BALTIMORE -- For 10 years now, there has been only one consistent story as to why Art Modell moved his beloved Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

He said he was in a financial crisis, facing bankruptcy, and that the city and business community who had promised to help him keep the Browns here instead turned their backs on him.

And now, we've learned of another main reason.

In an exclusive interview with NewsChannel5, Art Modell told anchor Ted Henry that he moved his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore because he was told to move them by two key people, both of whom advised him to move the team, or else -- two people at the highest levels of their professions.

It's not an overstatement: For four decades, Art Modell brought joy and excitement to northern Ohio during a period of great civic and business stagnation.

Cleveland has been on a sharp population decline since the 1950s. Its schools are in shambles, and the city is currently the most impoverished major urban center in America.

Until 10 years ago the symbolic heart of this town was its team -- but only one team -- the Cleveland Browns. The others were incidental.

But a decade ago, in the minds of many Clevelanders, this city's heart was crushed when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore.

Modell On Loyalty | Discuss: Art Modell | Images

And adding insult to injury, Modell's new team in his new town immediately turned around and won the Super Bowl, a pinnacle his old team never achieved.

The Baltimore Ravens winning the Super Bowl naturally was a great thrill for Modell, but in his estimation, an even greater thrill for him was his 1964 Cleveland Browns winning the national championship.

How could anything in football be bigger than winning your first Super Bowl?

But for Modell, more important than winning was being vindicated for his sports judgment.

Henry: "Let’s go back to ‘64. What was that like for you then?"

Modell: "You have to understand the setting, Ted. I changed coaches a year earlier. We parted company with Paul Brown and made Blanton Collier my head coach, and within a year he took us to the title. That was very, very gratifying and sort of a vindication of my judgment, perhaps."

Henry: Because of his winning Cleveland Browns, Modell was on top of the world.

Modell: "I would say ‘64 may have been in totality had a more profound effect on me. It was a very rewarding period, but so was 2000, keeping in mind that only three years after we moved from Cleveland to Baltimore that we won the big enchilada."

Henry: Keep in mind, Modell says he moved the Browns to Baltimore because he claims Cleveland's civic leaders betrayed him when they never helped him as promised after they completed their project building Gateway.

Modell says he desperately needed financial help, and it was at this point, facing bankruptcy, that he decided to move to Baltimore.

Modell: "People say, why didn’t I come out and say, 'I’m gonna move my team.' I wasn’t going to do that. The sheet metal worker in Youngstown has got his own problems without worrying about a football owner. I never got the chance."

Henry: A week before he decided to move to Baltimore, Modell said he got two calls from two different, but extremely prominent people, one in politics and one in the world of professional sports.

Their message was the same: They both told Modell in essence that the city he loved had betrayed him, and that he should move the team somewhere else.

Modell: "I was told by the highest levels of government in the waning days of my tenancy in Cleveland to move the team, you’re not going to get what you want. People who knew how the system works, or doesn’t work."

Henry: This Monday in Baltimore, Modell seemed aching to tell me on camera what he told me off camera about who this politician was, but publicly he will only hint at this person's identity -- but it's a very specific hint.

Modell: "I will not identify the one person, but you could not get a more important politician in the state of Ohio and he didn’t betray me. He still remains a good friend of mine. Sadly, it didn’t work out."

Henry: A high-ranking politician and a high-ranking person in sports, both telling Modell to move the team. But why?

Modell: "They were honest in their assessment of the situation. They thought it best that I moved because they knew I was going to get nothing from the people who were in charge."

Henry: "I hear you are writing a book in which this will all be told."

Modell: "I was writing a book and I stopped writing it, Ted, because I could not address the vital chapter, the move from Cleveland to Baltimore, without identifying this one factor which would identify the people which were involved with this decision."

Henry: "And what’s wrong with identifying people?"

Modell: "Because I think it would hurt them and I don’t want to do that."

Henry: "But the results of their being silent or saying the wrong things, have hurt you."

Modell: "That’s their choice, but I could not do it."

Henry: Modell said that loyalty is the most important thing to him in life. He says he will not be disloyal to his friends.

Modell: "I will just go to my grave, not revealing the people I am talking about."

Henry: Modell says he does not need NewsChannel5 or anyone else to defend his actions -- he can do that on his own.

But he obviously is interested in setting the matter straight, as he sees it.

Friday at 6 p.m., as NewsChannel5 wraps up its series on Modell, find out why he says the media in Cleveland, in particular the print media, loves more than anything to tear people apart.