Modells to Browns: Skip recognition
Avoiding a negative reaction and potentially ugly scene, the Cleveland Browns will honor a request by Art Modell's family and not acknowledge the former owner's death before Sunday's game against the Eagles.
Avoiding a negative reaction and potentially ugly scene, the Cleveland Browns will honor a request by Art Modell's family and not acknowledge the former owner's death before Sunday's game against the Eagles.
The Browns had planned an "appropriate recognition" for Modell, who died on Thursday at the age of 87. But Modell's son David spoke to Browns president Mike Holmgren and asked the team not do anything to recognize the late owner, who remains vilified by many Cleveland fans for moving his team to Baltimore, where they became the Ravens, after the 1995 season.
In Baltimore, Ravens fans lined up by the hundreds Saturday morning to pay respects to Modell at M&T Bank Stadium.
Bounty players to play?
While Jonathan Vilma, Scott Fujita, and Will Smith are now all eligible to play after being reinstated by the NFL, it's still unclear if any will see action Sunday.
The suspensions of the players, plus unsigned free agent Anthony Hargrove, for their roles in New Orleans' bounty scandal were lifted Friday by a three-member appeals panel, and they were reinstated.
The Saints announced Saturday that Smith has been activated from the reserve/suspended list. The team placed Vilma on exempt-commissioner permission. The move is an indicator that he won't play in New Orleans' season-opener. Smith will be a game-time decision.
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported that Fujita is unlikely to play vs. the Eagles because of a leg injury the linebacker suffered during the preseason.
Raven surprised by request
Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo said Friday that he was surprised Maryland Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Democrat from Baltimore County, sent a letter to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti urging him to silence his outspoken player, who has long been a vocal proponent of same-sex marriage.
"Many of my constituents and your football supporters are appalled and aghast that a member of the Ravens Football Team would step into this controversial divide and try to sway public opinion one way or the other," Burns wrote in the letter, dated Aug. 29.
"I was surprised," Ayanbadejo said. "Just what our country was founded on, for someone to try to take that away from me, I was pretty surprised that something like that would come up, especially from a politician."