Pete Rozelle

John Unitas' importance in pro football history can't be emphasized enough. He was not only one of the game's all-time greatest quarterbacks, but also a central figure in the NFL's rise from relative obscurity to the nation's No. 1 sports obsession. When...

The most pressing business facing the NFL today is realignment, which, when completed in the next several months, will spread 32 pro clubs through eight separate but hopefully equal four-team divisions. Only one uncertainty remains: the precise...

TAMPA, Fla. -- It took 30 years and no small amount of heartache and tears, but Baltimore is on top of the football world once again. The surprising Ravens completed their magical playoff run with a wild and one-sided 34-7 victory over the New York...

On the day after this Super Bowl, Ray Lewis was a family man and the Baltimore Ravens were America's Family. The Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXXV, hoarse from staying up all night to celebrate, said Monday his greatest joy after Sunday night's 34-...

It was enough to make a grown man cry. Only Dick Vermeil didn't. At least not immediately. That was the one real upset of the Rams win in Super Bowl XXXIV. Vermeil completed a long, winding and improbable journey Sunday. His walked off the field a...

Don't expect Art Modell to look back over the past 43 years and get misty-eyed. Don't expect him to exult over the highs: the Ravens' Super Bowl championship, the 31 years as chairman of the NFL's broadcast committee, the launching of Monday Night...

Art Modell's 38-year run at the top of American sports has apparently entered its final years, as the Ravens team owner has agreed to relinquish his franchise to a new investor as soon as 2004. The venerable sportsman, once a confidant of commissioners...

For the last two months, Atlanta's left-handed quarterback Michael Vick has been the hottest player in the NFL and the best of all time potentially. Some of us have been suggesting that he already is. Yet, even though Vick has the Falcons up to 8-3-1...

Yesterday's decision by Major League Baseball to postpone games represents a break from an often criticized tradition among sports leagues to keep playing through national tragedies. The most famous example is the then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's...

Decades before the tortuous franchise move and the triumph of a Super Bowl, Ravens owner Art Modell's emotional ties with football became rooted in Roy Lumpkin. At age 9, Modell walked a couple of miles to save on car fare and squeezed out a quarter to...

As the curtain went up on Baltimore's new NFL act, the characters who had played roles in the 13-year drama of political intrigue and financial largesse were spread from the upper decks of Memorial Stadium to the beaches of France. The debut of the...

The Bears are in the Super Bowl. Cut it out and paste it up. Roll it around your tongue. Say it once, twice, as many times as it takes to wrap it around your mind. The Bears wrapped Eric Dickerson and the Los Angeles Rams around their big fingers Sunday...