Next Man Up

by John Feinstein

  Jim Fassel didn’t get a head coaching job, or even an interview. In the end, only three jobs had opened: Miami, Cleveland, and San Francisco. All the other bubble coaches survived. Savage decided as a first-time general manager that he wanted a first-time head coach and hired Romeo Crennel, the Patriots’ defensive coordinator. The 49ers, who had finished 2-14 and would have the first draft pick, also hired a defensive coordinator: Mike Nolan. All the years in football, first watching his father, then playing, then coaching, paid off for Nolan in his job interview. He was well prepared and was offered the job the day after he interviewed for it. Not surprisingly, one of his first acts was to hire Mike Singletary. Equally unsurprising, given Nolan’s feelings about family, was his desire to honor his father by wearing a suit on the sidelines during games the way his dad had. That was a different time in the NFL. The league quickly told Nolan he couldn’t wear a suit. Why? It wouldn’t have an official league logo on it.

  Nolan’s departure meant that Billick had to hire two coordinators and a linebackers coach. The easiest part was defensive coordinator. A year earlier, when Rex Ryan had been approached by the Oakland Raiders about their coordinator job, Billick had promised him he would get Nolan’s job whenever Nolan left. He kept that promise and hired veteran coach Clarence Brooks to replace Ryan. The change at linebackers was almost as easy: Billick moved Jeff FitzGerald into Singletary’s job coaching the middle linebackers and promoted Mike Pettine to coach the outside linebackers. John Fassel was hired to take Pettine’s spot as a defensive assistant.

  John Fassel was the son of the new offensive coordinator. Billick had told people he would consider Jim Fassel for the offensive coordinator spot if he didn’t get a head coaching job—if Fassel really wanted the job. The year spent as Kyle Boller’s personal coach had been good for Fassel. It had allowed him to keep his hand in the game without putting in the killer hours he would have as a full-time coach. “When I finished the interviews with the Bills and the Redskins last year I realized I was lucky—and so were they—that I hadn’t been hired,” he said. “I was a dead man walking after seven years as a head coach in New York. I needed some kind of break.”

  That break had been the 2004 season. Fassel was now eager to coach again. If he couldn’t be a head coach, coordinator was the next-best thing. The timing worked out well: Billick had interviewed both Ron Turner and ex-University of Washington coach Rick Neuheisel for the job while Fassel was still hoping for a head coaching chance. Turner had decided to go to Chicago, an easier move from the University of Illinois for his family. Billick had been prepared to offer Neuheisel the job as quarterbacks coach if Turner had taken the coordinator job, and Neuheisel, who had been fired at Washington because of his involvement in an NCAA tournament basketball pool, was more than willing to take it to get another chance to coach. When Turner went to Chicago and Fassel didn’t get a job, Billick had the perfect setup: Fassel as coordinator, Neuheisel as quarterbacks coach. Neuheisel, a former UCLA quarterback and West Coast guy, would be a good fit with Kyle Boller. The quarterback’s relationship with Fassel was already set in cement, meaning he should be in a perfect situation going into 2005.

  In all, that meant there would be seven coaches in new roles in 2005. That sounded like a lot of change but really wasn’t at all unusual in the NFL. There were changes on the scouting staff, too. Savage hired both T. J. McCreight and Chisom Opara in Cleveland. Newsome had known that Savage was planning to take McCreight with him but was surprised when Opara told him Savage had offered him a promotion and more money. Newsome didn’t want to lose Opara: he was bright and hardworking and in just a year had shown great potential. But he wasn’t going to jump him over more experienced scouts on the staff in salary or seniority. The system had to be honored.

  There would be far more changes among those in uniform. As expected, Ed Hartwell (Atlanta), Casey Rabach (Washington), and Gary Baxter (Cleveland) were offered contracts the Ravens simply couldn’t match because of salary-cap considerations. Several older players were quietly told that their services would no longer be required, Corey Fuller, Harold Morrow, Cornell Brown, Kordell Stewart, and Kevin Johnson among them. Phil Savage had been right about Johnson: he had been an ordinary receiver who had brought very little to the locker room and often complained about not having enough balls thrown to him even though he was rarely open. He found work in Detroit, signing a one-year contract with the Lions. By contrast, Stewart had become one of the most popular players on the team. He had done everything asked of him—including punting—and had never wavered in his support of Boller. After the final meeting broke up on the Monday after the season ended, Stewart hugged almost everyone in the room, knowing he wouldn’t be back. Anthony Wright was expected to be healthy, and the Ravens, having lost Josh Harris to the Browns near the end of the season, would again draft a young quarterback in a late round for development purposes. Unlike some others, Stewart’s presence would be missed.

