The memory is burned in the hearts of minds of all those who awoke on Nov. 6, 1995, to learn that their beloved Browns had been ripped from their midst.

They will never forget the sight of owner Art Modell's smiling face on their television screens from Baltimore after announcing he had moved the team there. That haunting flashback remains foremost in their thoughts even on a morning 17 years later as they learned of his passing.

The death of Modell puts the organization in a difficult position. Do they honor him with a moment of silence or even a more elaborate show of respect before the season opener on Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium? It is, ironically, built in response to his departure in a necessary move to bring the NFL back to town. There seems little doubt that a cascade of boos from still-bitter fans would rain down from the stands.

It's quite likely no such tribute will occur. The Browns have simply released a one-sentence statement expressing condolences toward the Modell family. And that's the way is should be. Only the smallest of gestures seems appropriate. Everything that Modell achieved for the Browns was trumped by him breaking the hearts of millions and bolting for Baltimore.

His overseeing as a young owner the last major sports championship in Cleveland in 1964. His visionary decision to move the team to what had been the AFL and embrace what was an unpopular notion among his fellow owners to host the first Monday Night Football game in 1970. His selection of quarterback Bernie Kosar in the 1984 supplemental draft that provided the franchise with its face for a decade and its greatest era since the merger. All paled in comparison once Modell looked into the camera on that fateful fall morning in 1995 and claimed, "I had no choice."

He did have a choice. He could have gone public with his frustration over the city of Cleveland failing to renovate crumbling, old Municipal Stadium. He could have expressed through the media his anger over the successful efforts to build a new home for the MLB Indians and NBA Cavaliers while not addressing his concerns. Instead he waited until after leaving for Baltimore to claim that only the move saved him and his family from bankruptcy.

The move not only broke the hearts of Cleveland fans. It took a huge economic toll on the city, downtown businesses and thousands of workers who depended on the team to take care of themselves and their families.

Nothing could ease their pain -- not even Modell's words in 2001 before the Ravens were to win a Super Bowl that Cleveland fans believed to be theirs.

"I have no vindication," Modell said. "Let me say one statement about Cleveland. I am simply delighted, on behalf of my family, ecstatic that there is a football team in Cleveland called the Cleveland Browns, and they wear uniforms with seal brown and burnt orange colors, and they have the legacy of Jim Brown and Otto Graham and dozens of others, and above all playing in a new stadium."

That claim was forgotten as soon as it was uttered. What was remembered instead was Modell seemingly having no problem taking the team name, colors and history to Baltimore. What was remembered was the sight on television of Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening beaming as he waved around a Browns mug. What was remembered was that shirts and other paraphernalia trumpeting the arrival of the "Baltimore Browns" were already being sold.

The Browns organization are duty-bound professionally and morally to give all due respect to the Modell family in their time of grieving. But neither his death nor his positive achievements for the franchise and NFL could ever erase the emotional destruction he caused by stealing his beloved franchise away to Baltimore.

Stay dialed in on the Cleveland Browns on Twitter at @CBSSportsNFLCLE throughout the season with on-site updates from CBSSports.com RapidReports correspondent Marty Gitlin.