The Ravens will fire Ted Marchibroda possibly as early as tomorrow morning, but it's not only an indictment of Marchibroda's coaching deficiencies, but also the result of the team's move from Cleveland to Baltimore three years ago.

In fairness to Marchibroda, he was practically a cinch to fail. Indianapolis didn't have a winning season until the fourth year after the Colts moved. The Oilers were 8-8 in their first season in Tennessee last year. The Rams have yet to have a winning season in the four years they've been in St. Louis, and it took the Cardinals six years just to go 8-8 in Arizona.

Only the Raiders have won right away with an 8-1 record in the strike-shortened season of 1982 after they moved from Oakland to Los Angeles.

Now combine that with Marchibroda's ineffective coaching the past three years, and these are his results: 4-12 in 1996, 6-9-1 in 1997, 5-10 in 1998 and unemployment in 1999.

"He is one of the best coaches I ever had," said Detroit quarterback Frank Reich, who will lead the Lions against the Ravens today in the season finale at Ravens stadium. "He has an understanding of the game and experience. He is a fighter.

"I don't know his record here, but obviously he is on the way out. Things haven't gone that well. But timing is everything, and sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time.

"Being a coach is like being a quarterback," said Reich, who worked with Marchibroda in Buffalo. "Look at Vinny Testaverde. He was with several teams, but with the right players, he's an All-Pro now. Sometimes you can get in a situation where you are limited in what you can do and you're fighting an uphill battle."

Marchibroda finally had players this season. Even though he had only average talent on offense, he had five players selected to the Pro Bowl and another chosen as an alternate. Expecting the Ravens to make the playoffs this season was unreasonable, but they should have been in the position of teams like Tampa Bay and the Oilers, who were challenging for a spot late into December.

But for all his fierce competitiveness and passion for the game, Marchibroda was neither a coach of the '90s nor one to lead the Ravens into the new millennium. Marchibroda was from the old )) school, a kid from a Pittsburgh mining town who grew up wearing cardboard in the bottom of his sneakers. He expected players to motivate themselves and be driven by the love of the game.

That was a major part of his downfall. Players like center Wally Williams and offensive tackle Orlando Brown, involved in negotiations with the team, didn't play up to expectations after the front office broke a promise to give Williams a new long-term contract in the off-season.

The '90s player is motivated by money, which is why today's coach has to be a big brother, father, psychologist and motivator. Marchibroda was simply a coach who never had an intimidating presence. A story out of New York said Jets coach Bill Parcells put a picture of a sun setting in the locker of 34-year-old middle linebacker Pepper Johnson in training camp.

When Green Bay left tackle Ross Verba jumped offside several times in the first half of a game against the Ravens, coach Mike Holmgren gave him the ultimate insult by yanking him in the middle of a series. Verba got the message and didn't have a penalty the rest of the game.

It doesn't always have to be an in-your-face style. Cut a player now and then. Make a player think about how he's going to make the next payment on his Lexus.

"I never wanted to be that way," Marchibroda said. "I have survived 40 years in this league, so I must be doing something right."

Stubbornness was also a fault. Marchibroda never hired an offensive coordinator, and his offense begged for one. The last time Marchibroda was successful, Lindy Infante was his offensive coordinator in Indianapolis. There was a committee approach here, and it didn't work.

The Ravens seemed to start every game by running off tackle. There was little imagination. Even basic plays like screens and clearing routes across the middle did not seem to be a regular part of the game plans for quarterbacks Jim Harbaugh and Eric Zeier. They were easy targets for the pass rush. Fans are still waiting for the roll-out and sprint-out passes the Ravens promised.

The closest the Ravens came to having an offensive coordinator was receivers coach Mike Sheppard, who left the pass-efficient Ravens to become offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers after the 1996 season. Sheppard understood the intricacies of the passing game, but, more important, he would challenge Marchibroda on how to attack a defense.

Sheppard also knew how to push the buttons of receivers Michael Jackson and Derrick Alexander. He would insult them at practice, embarrass them in film sessions. You want production out of Jackson? Tell him what he can't do, and he'll go out of his way to prove you wrong.

Finding a solid coaching staff was a problem right from the beginning. Because the Browns/Ravens had to wait for the league to approve the move, Marchibroda wasn't hired until Feb. 15. Most coaching staffs are in place before the annual scouting combine on Feb. 18 in Indianapolis. He either had to settle for former Cleveland coaches who were under contract or the few assistants who were still in the job market.

After a 4-12 year in 1996, it would have been difficult to persuade other top assistants to move to Baltimore with only two years left on his contract. Also remember, Marchibroda has never been a salesman. He's just a coach.

But that was only one of many problems from the move. Few of Marchibroda's critics walked through the training complex at Owings Mills when the team began operations on April 1, 1996. Drywall was still unfinished, boxes were unpacked and phone lines weren't connected. The team was still trying to organize a weight room and find a training camp site. And who could forget those bland white and black "Mean Machine" uniforms the Ravens wore in minicamp?

"We were all on the mountain," said Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' vice president of player personnel. "We didn't know how nTC far we had to climb, but we just had to keep climbing. We had coaches and players trying to find homes and schools. It was tough on Ted, tough on all of us."

During his first two seasons, Marchibroda was handcuffed by a team that had to pay for years of bad deals and had very little room under the salary cap. The Ravens had to cut players like Johnson, Andre Rison and Don Griffin just to sign draft picks like Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.

That also forced the Ravens to sign such free agents as Mike Croel, Jerrol Williams and Keith Goganious and go without a practice squad in 1996.

"Instead of having Ray play a year next to Pepper Johnson, he was thrown into the fire to learn by himself," Newsome said. "The way our salary cap situation was, we didn't have the ability to bring in a lot of the players he needed to win. We had Sedric Clark [free-agent rookie] going against Tony Boselli in that first year. Heck, Ted and I do know a little football. We know we're not going to win in that matchup.

"Our margin of error was slim in the first two years. We didn't have the luxury of taking chances and bringing in a lot of quality players."

Marchibroda also was working with a front-office staff that had three rookies. After the move, Newsome was promoted to vice president from assistant coach, Pat Moriarty from director of business operations to chief financial officer and Phil Savage from scout to director of the scouting department.

The group made several bad administrative mistakes in the first two years, but it's a sound group now, having added pro personnel director James Harris and assistant director of college and pro personnel John Wooten.

But through the entire transition, Marchibroda was a good and loyal soldier. He used injuries too often as an excuse for losing, but seldom did he complain about the obstacles he had to overcome.

There has been talk about Marchibroda's moving into the Ravens' front office.

But the Ravens shouldn't let that happen until a year after the new coach becomes fully comfortable running the show in the Owings Mills complex.

Then they should bring Marchibroda back in some capacity. He deserves it. The odds of his succeeding were never in his favor from the outset.

Ravens today

Lions at Ravens

Site: Ravens stadium

Time: 1:01 p.m.

Line: Ravens by 1 1/2

TV/Radio: Ch. 45/WJFK (1300 AM), WLIF (101.9 FM)

Pub Date: 12/27/98