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. ...
The day after the Ravens' season ended, safety Eric Weddle said he’d reached a career crossroads. “If they want to go in a different direction, I’m not going to go play for another team,” Weddle, 34, who’s signed through next season, said Jan. 7. “It’s not where I’m at in my career. It’s either...
The Ravens started their preparation for the 2019 NFL draft months ago, and it won’t stop until the first round begins April 25. But this week is as important as any in the three-plus months still to go. Senior Bowl practices began Tuesday in Mobile, Ala., and will wrap up Thursday. The game Saturday...
Because of the fallout from the non-calls Sunday that virtually knocked the New Orleans Saints out of the playoffs, the NFL's competition committee is expected to give consideration during the offseason to making pass interference calls subject to replay review. At the same time, the league will...
There is some sympathy for New Orleans coach Sean Payton over an officiating gaffe in the NFC championship game Sunday that cost the Saints a chance to win the Super Bowl. But there won’t be much. Those days are over, because officiating in the NFL has been poor for a long time and will remain...
Even as the Ravens offense was flipped upside down in November, transformed from a run-of-the-mill, drop-back passing attack to an exotic, run-dominant approach, coach John Harbaugh stressed that there was not that much new. Same blocking schemes, he said. Just some different formations and a new...