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Billick already looking to Ravens'
future
"Of course we want to repeat," the Baltimore Ravens' coach said
Monday, less than 12 hours after his team won the Super Bowl by beating the New
York Giants, 34-7. "But we have to recognize that teams turn over and that
all kinds of things can happen. I think the people in St. Louis, in Baltimore,
are happy we don't have dynasties anymore."
Prognostication is, indeed, impossible these days - six different teams have
been in the Super Bowl the last three seasons.
A year ago, the St. Louis Rams, coming off a 4-12 season, beat the Tennessee
Titans, who were 8-8 the previous season. The Ravens were 8-8 a year ago and the
Giants were 7-9, unlikely candidates, then, for this year's game.
Billick never got to bed after the game as he celebrated Baltimore's first
NFL championship in 29 years before showing up to say farewell to the media he
had chastised regularly in the week preceding Sunday's victory. Ray Lewis was
there, too, to accept the game's MVP award.
It was 180 degrees from the same night a year ago for Lewis, who was involved
in a postgame fight after the game in Atlanta that led to him being charged with
murder. He eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing
justice and received probation.
This time, the evening was spent with his four children, including his
5-year-old son, Ray III, who chided him for dropping a couple of potential
interceptions.
Lewis will be back with the Ravens next season. But coordinator Marvin Lewis,
the architect of the great defense, could end up as head coach in Buffalo.
Others might not be back, including linebacker Jamie Sharper and, perhaps,
quarterback Trent Dilfer. As Billick pointed out, in the free-agent, salary cap
era, teams turn over 25-30 percent a season.
So next year's Ravens will look different. Billick said Monday that as of
now, Dilfer is the team's quarterback for next season, but added: "There
are a lot of other things we have to consider."
Dilfer is a free agent and may have been a caretaker QB. Billick coached
Washington's Brad Johnson in Minnesota and Johnson is probably the premier free
agent quarterback available this year.
But signing a relatively high-priced quarterback may not leave cap room to
re-sign Sharper, who was overshadowed by Lewis on the Ravens' record-setting
defense but was probably the most valuable player in Baltimore's win over
Oakland in the AFC championship game.
The Ravens (and the Giants) also had few major injuries this season - one of
the prerequisites for getting this far because the cap doesn't allow for much
depth.
All of that makes free agency a major factor.
"We've finished with the competitive part of the season. Now comes the
business part," Billick said. "I encourage my players during this
phase to consider their financial futures. If that means moving on, then so be
it."
The other factors mitigating against repeats are the same ones that have
always been there.
The schedule gets tougher. There will be more night games - the Ravens didn't
appear on Monday night this season - and more late Sunday starts.
Then there's the incentive of the opponents. The Super Bowl champions have
bullseyes on their jerseys and complacency can sometimes sink in - players
sometimes lose that slight edge that drives them to their first championship.
The Ravens' defense is being compared with the best ever, including Chicago's
a decade-and-a-half ago. But those Bears won only one Super Bowl - after the
1985 season.
"This year our level of expectation was to get to the playoffs,"
Billick said. "Next year, we'll try to set our own agenda. But we realize
that the bar now is pretty high."
More unsung heroes enter Super Bowl
lore
Sure, Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis was selected the game's most
valuable player, and quarterback Trent Dilfer capped off his triumphant return
to the city where he spent six seasons with a solid performance. But in the
early going and in the latter stages it was the guys you hadn't heard about all
week doing the damage.
Backup wide receiver Brandon Stokley finished the game as the Ravens' leading
receiver, with three catches for 52 yards. But his first catch set the tone for
the evening as he reeled in a 38-yard strike from Dilfer with 6:50 left in the
first quarter for a touchdown.
"It feels great to be on this big a stage and to play like I did,"
Stokley said. "I've dreamed of this moment as a kid, but I never could
imagine myself being in a Super Bowl, starring and winning. That's what it's all
about, winning, and this is just an unbelievable feeling right now."
On the defensive side of the ball, it was the defensive backs, once thought
to be a weakness for Baltimore, that came through in a big way. Duane Starks,
Chris McAlister and Kim Herring came up with three of the four interceptions
thrown by Giants quarterback Kerry Collins, with linebacker Jamie Sharper
getting the fourth.
"We were pretty much able to read Kerry Collins' eyes all night,"
said Herring, who had the third interception early in the third quarter.
"And the times that we weren't able to read him, our defensive line got to
him and forced errant throws. We helped each other out."
Starks had the biggest interception of the night with under five minutes left
in the third quarter. He stepped in front of the intended receiver close to
midfield and ran it back 49 yards for a touchdown to put the Ravens up 17-0.
