The Baltimore Ravens will induct kicker Matt Stover into their Ring of Honor during halftime of their game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Stover will join greats like Jonathan Ogden, Peter Boulware, Michael McCrary, Art Modell and (for some reason) Earnest Byner. I’m happy to see the Ravens recognize Stover for his fantastic career and for everything he met to the organization, despite his run in Baltimore awkwardly ending with John Harbaugh giving him the boot in 2009 to let Steve Hauschka shank field goals in clutch situations.
Regardless, it’s good to see Harbaugh and Ravens will bury the hatchet and bestow upon Stover the highest honor in the Ravens organization. He meant so much to the franchise as their all-time leading scorer with 1,464 points (354 field goals and 403 extra points). As Aaron Wilson of the Carroll County Times points out, Stover also kicked 14 game winning field goals in his 18 professional seasons.
If the Ravens can put Stover’s uncomfortable departure behind them and put him in the Ring of Honor, why can’t they do the same for Brian Billick? In my opinion, Billick is a shoo-in for the Ring. Billick not only brought the Ravens their first winning season, but he brought a Super Bowl back to Baltimore and left as the city’s all-time winningest coach.
Surely, it was unpleasant for owner Steve Bisciotti to fire Billick after the 2007 season, but it’s time to put that behind him and honor the franchise’s most successful coach.
Billick took over a team that never had a winning record and in two years, won a Super Bowl, only the second in Baltimore history.
His image is tarnished by the great unwashed mob in Baltimore that only look at his last years of ups and downs and blame the draft selection of Kyle Boller on him. I’ve also found it humorous that these same clowns credit Ozzie Newsome for all of the good picks, but Billick gets the blame for Boller, when in fact, Boller was only drafted due to the first of two busy signals that the Ravens had on draft day…this year was Busy Signal Part II. See Bryon Leftwich, Chow Croonies.
The swagger, the attitude, the way this team still carries itself was due in large part to the influence of Billick. I’ll never forget press day in Tampa before Super Bowl 35 when Billick defrayed all the negative publicity surrounding Ray Lewis telling the media they were “not qualified” to judge Lewis. This put all the heat squarely on Billick’s shoulders and let Lewis focus on becoming the game’s MVP. Sheer genius.
Billick’s message grew tired after some years, as happens with most coaches after a while. The nouveau fans, who wouldnt know a mike linebacker if they saw one, never saw how Billick put this team on the map and instilled that “us against the world” bunker- like mentality.
You guys keep talking about Marty Schottenheimer, er Norv Turner, I mean, John Harbaugh and his regular season wins and his pissing down his leg in the playoffs. Billick took the team into the lions den, screamed like a banshee, kicking down the door asking where the son of a bitc# was….the real football fans will know what I’m talking about.
I think the BSR should start a petition to have Billick inducted into the Ring of Honor and then send it to the Ravens.
I will help with it as I know MGW will also.
Billick coined the phrase – “!@#$ the Titans!”