CLEVELAND -- Several months ago, NewsChannel5's Ted Henry talked with Art Modell about why he moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

During that interview, Modell inferred that it was Gov. George Voinovich who told him to take the Browns to Baltimore.

"The truth has to be told by people who said things," Modell said.

Modell told NewsChannel5’s Ted Henry exclusively that in the 11th hour of his financial crisis, he was advised by a powerful Ohio leader to leave Cleveland with the Browns for Baltimore. He would not name that person on camera, but almost identified him by his title.

"I will not identify the one person in particular, but you could not be any more important politician in the state of Ohio," he said.

Henry reported Modell wouldn't spell out the name of Ohio’s highest-ranking politician at the time, but NewsChannel5 Sports Analyst Gib Shanley did.

"You know, he refuses to name the one politician who told him to move because he doesn't want to hurt that man. I am not that nice. It was George Voinovich, then the governor. He will deny that today, tomorrow and probably forever," Shanley said.

Henry wanted to find out if now Voinovich, now an Ohio senator, was the high-ranking state official who urged Modell to leave town with the Browns.

The former governor said no.

"No. That's not right. Gib's got it wrong. If that's what he said, Gib doesn't have it. I don't know who he talked to. But the fact is he never talked to me about it. The fact is, I did everything I could to encourage Art to stick around," he added.

Modell claims he got advice to leave from Ohio's highest ranking state leader.

"I was told by the highest levels of government in the waning days of my tenancy in Cleveland that to move the team," he said. "You're not going to get what you want."

Voinovich reiterates that the information is not true, and when he finally talked with Modell he had already made a decision.

"All during that time he talked to me, he already cut a deal to move the team. That's the thing that bothered me the most," Voinovich said.

Terry Pluto, a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal, "It would have been political suicide and utter stupidity for George Voinovich to do that."

Pluto wrote a book about the Browns' demise. He said Modell's view that Ohio’s top politician urged him to leave doesn’t hold up.

"I just don't believe that for one second. It just doesn't make any sense. And I also think that George Voinovich is a man of tremendous integrity and I trust his word."

Voinovich added: "The reason why a lot of people in Cleveland lost respect for Art Modell is because he wasn't truthful with us. The point I am making is, at the time I was talking to him about that, he already made the deal to move the team. That's the facts."