Art Modell

Art Modell was a hero in Baltimore, and for good reason. But Baltimore has known him mostly as an elderly man. I was fortunate enough to be in the company of the young Art Modell , when he first became owner of the Browns. I was a football writer for the Pensacola, Fla. News-Journal 50 or so years ago. I covered the Senior Bowl each year back then when it was a struggling enterprise trying to get national recognition. In the course of that, I came to know the two guys who used to do the broadcast for the Senior Bowl - Red Grange and Steve Owen, who had been coach of the New York Giants.

From the Cleveland Browns to the Baltimore Browns to the Baltimore Ravens? Why did it really happen? Should we canonize Art Modell ? Arthur Modell was definitely not a saint, but he was a principled man. Truth be told, Art never wanted to leave Cleveland, but financial hardship, much of his own doing, put him at risk of losing control of his beloved football franchise. The move to Baltimore was strictly business, and while we thank him it had absolutely nothing to do with the value presented by our great city.

As a devoted Cleveland Browns fan, it's really hard to listen to the accolades about Art Modell and what a super guy he was ("NFL will have a moment of silence for Art Modell at all stadiums this weekend," Sept. 7). Conveniently, Mr. Modell always blamed his moving the team from Cleveland to Baltimore on "the politicians and bureaucrats who covered their own rear end. " Really? Art could have sold the team and kept it in Cleveland. He would have solved his money problems and not needed to hire armed bodyguards.

Bob Costas, one of the sports world's most eloquent voices, used one of pop culture's biggest stages to argue for Art Modell's place in pro football's Hall of Fame Sunday. Here's what Costas said during halftime of NBC's Sunday Night opener between the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers. NBC's Sunday night games are the highest rated series on American prime-time television with as many as 20 million viewers a week. As you've heard, Art Modell, the longtime owner of the Cleveland Browns, and then the Baltimore Ravens, died Thursday at the age of 87. Modell's rich and impactful life began in Brooklyn, where he grew up. With that background, he no doubt understood the lasting enmity toward Walter O'Malley, the owner who moved Brooklyn's beloved Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Hundreds of Ravens fans started lining up as early 6 a.m. outside M&T Bank Stadium to pay their last respects to former owner Art Modell. Mourners and fans lined up by his flag-draped casket, shook hands with his sons, John and David Modell, and touched the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which sat beside his coffin. Frank Sinatra tunes play in the background as the service continues under a canopy at the 50 yard line. John Ryan of Aberdeen was the first in line at 6 a.m. "I think it was awfully nice of his family to have this for the public," Ryan said.

Thousands came to pay their last respects Saturday to the man who brought pro football back to Baltimore, nodding solemnly at the coffin on the 50-yard line of a stadium that might not be there if it weren't for Art Modell . Mourners thanked him for 17 years of purple Fridays and Ray Lewis dancing out of the tunnel, for the Lombardi Trophy that gleamed next to his flag-draped casket in recognition of the Ravens' 2000 World Championship. They thanked him, most of all, for restoring a piece of the city's soul.

It is one of the ironies of life that the same nice old man could spend his golden years being villified in one provincial medium-sized metropolis and lionized in another, but Art Modell didn't have much time for irony. He preferred humor. He was quick with a joke and even quicker to stick his hand out or open his wallet to help a friend or a struggling player or a worthy cause. He was your goofy grandfather who just happened to be one of the great sports visionaries of his time.

Matt Wood cannot understand it when Baltimore fans shrug off Cleveland's bitterness toward the late Art Modell . "It's bewildering to me when Baltimore fans say, 'Big deal, he moved the team,'" said Wood, who writes for the Cleveland Browns fan website Dawgs by Nature. "It's like, dude, you're in bed with our Irsay. " There it is right there. If you grew up in Baltimore and want to know how Cleveland fans felt Thursday when Modell died, think back to how you felt about the death of Robert Irsay.

WEATHER The National Weather Service is calling for Friday to be mostly sunny, with a high near 93 and south winds 5 to 8 miles per hour in the morning. Friday night is expected to be partly cloudy, with a low around 75. Saturday is expected to be rainy, with a high near 86. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. Expect delays this afternoon in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties due to a funeral procession for a Baltimore City police officer . FROM LAST NIGHT Howard police make drugs, guns arrest after car chase : A man and woman were arrested Thursday night after fleeing a Laurel motel room that police were about to raid as part of a drug investigation and leading officers on a pursuit through multiple jurisdictions, according to Howard County Police.

Every morning, Monday through Friday, blogger Matt Vensel will hook you up with reading material -- mostly on the Ravens but with some other Baltimore sports stuff, too -- to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday. That way he'll have an excuse to do the same to start his workday, too. In between the preseason and the regular season is prediction season in the NFL. Many of the pigskin pundits are picking the Ravens to return to the playoffs and some -- including ESPN's Bill Polian and Antonio Pierce -- have picked them to win the Super Bowl.