During the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl run in 1986, the Bears played the then Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs.  Head coach Mike Ditka pegged the Rams as the Smiths (a white collar, well-to-do team, who lived in big houses).  Ditka said his own team the Bears were Grabowskis (a blue collar team from a town where people bring their lunch pails to work and punch the clock every day).  The Bears beat the Rams that day and went on to a Super Bowl blowout victory of the Patriots.

Twenty-two years later in the high style and extravagant show biz world of the NFL, the Grabowskis might be about to make a comeback in Charm City.

Among many things that head coach John Harbaugh is bringing to the Ravens in 2008, the most formidable is a change of attitude and perception of the Baltimore Ravens.  This change might not be overnight; it might actually take two or three years.

Slowly Harbaugh is using the capital that comes with being a new coach, inheriting a team that won just five games and changing the team, its players, and the attitude.  It started at his first press conference when he repeated several times the mantra of the Ravens from that point forward was going to be "the team, the team, the team."

Since then Harbaugh has rearranged the club's locker room, changed the team's weight training program, worked the team in the rain, and most recently gave each player a mechanic shirt with the team logo and his name on the front.  Players no longer have the right to take more than one locker (the so called condos).  At training camp this year, veterans will be required to stay the entire time, not check-out after the first few days.  Oh yeah, training camp promises to be longer and much more physical.

While some brand these moves as new age motivational tactics, Harbaugh is sending a message either be part of the change or be changed.

This April's draft produced Oniel Cousins, David Hale, Tom Zbikowski and Haruki Nakamura and Marcus Smith; along with second round pick Ray Rice, all are gritty tough players who are known for being tough-minded, blue collar players--John Harbaugh type players!

Owner Steve Bisciotti recently chimed in support of his new coach by suggesting that players who didn't show better participation in the off-season program might be moved in the next few years.  Bisciotti told the team's flagship radio station during an interview that in the next few years everybody will be at camp.  Saying that due to retirement or trades some who have an occasion to miss camp won't be with the team. Translation--when their contracts won't be such a cap hit, you might see some familiar names moved if they don't get with the program and make their way to more off-season camps.  A policy the Philadelphia Eagles are known for.

Anyone who knows about Harbaugh's background should not be surprised. Yes, he spent nine years as a disciple of Andy Reid in Philadelphia but his true mentor and philosophy comes from his father, Jack a former college coach at both Western Michigan and Western Kentucky.   Jack Harbaugh also served as a long time assistant to Bo Schembechler at Michigan.   Schembechler, Jack Harbaugh, and John Harbaugh all come from the same Midwest cloth; they bleed tough, physical, hardnosed football.  They have little time for anything or anyone who doesn't come to play. In their world you don't flex and pose, and most importantly you don't show up teammates or coaches.

Showbiz, radio gigs, false praise, and endorsements are not what they are about.  Hand in the dirt, tough-minded players who exude fundamentals and team-oriented play is what they look for.

Harbaugh is now trying to instill that same mentality in his team.  He wants the Ravens to approach every practice and game like an auto assembly worker or factory worker.  He wants them to come in ready to work, expects them to have each other's back, and most importantly give 110% whether in minicamp or a regular season game.

For those who are incumbents of the past regime, this will be a change, and one that they will have to make quickly because a new era is upon them.  These Ravens better be prepared to work.  If not they may find their job being handed to a Grabowski.