notion it was. And, under our breath, we also joked about the possibility that the cabbie was really in the know.
I came back from Cleveland and told the story on the air that Friday. I told it as a joke.
Two weeks later, the joke was on Eck and I for not following the lead of a crazed cabbie in Cleveland.
One thing became very clear to anyone associated with the team from Day One of the Ravens nee Browns landing in Baltimore: Art had transferred the lion’s share of responsibility and the duty of running the football team over to his son, David.
David, who was 34 at the time of the move, quickly ingratiated himself with Baltimore, learning its history, its nuances, its quirks, its insecurities and its people. It was the younger Modell’s thoughts that landed the team name, team colors, logo, stadium design, marketing campaign, game day functions and radio deal. Virtually every decision from the front office to the football field – good and bad – went through David’s hands.
It would be impossible to profile the success of the team in Baltimore and the championship team without recognizing that the Lombardi Trophy presented in Tampa was largely due to the decision-making of David Modell.
It was Art’s name on the door – and certainly the 35 years of groundwork laid in Cleveland is significant – but David had the keys to the kingdom and has most certainly been the day-to-day caretaker of the franchise since it arrived in Baltimore.
Let’s also set the record straight out of the gate. David Modell is not a very well liked or respected personality within the framework of the NFL hierarchy. He has rankled feathers and stared down the hypocrisy of the league’s inner workings. Anyone who knows or has worked with David will tell you that he is a very eccentric and unorthodox figure. To see him chewing cigars in half and cursing on the sideline during the last two minutes of any given game over the past five seasons would not qualify him as a choir boy at the league meetings each year.
That said, for any Ravens fan, he is a sight to behold on game day.
No one in the world – not even me – loves the Baltimore Ravens more than David Modell.
It’s not financially based. It’s not family based. It’s not even logical, the things I’ve seen him do. He has an indefinable and inexplicable passion for the team and the game.
That passion he has displayed, the unbelievably long hours he has invested and the good judgment he has shown during his tenure in Baltimore should qualify him for more respect than he is universally given. So he will get it here.
Of course, being the son of the owner – and an adopted one at that – opens him up for criticism that is unwarranted. As one insider said to me following the Super Bowl evening when a child-like David Modell was gripping onto the Lombardi Trophy with stinginess usually reserved for the kindergarten playground, “He’s the son of the owner. There was no need for him to get involved. He could have done nothing and taken all the credit. Instead, he’s done just about everything and will get none of the credit.”
Want some examples?
Let’s start with the hiring of Brian Billick, no small step for a World Championship organization.
Following the release of Ted Marchibroda from the organization in December 1998, Modell spent the following month detailing every nuance of the qualifications the next head coach of the Baltimore Ravens would need. There was an entire flow chart, detailed and meticulous to a fault (found below), which I was privy to see and question prior to the hiring.
The profile and requirements were being put together even as Art Modell was leaning toward hiring former UCLA coach Terry Donahue.
Donahue was all but in the NFL two years earlier, accepting and then turning down Jerry Jones for the Dallas Cowboys head coaching position that eventually went to Chan Gailey. Modell received a call from long-time NFL man Don Klosterman – a former coach of the Rams and Colts – saying, “This is the guy for you, Art. He wants into the NFL.” Modell’s respect for Klosterman and his football savvy was unquestioned. Modell had known and trusted Klosterman for years.
Donahue, who coached Eric Turner and Jonathan Ogden as Bruins, had more wins than any coach in UCLA history and there had always been some interest in him by NFL teams. The elder Modell had always worked on gut instinct – it was that instinct that led him to buy the Browns in 1961 – and it had served him well in the past. He was and is a very emotional shopper. Even as David Modell and Ozzie Newsome were trying to put the breaks on hiring Donahue in late December 1998, Art made both spend an hour on the phone with Donahue.
Newsome, but mainly David Modell, insisted that they wait for the best candidates and not just hire the first good name available. Art was very concerned that once word got out that Donahue wanted into the NFL, someone else would snatch him up first.
While applying the breaks on Art, David was picking up testimonials from dozens of sources not only on Billick, but also on
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