Ravens' owner Art Modell was no friend of Baltimore

Contrary to Barry Levinson's assertion that former Ravens owner Art Modell made Baltimore's Super Bowl victory possible, Modell was the reason we didn't get an expansion team ("Art Modell's great gift," Feb. 7).

According to former Sun sportswriter John Steadman, Mr. Modell was such a poor business man that he was close to losing the then Cleveland Browns and took our deal to bail himself out. He moved his money-losing team here and wound up selling it for about $800 million.

We built him a state-of-the-art stadium with our tax dollars — and then anyone who wanted a season ticket had to buy a "personal seat license."

Luckily, by that time I had realized not to waste my money on professional sports teams who don't care about their fans (see Orioles).

There is a reason the people who knew what type of person Modell was are the ones who are keeping him out of the Hall of Fame.

If as an NFL owner he had voted to allow Baltimore to get an expansion team, we might be celebrating a Super Bowl victory with a team that was really our own, not one stolen from Cleveland.

Joe Heldmann