  Free agents Ethan Brooks and Wade Richey were not offered contracts, either, but the possibility remained that if they hadn’t signed elsewhere when training camp began, they could be brought back. Brooks signed with the Jets in the spring. Both were solid citizens and had performed well at times. Newsome simply believed better players could be found to take their spots.

  Sticking to his promise, Newsome was very active in the off-season market. A year after the T.O. caper, the Ravens finally found a free-agent wide receiver they thought could make a difference: Tennessee’s Derrick Mason, a veteran with great speed who was more than happy to come to Baltimore. Knowing Baxter would be leaving, Newsome signed Samari Rolle, also a Tennessee free agent, to play cornerback. Dale Carter had been cleared by doctors to play and was hoping to return at the age of thirty-five. Newsome signed Keydrick Vincent to play right guard, handing him Bennie Anderson’s spot. Anderson signed with Buffalo. Marques Douglas, who had traveled a long road from free agent out of Howard through being waived in both Baltimore and New Orleans through NFL Europe before finally becoming a starter, signed with Mike Nolan and the 49ers. Travis Taylor, knowing he would not be offered a contract by the Ravens, signed with Minnesota. The Ravens wanted Jamel White back, but Detroit offered far more money and he signed with the Lions.

  The only true surprise was the departure of T. J. Slaughter. He had been penciled in as Ed Hartwell’s replacement at linebacker, and Newsome had offered him a contract. Slaughter’s agent kept insisting he should be paid more and Newsome kept saying just as insistently that was all he had to pay. While the negotiations—or, as Newsome would put it, the non-negotiations—were going on, Tommy Polley, a four-year veteran from St. Louis, came on the market. Newsome told Slaughter’s agent that if he didn’t accept the contract offered by the end of that week, he would offer Polley a contract. Apparently the agent didn’t know Newsome very well because he decided to call his bluff. Newsome rarely bluffs. He signed Polley and left Slaughter looking for a new job.

  Musa Smith’s leg healed as well as the doctors had hoped, and he was hopeful that he would be on the field at 100 percent by the time training camp began. Trent Smith, whose injury had been far more complicated, was also hoping to be ready to come back—almost two years after his leg had been shattered. He was on the field in May for the early passing camps knowing he would face plenty of competition at tight end with Todd Heap, Terry Jones, Dan Wilcox, and Darnell Dinkins all on the preseason roster. The other players who had spent the season on injured reserve would also face uphill battles to make the team: Derek Abney would start off well behind the now-established B. J. Sams as a kick returner. Matt Zielinski had gone from long-shot free agent in the spring of 2004 to having a legitimate chance to make the practice squad before his early August injury. The coaches and scouts loved his strength and his attitude. He would certainly be given an opportunity to make the team.

  Deion Sanders had surgery on his foot after the season was over and told the team he wanted to come back if his body felt up to it. Like Stewart,
Sanders had been a more-than-welcome addition in spite of the injuries that had limited him to eight games. He had played well when healthy and had been an unofficial mentor to almost everyone on the team. His reputation as a great teammate had proven accurate. If he wanted to continue to wear his age as his number, it would not be a problem. Ray Walls, who had worn number 38 in 2004, was not re-signed and ended up in Arizona. Sanders signed up for one more year in June.

  Chris McAlister spent more time in Baltimore during the off-season than he had at any time in his career. He also had postseason surgery on his foot and spent a lot of time in Baltimore rehabbing and then starting to get into shape for 2005. He got engaged and was insistent that he was a changed person. “I haven’t even gone out during the off-season,” he said. “I have six years left on my contract. I want to be here all six years.” If he made the Hall of Fame, he said, Steve Bisciotti would definitely get a mention during his induction speech.

