Brown

Modell

        The feud is over. Any hard feelings Bengals president Mike Brown might have had for Art Modell are apparently history. It was Modell who fired Brown's late father, the legendary Paul Brown, as coach-general manager of the Cleveland Browns in 1962.

        “I don't see much point in carrying on some point of contention that happened 40 years ago,” Mike Brown said Thursday. “Forty years is long enough.

        “I don't begrudge him this moment.”

        Modell, who moved the franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore in 1996, is preparing for his first Super Bowl in 40 years of NFL ownership.

        The Super Bowl XXXV matchup Jan.28 between the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants is filled with subplots involving the Brown family, particularly from the Modell and Baltimore perspectives.

        The most direct one is the relationship between the family and Modell.

        Paul Brown, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, guided the Browns to seven league championships in their first 12 seasons.

        But Modell fired Brown two years after buying the team, and he won his only NFL championship in 1964 with players largely drafted and coached by Brown.

        Paul Brown, with son Mike at his side, resurfaced five years later in Cincinnati, and the Battle of Ohio games between Cleveland and the Bengals were fueled by the animosity between Modell and Paul Brown.

        Mike Brown wants nothing to do with holding a grudge.

        “I have empathy with him,” he said of Modell. “He has struggled and had his ups and downs over the years. He probably wishes he'd done a few things differently in his life. Who doesn't?”

        Modell's team this season had its first winning record in five seasons in Baltimore and has won its three playoff games behind the NFL's best defense.

        Efforts Thursday to reach Modell were unsuccessful.

        After the divisional playoff victory at Tennessee, Modell said his move from Cleveland to Baltimore gave him the revenue he needed to sign high-priced talent.

        But it was Mike Brown and the Bengals who had first crack at the $200 million stadium deal Modell accepted from Maryland officials.

        Brown and his family were courted in a Camden Yards luxury box June 8, 1995, and then-Maryland Stadium Authority chairman John Moag herded through a slew of power brokers — including Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke — to meet Brown. Brown turned down the Baltimore offer because the Cincinnati City Council approved what would become the sales-tax levy to build Paul Brown Stadium.

        On Thursday, Brown disputed the idea the Ravens have outspent the Bengals and that the Bengals could be the Super Bowl-bound club.

        “We are closer to the (salary) cap this year than they are,” Brown said. “It isn't that we haven't spent. I give them credit, yet I would point out that coming into the season nobody thought they nor the Giants would be the teams. St.Louis and Nashville (the Titans) snuck up on everybody, too, last year.”

        The Bengals were two of the Ravens' regular-season victims and were outscored 64-7. The first game, at Baltimore's PSINet Stadium, was a 37-0 Ravens victory — one of the four shutouts they pitched.

        “They stopped us cold,” Brown said. “The first time, we weren't expecting it. We thought it was us. It turned out we had a lot of company.”

        Baltimore set an NFL record by allowing just 165 points.

        “They've snuck up on a lot of people,” Brown said. “Nobody thinks they can do it to them. I had to chuckle at Oakland. Oakland thought they could run the ball, and as the game wore on, you could see they accepted what was happening.

        “That's as good a defensive team as I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. I'd rank them as the best of this era, along with Chicago (1980s) and Pittsburgh (1970s).”

Brown ends grudge with Modell LeBeau will meet with Palmer today Dillon must take domestic violence treatment

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