A few decades ago, when the Ravens were new in town and I was writing columns about them in The Baltimore Sun, I went to David Modell all the time for insight.
He was funny. He was smart. He made my columns better.
We almost had a running conversation going, and even when I criticized him or the team in print, he would hunt me down in the practice facility and continue it, offering his thoughts, always with a twinkle in his eye.
He was a few years younger than me. His father owned the team.