browns: Art Modell fails to make the 2020 Hall of Fame

Art Modell was the man who moved the Browns in the eyes of Clevelanders and nothing more but is he deserving of Hall of Fame spot?

The answer to the above question is a resounding ‘no’. In a class that will see Bill Cowher, Jimmie Johnson, NFL Film’s Steve Sabol, and others get immortalized in Canton for the rest of time, the man more hated than the Devil himself to Clevelanders failed to make it in.

As a man, I know nothing about Modell. He could have been a card-carrying racist, or dawned a cape and cowl and fought crime on the city streets of Cleveland. I simply do not know. I was in elementary school when the Browns moved. I know of Modell the man as much as I know about my great-great-great-great grandfather.

Modell the owner though? He, I know well. Modell ran the Browns well for nearly thirty years. In a town that had three sports teams and only one was ever good, the Browns showed like a beacon of hope. Sure there were the lean 70’s but any fan today would kill to have the success those teams had in that decade. Compared to the last 20 years, the Browns of the ’70s were the greatest team to ever touch a football.

The ’60s and ’80s were gems though. Truly spectacular in their makeup and Modell was partly responsible for that. That can’t be denied and despite what he’d end up doing, shouldn’t be discredited.

He isn’t a saint to Clevelanders however. He’s a sinner. He killed the franchise slowly over the course of the early ’90s, hiring men like Mike Lombardi to oversee Bill Belichick. Players were cut, poor drafts were made and by the end of 1995, even Baltimore had to be wary about getting THAT team. The soon-to-be-Ravens had good executives brought in, however, and nearly 20 years of prolonged success came of it.

The Browns, not so much.

Modell moved the team and won a Super Bowl. That hurt the soul of Cleveland as bad as any sports moment. Modell should not get credit for destroying a city’s fanbase, a team’s legacy and doing so all for a few extra bucks that to a man of his wealth was inconsequential. Modell’s move was powered by greed and nothing more. His failure to get into the Hall of Fame is something that should soothe the angst of the Browns fans who have remained restless like wondering ghosts for the last 20 years.

It may not be a Super Bowl, but at least those in charge of voting see Modell for the man we saw him as too. The villain of the story.