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Art Modell, the longtime owner of the Baltimore Ravens, died on Thursday, the team confirmed. He was 87.
Modell purchased the Cleveland Browns in 1961 for $4 million, an unprecedented sum at that time.
Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore in 1996, where he won his first and only Super Bowl title in 2000.
Sessler: Move overshadowed great career
He might be villified in Cleveland, but Art Modell meant a lot to the NFL over his 43 seasons as sole owner of the Browns and Ravens, Marc Sessler writes. More...
In the pre-Super Bowl era, Modell's Browns won the NFL Championship in 1964, defeating the Baltimore Colts 27-0.
The Brooklyn, New York-native served as NFL president from 1967 to 1969 and negotiated the NFL's television contracts between 1962 and 1993. He also led negotiations on the NFL's first collective bargaining agreement with its players in 1968.
"I believe Art belongs in the Hall of Fame," former New York Giants owner Wellington Mara, now deceased, said in 2002. "I don't think I know a person who has done more for the league than Modell, especially through television."
Modell married the actress Patricia Breslin in 1969. She died in October 2011 at the age of 80.
Modell sold his majority share of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti in 2004.
Born June 23, 1925, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Modell dropped out of high school at age 15 and worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard cleaning out the hulls of ships to help out his financially strapped family after the death of his father.
He completed high school in night class, joined the Air Force in 1943, and then enrolled in a television school after World War II. He used that education to produce one of the first regular daytime television programs before moving into the advertising business in 1954.
A group of friends led by Modell purchased the Browns in 1961 for $4 million - a figure he called "totally excessive."
"You get few chances like this," he said at the time. "To take advantage of the opportunity, you must have money and friends with more."
Modell purchased the Cleveland Browns in 1961 for $4 million, an unprecedented sum at that time.
Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore in 1996, where he won his first and only Super Bowl title in 2000.
Sessler: Move overshadowed great career
He might be villified in Cleveland, but Art Modell meant a lot to the NFL over his 43 seasons as sole owner of the Browns and Ravens, Marc Sessler writes. More...
In the pre-Super Bowl era, Modell's Browns won the NFL Championship in 1964, defeating the Baltimore Colts 27-0.
The Brooklyn, New York-native served as NFL president from 1967 to 1969 and negotiated the NFL's television contracts between 1962 and 1993. He also led negotiations on the NFL's first collective bargaining agreement with its players in 1968.
"I believe Art belongs in the Hall of Fame," former New York Giants owner Wellington Mara, now deceased, said in 2002. "I don't think I know a person who has done more for the league than Modell, especially through television."
Modell married the actress Patricia Breslin in 1969. She died in October 2011 at the age of 80.
Modell sold his majority share of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti in 2004.
Born June 23, 1925, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Modell dropped out of high school at age 15 and worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard cleaning out the hulls of ships to help out his financially strapped family after the death of his father.
He completed high school in night class, joined the Air Force in 1943, and then enrolled in a television school after World War II. He used that education to produce one of the first regular daytime television programs before moving into the advertising business in 1954.
A group of friends led by Modell purchased the Browns in 1961 for $4 million - a figure he called "totally excessive."
"You get few chances like this," he said at the time. "To take advantage of the opportunity, you must have money and friends with more."
Sad day for all football fans.
RIP Art
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