Ten years ago this September, the Ravens started over. Owner Steve Bisciotti had fired Brian Billick, an emotionally rending decision that led to him hiring a largely unproven coach named John Harbaugh. Meanwhile, the team prepared to test its latest solution at quarterback, an unassuming, lightly...
The rookie cannot stop to talk on the practice field. Too loud. “Lamar! Lamar! Sign this, Lamar! Please!” This is the soundtrack of his nascent NFL existence, sung by a chorus of children who see in him their own wildest fantasies of athletic improvisation. And Lamar Jackson loves it. Seems that...
Ozzie Newsome was director of pro personnel for the Cleveland Browns before the team moved to Baltimore for the 1996 season. Then-owner Art Modell named him vice president of player personnel once the team became the Ravens and six years later, Newsome became the NFL’s first African-American general...
In 2004, the Washington Redskins gave a seven-year, $43 million contract to a quarterback described by one unnamed AFC general manager as “on his last legs.” The next year, late in the first round of the NFL draft, Washington took his heir apparent. It was business as usual in the league. For as...
The nickname was bestowed on Don Martindale the first day he arrived at little Defiance College. A roommate and teammate named Donald Brown saw Martindale’s athletic bag and made reference to a popular TV game-show host. “I walked in and I had ‘Martindale’ on my bag and he said, ‘Hey ‘Wink,’ ”...
If expectations around the Ravens’ three new wide receivers are dangerously high, they seem to match what Michael Crabtree has been telling John Brown and Willie Snead IV. “Crab tells me every day, ‘We’re going to be doing something serious this year,’ ” Snead said. “And I believe it, too.” While...
On fourth-and-long, the rookie sensed the kill. At the snap, Ed Reed bolted through the Denver line, hurtled toward the punter and blocked the kick with a thud heard nationwide on “Monday Night Football.” Four plays later, the Ravens scored a touchdown en route to a 34-23 upset of the Broncos. ...
Ravens starting quarterback Joe Flacco is doubtful to play Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, opening the door for rookie Lamar Jackson to possibly make his first career start in the team’s most important game of the season. Flacco missed his third straight day of practice Friday with a right...
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson returned to practice Friday, one day after an illness left the team with only one quarterback available ahead of Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Jackson joined Robert Griffin III on the team’s indoor practice field and was a full participant. Absent...
James Hurst did not practice for the second consecutive day Thursday and has sat out the Ravens’ past three games, all losses. But the starting right tackle ruled out undergoing surgery to fix whatever is ailing his back. “Not right now, no,” the 6-foot-5, 310-pound Hurst said when asked Thursday...
The Ravens have been reluctant to label Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals as must-win. At least not without some equivocation. Take cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who said Wednesday that the team thinks “every game is a must-win.” But, he acknowledged, “when you come off three losses, you...
Several Ravens players who grew up in California and still have family and friends there said they do not know anyone who has been directly affected by the wildfires that began a week ago. But that has not lessened their concern for the state they have called home. “It’s definitely scary,” said...