Our WNST Roadtrip to Canton will depart from White Marsh Mall on Friday at noon en route to Cleveland, Ohio. We’ll spend the evening in Cleveland (and might even throw an event to honor Mr. Modell while we’re in town) with other Ravens fans and await Saturday’s festivities in nearby Canton. We’ll attend the morning parade with Hall of Famers and then offer an optional bus back to Cleveland for the midafternoon and return for the evening induction ceremonies. More details will be coming but it’s a long day and night and we plan to give you options.

After the events, we’ll return to Cleveland Saturday night.

We’ll also feature a Sunday visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where the new Rolling Stones exhibit “50 Years of Satisfaction” is on display.

Base package Includes:

Roundtrip Gunther Motorcoach to Cleveland & Canton

Admission for Hall of Fame induction on Saturday night

Two nights hotel at the Cleveland Clinic Guesthouse

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame admission on Sunday

Limited beer, soda and snacks en route to Ohio. No alcohol served or allowed on ride home.

SINGLE — $525

DOUBLE — $400

TRIPLE — $375

QUAD — $350

V.I.P. Includes:

All of the above but replaces general admission ticket for ceremony with this all-day Saturday experience at Hall of Fame:

SINGLE — $750

DOUBLE — $625

TRIPLE — $600

QUAD — $575

The post Join us for Canton Hall of Fame Trip to Induct Jon Ogden appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

CHAPTER 6: HOW TO FIND A FRANCHISE QUARTERBACK

“You can always look at how the guys play. You just look at the tape. But at the combine you find out what kind of people they are. What’s important to them? How important is football to them? How important is their family to them? If we get those two things right, we’ll be right most of the time.”
-- John Harbaugh (March 2008)

AN NFL SCOUT’S LIFE EXISTS with perpetual hope. Every time he shows up on a campus to watch a kid run, or gets on a plane to fly to a college town to see a game in the fall, or fires up his iPad to watch film, he wants to believe he’s about to find the next player who will help his team win the Super Bowl.

It’s the eternal quest for any NFL scout – find the next Pro Bowl player who can become a Hall of Famer. Or, at the very least, find a player who can help you win every year for the next decade.

By the time Baltimore Ravens area scouts Andy Weidl and Joe Douglas got in their cars and made the one hour drive north up Interstate 95 from Owings Mills to Newark, Delaware on November 10, 2007, Joe Flacco wasn’t a secret to the college scouting world. And he certainly was no stranger to Douglas, who joined the team in 2000 and is known to all in the Ravens organization as “Big Joe D,” whose job it was to scout the Northeast for the team from 2003 through 2008. Douglas was made famous during the Ravens’ summer of 2001 filming of “Hard Knocks” on HBO as “The Turk,” the lowly scout who has the duty of summoning players from the locker room to the office of the head coach where “Coach wants to see you, bring your playbook” means you’ll be leaving the campus and chasing your NFL dream elsewhere.

Incidentally, UrbanDictionary.com defines “turk” as “someone who is extremely brave.” Joe Douglas spent six months talking Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta and Joe Hortiz into drafting a Division 1-AA quarterback from Delaware in the first round of the NFL draft.

Douglas, by any measurement, is as brave as Joe Flacco is fearless.

By 2007, Douglas had moved up the ranks of the scouting system and was making that fateful Saturday a “quarterback doubleheader” – a rare chance to see two teams in one day, both with targets who could be the next quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens. The afternoon game in Newark featured the Delaware Blue Hens hosting the Richmond Spiders in a Division I-AA matchup. The nightcap on the docket was Boston College visiting the Maryland Terps in College Park and Douglas would be joined by longtime Ravens scouts Eric DeCosta and Joe Hortiz, whom he’d meet at the I-95 Park and Ride near Catonsville so they could travel together to Byrd Stadium. Their target that evening was visiting Eagles quarterback Matt Ryan, who many thought would be the first quarterback – if not the first player – taken in the April 2008 draft.

