Former Baltimore Ravens/Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell passed away Thursday. He was not a well liked man in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Modell's passing got fellow hockey blog Five Minutes for Fighting thinking about other owners who were not-so-highly thought of. The most obvious one that came to mind should be no stranger to Leaf fans:
Harold Ballard.
He feuded with family, players, management, the media, and even the Queen (well, sort of). In his biography, Ballard said that he tore down the picture of Queen Victoria in Maple Leaf Gardens because ''she never gave me anything.''
He once described his own daughter as a "reptile" and called Russians "parasites and barnacles who steal our money,'' which, admittedly, was not an uncommon sentiment at the time.
A sobering piece about a long stretch of Leafs history that many would like to forget and a good reminder that things can always get worse. Read the rest of the piece here.
Links after the jump...
Another blast from the past with VLM
The Maple Leafs are just the worst
New Dirty Dangle. I honestly don't get the outrage. The Leafs are both terrible and expensive
Devane fighting for a spot on the Marlies
Yeah, it's probably not happening
New analysis from MLHS