  The Ravens would look considerably different in 2005 than in 2004. On the surface, the face of the franchise hadn’t changed: Bisciotti, Cass, Newsome, and Billick as the leaders off the field; Ray Lewis, Jonathan Ogden, Ed Reed, Todd Heap, and Matt Stover the leaders on the field. But to those paying close attention, there had been considerable change. Kyle Boller was now considered by almost everyone in the organization to be an asset. If Billick decided to have an unofficial player council meeting at his house again, Boller would be included without any question. The offense belonged to him, and with the new receivers, there was little doubt in anyone’s mind that he would become the quarterback they had believed he would when they made the trade to draft him in 2003. The defense still belonged to Lewis, but with Reed being named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, there was no doubt a transition—one everyone hoped would be a slow one—was beginning.

  Unlike a year earlier, the Ravens did have a first-round pick in the draft (at twenty-two), and they used it on another receiver with speed: Mark Clayton from Oklahoma. In the second round they caught what they considered a huge break: getting linebacker Dan Cody. In November, Eric DeCosta had projected him as very possibly being the Ravens number one pick. To get him in the second round was, to Newsome and his staff, almost like getting two number one picks.

  In all, fifteen of the fifty-three players who had sat in the auditorium on the Monday after the Dolphins game were gone by draft day. In early May, Peter Boulware, who had not been one of those fifty-three players because he was on the injured list, was cut after eight years with the team. The decision was a practical one: Boulware was thirty and had undergone knee surgery and foot surgery in a period of less than twelve months. Dan Cody was twenty-two and healthy. Boulware understood and said so publicly as he went off to look for a job. Football teams are not—cannot—be built on sentiment. Cody was Next Man Up.

  Several more players would no doubt be gone by the time the team broke camp, and sadly, some would be injured in the spring and summer. As Billick had noted, injuries were a fact of life in football. So was change. There was, however, one constant: no one involved in the game, no matter how violent it was, no matter how insecure and pressure-filled it was, wanted to go home until the last possible moment.

  Not at the end of a season. Not at the end of a career. They all lived, as Billick had reminded them, to play in those big games. Beyond that, to win them. They all wanted the pure joy they had felt that day in New Jersey when they had come from behind to beat the Jets in overtime. More than the money or the fame or the women or the glory, they played for that feeling.

  Everyone on the Ravens agreed they hadn’t had that feeling enough in 2004. With new players and new coaches, they would search for that feeling throughout 2005. And whether they found it or not in 2005, they would all want to try again in 2006. And keep on trying for as long as they possibly could.

  Acknowledgments

  THROUGH THE YEARS, people have said many things about my books: some of them very nice, some of them not so nice. But one thing everyone has always been in agreement on is this: I write really long acknowledgments.

  Well, to paraphrase something Ronald Reagan, one of Brian Billick’s heroes, once said to Jimmy Carter, one of mine: here I go again.

  As I mentioned in the introduction, the person who got me into the Ravens’ front door was the man who owns the front door: Steve Bisciotti. In thanking Steve, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams, a longtime mutual friend who initially got me in touch with Bisciotti. Steve made an important point the first time we talked: the project couldn’t work unless Ozzie Newsome and Brian Billick were comfortable with it. Brian was, and I know Ozzie did the very best he could to make himself comfortable. I’m grateful to Brian for so clearly understanding what I was trying to do and to Ozzie for putting up with me even when he found my presence discomfiting.

  The list of others in the organization who were critical to making this book a reality is lengthy, but I have to begin with Kevin Byrne and Dick Cass. No one had more added to his workload because of me than Kevin but, at least in my presence, he was always patient and understanding and virtually all of my myriad requests were fulfilled early and often. Kevin would be the first to tell you much of that would not have occurred if not for his staff: Francine Lubera, Chad Steele, Marisol McMacken-Renner, Susan Cole, Kenny Abrams, Melanie LeGrande, Adam Beasley, Jeff (the intern) Esposito, and Hillary Connelly.

  Dick Cass walked into a new job and immediately found himself being peppered with questions about an organization he was trying to learn. Not only did he answer all the questions, he did so with great humor and never acted as if my constant presence was difficult in any way.

