RIP David Modell

[Uli2001]

Very sad. I heard he leaves 2-year old twins. This isn't fair, but this life isn't. So let's enjoy it with our family and friends while we can.

Within 20 years of the Ravens coming to Baltimore, both owner and son are gone. RIP.

[xiao_ke]

Very sad. I heard he leaves 2-year old twins. This isn't fair, but this life isn't. So let's enjoy it with our family and friends while we can.

Within 20 years of the Ravens coming to Baltimore, both owner and son are gone. RIP.

Great now I feel even worse about this. :(

I'm hoping at the very least his family is well taken care of from selling the Ravens.

[WrongBaldy]

From the Ravens website

My Dad and I were at the Ravens Roost Bullroast in February 2001. A limo pulls up out front and David Modell gets out of it with a black satchel. We started yelling "What's in the bag DAVE?!!!" He was immediately swamped by the crowd and he looked pretty nervous. I was standing nearby next to a big dude so I asked Mr. Modell if he wanted to get to the stage. He excitedly replied "YES!" so me and the big dude politely asked folks to get the hell outta the way (which they gladly did) and the crowd actually lifted Dave out of this mass of humanity and onto the stage... and out comes the freakin Lombardi! After that Mr. Modell personally brought the SB XXXV Trophy to each and every fan at all of the 120 table's in Martin's West.

A lot of people thought it was crazy when he did that. I thought it was beautiful baby, just beautiful!

MisterT had a fantastic party at his place in Annapolis, and David Modell brought the Trophy there. GOTA has a pic of me and my wife kissing the darn thing. At the Roost Convention in OC that year, they brought it to our dance. The interns guarding it actually left it sitting alone on a table in the flippin' hallway. We all posed with it, still incredulous that it was actually in our hands!

I have always thought very highly for Mr. Modell for all that. In my way of thinking, that act of bringing the Trophy to the Fans of Baltimore makes him a legend of Baltimore Football Fandom. My prayers go out to his family, especially his very young children.

- Real Fan Dan

This is a kick in the gut. I really like David and now express my condolences to his family.

I met with David about 4 or 5 times when he was the Ravens President. One time was in a Jax hotel lobby in '99, where he came down wearing Bermuda shorts & flip-flops and we talked Ravens playoff chances: he was optimistic that the 3-5 team could still make it, and politely berated me for my loser's mentality about my "wait 'til next season" approach, but we both agreed that the Ravens defense could get us a Lombardi Trophy in 2000.

A couple years later he came down to our restaurant in Annapolis to hoist the Lombardi trophy in front of local politicians and media, and meet with about 400 local fans, most of whom had their photos taken with him and the Trophy. He stayed through the multi-hour photo session. When he spotted me, he said "Hey Ted!", and self-congratulated both of us for the Super Bowl prediction. I was pleasantly shocked - here's a guy who meets thousands of fans each year, who, almost two years later, remembers me by name, and recalls the punch-line of our Jacksonville hotel lobby conversation.

Sad to see him go - so young.

thanks for sharing these stories. The Modells are such a huge part of Baltimore/MD sports history. I wonder if the city might name a street after them?
Wonder what the ravens/biscuit will do to honor David...perhaps add his to ROH?

[Ravenous1]

David always conducted himself with class. He will be missed. I never met the man but it seems as if everyone who knew him was better for it. RIP David and thank you for all you did for this city and fanbase.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

[Ravenboy2003]

David was a wonderful human being.

Remember how "hip" and fun the game day experience was in the early days? That was all David. He pretty much wrote the script for the music choices, the content that appeared on the big screens (I WILL! I WILL!), the player entrances and everything else that had to do with fan entertainment.

During the SB35 parade me and my wife were standing on corner of Pratt and Howard. David was carrying the trophy while walking in the rain down Pratt and randomly stopping and letting fans touch the trophy and get their pic taken with it. He stopped long enough to let my wife snap a pic of me and him co-holding the trophy. He had a death grip on it and I joked with him that I wasn't about to take off with it. That was unbelievably cool.

[GOTA]

I have a feeling this is one of those tragedies where us older guys will be upset but most of the younger crowd won't fully comprehend the gravity of it.

I hope that isn't the case. If you are a Ravens fan you owe a huge debt to David Modell. David just got it. He understood how important the Ravens were to Baltimore and went with it. He was one of us the same way that Ozzie and Ray Lewis will always be one of us. If you are a younger fan and want to know about your team go to Google and Youtube and all the other resources we know have and you can see why we older fans are so crushed by David's passing. It's a couple days later and I'm still thinking about it.

David Modell is part of the reason why we're not seen as a cut below like the Jaguars, Panthers and Texans. That transition from brand new team to perennial contender and World Champion is what David was always working towards. It took other teams in our situation like the Saints, Buccaneers and Seahawks 30 plus years to do what the Ravens did in 5. For those who don't know go look it up. You won't regret it

[JohnBKistler]

I went to the Draft Party at M&T in the spring after SB35. This was when they were still doing the first three rounds on Saturday.

You could walk on the field and go down the steps behind the Ravens sideline and see the locker room, training room, press room, etc. In the locker room stood David Modell with the Lombardi trophy. It looked like it had a hundred thousand finger prints, and it probably did. I got to touch it.

Then I went back up to the club level and watched the Ravens draft Todd Heap. Fun day. Condolences to the Modell family.

[WrongBaldy]

I hope that isn't the case. If you are a Ravens fan you owe a huge debt to David Modell. David just got it. He understood how important the Ravens were to Baltimore and went with it. He was one of us the same way that Ozzie and Ray Lewis will always be one of us. If you are a younger fan and want to know about your team go to Google and Youtube and all the other resources we know have and you can see why we older fans are so crushed by David's passing. It's a couple days later and I'm still thinking about it.

David Modell is part of the reason why we're not seen as a cut below like the Jaguars, Panthers and Texans. That transition from brand new team to perennial contender and World Champion is what David was always working towards. It took other teams in our situation like the Saints, Buccaneers and Seahawks 30 plus years to do what the Ravens did in 5. For those who don't know go look it up. You won't regret it

GOTA
The Speaker of Truth

[SugarRay52]

David Modell was an incredible man, I remember watching him do an interview right before the 2000 season on HBO's Inside the NFL (at the time) and he was talking about a dream he had about having the SB trophy on his night stand and saying "This Is Ours". I felt so pumped when he said that because I could see how bad that man wanted to win a SB for the city of Baltimore. He will be missed greatly and I appreciate everything he did for the Ravens and the fans. R.I.P David

[Captain Offense]

My sympathies to his family. Very sad indeed.

My story is from the 2000 Season in Cincinnati. I was at the End Zone Ramp while the team was warming up and brought a sign that said "Can Baltimore Score? (for CBS). This was at the end of the TD drought. As I was there flashing the sign David came out and started walking across the End Zone. I called out to him, he turned around, and I screamed out "will they do it today ?" He said "you bet" and told me to send him the sign for him to autograph it. After the Super Bowl I did it, he kept his word and it hangs in my office. Of course, that was the game that they ended the TD skid.

He cared about the Fans and loved that we cared about the team. So sorry that he is gone.

[esmd]

It's been a tough week for the Ravens brass with David's passing and to a lesser extent today's news about Zach Orr. I thought that many of you would like to read Kevin's tribute to David Modell.

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/...f-f8abb2b564cf