As the Gulfstream jet lifted off the runway on its secret mission, Cleveland Stadium came briefly into view.
Scattered among the plane's leather-upholstered seats were four men who knew the stadium better than the masons who built it: Browns owner Art Modell, his son and two close advisers.
The mood was unusually subdued for this tight-knit group. Even Modell, ever ready with a quip, was reflective as the plane pierced the overcast, autumn sky. No one mentioned the stadium below. Modell saw it out of the window and thought -- correctly -- that he had spent the last of more than 300 Sundays there.
It was shortly before dawn on Friday, Oct. 27, and the 70-year-old team owner had not had a full night's sleep for days. A high school dropout who had made enough money in television and advertising to buy the Browns at the age of 36, Modell helped build the team and the NFL into powerhouses. Now he was headed to Baltimore to sign papers transferring his franchise to the city.
The deal would add perhaps $60 million to the value of the franchise he bought for $4 million in 1961. In Cleveland, it would render him Public Enemy No. 1.
His son, David Modell, got some bagels and rolls from the plane's galley and brought them out. James Bailey, the Browns' executive vice president and Modell's right-hand man, busily shuffled papers on a fold-out table. Across from the elder Modell was the plane's owner, Alfred Lerner.
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