Ravens coach Brian Billick has an audible prepared for today's media blitz.
An onslaught of reporters and camera crews are expected to descend on the team's Owings Mills practice complex for the much-anticipated return of linebackers Ray Lewis and Peter Boulware. The players are negotiating contract extensions with the Ravens and have become a hot topic around town for skipping recent voluntary minicamps.
But when he addresses the media today, Billick intends to focus on the start of his team's four-day veterans camp and avoid stoking what have already become heated contract talks.
"We're not going to negotiate through the media," Billick said last night. "How they [Lewis and Boulware] will answer your questions, I don't know. But we're not going to comment. It's a mandatory workout, they're here, and we're pleased that they are. So, there's really nothing to talk about."
Billick said there is no bitterness with his linebackers and he isn't going to talk to them about the negotiations. However, he will sit down with Lewis and Boulware individually to speak with them about the youth of the team and how their leadership roles are going to expand.
Team officials, though, have become increasingly frustrated about the stalled talks, because they cannot sign any veteran free agents without restructuring the current deals of Lewis and Boulware. The Ravens, who are reportedly $966,000 under the salary cap, could gain between $5 million and $6 million of wiggle room on this year's cap if they strike new deals with the linebackers.
"It would be nice to augment the players that we have right now. Again, it's not Ray or Peter's responsibility," Billick said. "We will let Ozzie [New- some, Ravens senior vice president of football operations] and their representation have at it as usual. We're prepared for it to go either way. Certainly, there's a way we'd like for it to go, and I'm sure there's a way they would like for it to go. I'm still very confident that we can find that ground. We're prepared to go in either direction."
Last week, agent Roosevelt Barnes said he doesn't foresee contract extensions happening this year. The Ravens responded that they could have Lewis play out the final two years of his contract and slap the franchise tag on Boulware to keep him through the 2003 season. A franchise player gets a one-year offer from the team equal to the average salary of the five highest-paid players at his position.
But Barnes is quite familiar with the franchise tag. In 1998, he represented defensive tackle Dan Williams, the Chiefs' franchise player that year. Williams was so unhappy that he became one of two NFL players to sit out an entire season rather than play under the tag.
"The franchise tag doesn't scare me," Barnes said. "It's a tool they use. The team has the right to use it to their advantage, and so does the player. That's why you always save your money to become financially independent. It always gives you options."
Like Billick, Ravens owner Art Modell said he does not plan to address contract matters with Lewis or Boulware. But Modell, who stood by Lewis during his murder trial two years ago, said he is not disappointed in how the business side of football has taken over the sport.
"I'm through being hurt in this business," Modell said. "I have seen a tremendous change in players and coaches. It's not just Ray or Peter.
"Societal changes are affecting all society. I'll never get acclimated to it. There is no loyalty."