It wasn’t long after former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell passed away last week before the reaction poured in.

ESPN aired footage of a weepy Ozzie Newsome and Ray Lewis, while various analysts and reporters waxed poetic about Modell’s contribution to the game, all the while ignoring the gigantic orange and brown elephant in the room.

One writer wasn’t so pleasant. Scott Raab of Esquire, a Cleveland native, said after Modell’s death that “reports of a cloud of locusts (rising) from the lawn of John’s Hopkins upon his demise and vanished have not been confirmed.”

So it is with Modell, the biggest villain in the history of Cleveland, yet a beloved figure with his friends in the NFL.

Those friends never understood why Modell was never inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame while he was alive, and will probably push for his induction now.

For the sake of peace on Earth, let us hope this move fails. Modell was far from a model owner and was disliked when he bought the Browns in the mid-1960s. He chased away the franchise namesake Paul Brown, then chased away its greatest player, Jim Brown. Despite selling out the stadium regularly and having a beloved national fan base, Modell couldn’t keep the Browns in the black. Instead of selling the team and admitting his own financial incompetence, he chose to rip the heart out of Cleveland.

For those who blamed the city in that matter, keep in mind Modell had to sell the Ravens a few years into their existence in Baltimore for the same financial reasons, despite the fact he had a plush new stadium with plenty of luxury boxes and no rent.

That doesn’t sound like the resume of a Hall of Famer, but of a failure. Of someone whose “contributions to the game” paled to the pain he caused by ripping an institution out of a city. The league and all those with a Hall of Fame vote should remember this going forward.