  The coaches made me feel welcome almost from the start. I now count them as friends: Mike Nolan, Matt Cavanaugh, Gary Zauner, Bennie Thompson, Jim Fassel, Rex Ryan, Jeff FitzGerald, Mike Singletary, Johnnie Lynn, Dennis Thurman, Mike Pettine, Phil Zacharias, Matt Simon, Jim Colletto, Wade Harman, David Shaw, and the irrepressible Jedd Fisch. The strength coaches, Jeff Friday and Paul Ricci, even though they clearly recognized a hopeless case when they saw one, were great fun—especially on game days on the sidelines. I didn’t spend as much time with Ozzie Newsome’s staff as I did with the coaches, but they were also extremely patient and helpful. Thanks to Phil Savage, Eric DeCosta, George Kokinis, Vince Newsome, Ron Marciniak, Joe Douglas, Daniel Jeremiah, Jeremiah Washburn, Chisom Opara, and T. J. McCreight. Extra thanks to capologist Pat Moriarty, who tried to help me speak a language completely foreign to me.

  Since I had to be dressed in some form of Ravens gear in order to be on the sidelines—yes, I got flagged by the NFL clothes Nazis—I needed constant help from Ed Carroll and Darin Kerns. Special thanks to Darin for finding me dry clothes for the trip home after the monsoon in Foxboro. All three trainers—Bill Tessendorf, Mark Smith, and Mark Teeples—helped me out, as did the team doctors, Andy Tucker, Leigh Ann Curl, and Alan Sokoloff, who dealt with all of my questions without once (noticeably) rolling their eyes. Jessie Markison, Ozzie Newsome’s assistant, and I have been friends for longer than I can remember. Thanks also to Maria Scellini, Brian Billick’s assistant. Operations director Bob Eller and his travel guru Joan Sieracki had enough to do without adding an outsider to their travel roster, but they did it and made my life very easy on the road.

  Vernon Holley has, I think, forgiven me for outing him as a Democrat during one of our walks to the stadium with Brian Billick. His colleagues Darren Sanders, Ed Brown, Ken Welsh, Renee Crouell, and Darryl DeSousa all went out of their way to be gracious to me. Thanks also to Pam Lund, Dennis Mannion, Baker Koppelman, Larry Rosen, Jeff Goering, Ross Hollebon, Bill Jankowski, Pattie Holtery, Jon Dube, Mark Bienvenu, Mark Burdett, Valerie Wideman, and Toni Lekas. Thanks also to Jeff Gersh for his weekly sidelines humor.

  It was, I believe, a tough year for Art Modell and for David Modell as they adjusted to life as welcome visitors rather than the men in charge of the organization. Both went out of their way to be
kind to me whenever our paths crossed.

  Rod Hairston always made a point of making me feel welcome at his Fellowship meetings on Saturday nights and was good company during games. He didn’t flinch when I had to ask some difficult questions about his role within the team.

  Phil Hoffmann has taken the pictures for a number of books now and always makes the words better with his photos. And the words need plenty of help.

  I work with a wonderful group of people in putting my books together. I start, as always, with Esther Newberg, who is not only the best agent on the planet but the fastest reader. My editor, Michael Pietsch, doesn’t read as fast, but is a lot more patient. (We all have our strengths.) Together, they have spent a lot of years making my job not only possible but fun. Esther has now represented me on eighteen books (!!) and Michael has edited and published eleven of them. Both deserve a place in heaven for those efforts. Esther’s staff took a hit when Andy Barzvi received a well-deserved promotion, but Kari Stuart has filled in well. Chris Earle is so good at what she does that both Esther and I turn to her often for advice, and when we’re smart we follow that advice. We are both lucky to have her. So is her new husband, Sam. Michael and I are both fortunate that he has Stacey Brody and Zainab Zakari as his assistants. You wouldn’t know it to talk to her, but Heather Fain is the modern-day Murphy Brown. She has never been able to keep an assistant for more than about fifteen minutes. It may have something to do with her collegiate background. Other than that, she is a talented and—note that this word comes up often in dealing with me—very patient publicist. Thanks, as always, to her boss, Heather Rizzo, and to Tom Campbell and Marlena Bittner. Holly Wilkinson will always be my PR person—whether she likes it or not.