"I consider my interception to be one of the greatest in Super Bowl
history," Starks said. "You know, I got a couple of interceptions
earlier in the year, but I never ran one back for a touchdown. All those
interceptions that I didn't return for a touchdown? I was saving it for the
Super Bowl."
Starks was a solid starter all season, but his play, as well as that of his
fellow defensive backs, had been overshadowed by Lewis, Sharper, Peter Boulware
and the defensive line. He clearly enjoyed his moment in the sun, just as
Stokley and Herring did. And their names brought back memories of unexpected
performances past, like Giants receiver Phil McConkey in Super Bowl XXV, the
last one in Tampa.
"Right now I'm soaking it in," said Stokley. "I just wanted to
win and do anything I could to help the team win, and I think (my touchdown)
helped us out and got us on a roll by giving our defense a lead to protect. I
wasn't going to let anything stop me from getting into the end zone because I
wanted to get in there real bad."
Stokley's performance, but more importantly, his effort and those of Starks
and Herring lend credence to the belief that any player can step into the
limelight in the biggest game of the year.
So who will it be next year?
* * * * What's next for Lewis, Dilfer?
One of them, 5-year-old Ray III, excitedly told him, "Daddy, you're
Super Bowl MVP!"
"There was no feeling like that in the world. ... For my son to say
that, there would be no time for me to reflect back what I went through this
past year," Lewis said Monday as he accepted the most valuable player award
for leading Baltimore to the NFL championship.
The year began at another post-Super Bowl party, at a nightclub in Atlanta.
The next day, after two men were found stabbed to death outside the club, Lewis
was interrogated by police.
By nightfall, he was in jail on murder charges, and soon Ray III would ask
his father why TV cameras showed him chained and wearing an orange jump suit.
This year, on the day after the Super Bowl, Lewis once again looked and
talked like a man who hadn't slept in more than 24 hours. But the circumstances
were entirely different.
"I guess we're ready for questions," the Ravens' star linebacker
sighed in a soft, hoarse voice as he stepped to the podium at a news conference.
After enduring an entire week of probing and prodding by reporters, Lewis
wearily endured the process one more time Monday upon receiving a sports utility
vehicle as Super Bowl MVP in the Ravens' 34-7 rout of the New York Giants on
Sunday.
Wearing a floppy hat, a collarless white shirt, the bottom half of a blue
jogging suit and track shoes, Lewis spoke about the Ravens' record-setting
defense, Baltimore's stature as world champions and the meaning of winning the
MVP award.
And, like it or not, he touched upon his ordeal in Atlanta.
"The man upstairs doesn't take you through tragedy without promising you
triumph," he said. "I've never questioned his work. I can't ask for a
better season. I've been our team player of the year, defensive player of the
year, Super Bowl MVP. For me to question anything that he's done for me, I can't
have any faith at all."
Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in exchange for
testimony against his co-defendants. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who fined
Lewis $250,000 for conduct detrimental to the league, introduced the linebacker
on Monday.
"He joins other tremendous Hall of Fame linebackers with his performance
last night and his performance throughout the entire season and throughout his
career," Tagliabue said. "He's up there with the other greats at the
position."
None, however, went through what Lewis did over the past 12 months. Now he's
got a few months until training camp, when he hopes the questions center on the
Ravens' chances of repeating as champions.
"Life's about facing challenges," Ravens coach Brian Billick said.
"Pray that nobody in this room has to go through what Ray went through. But
if you have to deal with that kind of crisis, pray that you handle it the way
that Ray did ... to stay true to the person that you are. And pray that you have
the strength to get through it the way Ray did."
Billick's challenge during the offseason is of a different nature. The Ravens
never had a winning record before this season, and soon his attention will turn
toward pulling off a suitable encore.
Billick probably will have to do it without defensive coordinator Marvin
Lewis, who seems destined to take the head coaching job.
The Ravens also must try to maintain their salary cap while trying to keep
several pending free agents, most notably Trent Dilfer, Jamie Sharper and Jeff
Mitchell.
"There's a time to pay and a time for play. This team, up until
yesterday, focused on one thing: the play. Now comes the season for pay,"
Billick said. "We'll try to hold onto the integrity of this team, but it is
a challenge."
It's no secret that the Ravens are eyeing free-agent quarterback Brad
Johnson, who played for Billick in Minnesota. But Baltimore isn't planning on
setting Dilfer free, as did the Tampa Bay Buccaneers one year ago.
"Yeah, I'd love to have Trent back, but there's a lot of things that are
going to happen between now and then," Billick said. |