Incidentally, Douglas was rooting hard for Richmond that afternoon and not out of disdain for Flacco or Delaware. Douglas was the starting left tackle for the Spiders from 1995-1998 and had been through many battles with the Blue Hens on the field. He was also quite familiar with many of the coaches and players in this contest. Even when he didn’t attend Richmond games – and it was rare to see his alma mater in person because NFL scouts don’t scout a lot of I-AA football games unless there’s a specific prospect they want to evaluate – his father would give him weekly Spiders reports from stands.

It was Douglas’ dad, Joel Douglas, who first told Big Joe D about Joe Flacco a year earlier after seeing the 2006 matchup in Richmond.

“He went to the game with my uncle and he called me up and said, ‘I don’t know who that Delaware quarterback was, but Richmond couldn’t stop him,’” Douglas said of a day when Flacco, then a junior who was making his seventh start for the Blue Hens, went 31-of-45 for 305 yards and a pair of TD passes in a come-from-behind 28-24 win over the Spiders. “Honestly, I was more mad that Richmond blew the lead than I was concerned about who Delaware’s junior quarterback was that day.”

The NFL scouting calendar begins in May after the draft. DeCosta and Hortiz enlist the entire organization to target potential candidates to scout for the following year. By August, the scouts plan their entire schedule for the fall, trying to chunk as many practices, games, campus visits and interviews as possible into the schedule while also trying to see the Ravens play some games at home and away. As an NFL scout, this is the most important time of the year because it’s a grueling workload, traveling as much as six days per week in search of a handful of picks you’ll make next April. Choosing a wise schedule lends itself to more rest and better scouting when you’re not driving six hours every day between visits. The schedule has to flow and be manageable so every possible combination is considered around games, campuses, distance, dates and, most importantly, legitimate prospects.

In the summer of 2007, Ravens scout Mark Azevedo, who was assigned Delaware during spring ball, recommended that Douglas see a tall, lanky kid who played quarterback at Delaware.

“Mark said, ‘Delaware has a kid with an arm. Put them on your schedule,’” Douglas said. “I had to look up his name because it rang a bell from the previous year when Delaware beat my Spiders.”

Even with McNair coming off a big 2006 season, anyone with football intelligence knew that the Ravens would probably be in the market for a quarterback in 2008 just based on his age and the fact that no one on Newsome’s staff – or Billick’s coaches for that matter – believed that incumbents Kyle Boller or Troy Smith were the answer. So, Douglas believed that seeing quarterbacks was a major priority that summer and fall in the hopes of finding the right player the following spring.

It was a full time job, this searching-for-a-Super Bowl-MVP-quarterback work.

IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING, YOU CAN BUY Purple Reign 2: Faith, Family & Football – A Baltimore Love Story HERE:

Continue to the next page to keep reading excerpt from Chapter 6…

The post Purple Reign 2 excerpt here: How to find a franchise quarterback appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

This week has been comparable to the reaction I saw after Baltimore got crushed at home by the Denver Broncos towards the end of the season and fans were saying the Ravens wouldn’t win another game and that Ozzie Newsome cannot possibly give Flacco a contract that would make him the highest paid quarterback in history. Ravens fans have been so outraged these past few days with the trade of Anquan Boldin, the release of Bernard Pollard and their inability to retain Dannell Ellerbe.

First, there is no way Baltimore was, or could even afford to pay Ellerbe $35 million over five years, and honestly, he is not worth that kind of money.

Boldin was immediately rumored to be a salary cap casualty as soon as the Super Bowl was over, so we all knew, at least if you paid attention, that Boldin was likely not going to be back in Baltimore next season. Keep in mind, the Ravens did attempt to keep Anquan asking him to take a pay cut to stay, which has happened before in the world of the NFL, and some have taken that option, and others, like Boldin did, reject it because they do not want to play for less, which he had every right to do. I love Boldin, he played like a Raven, and is one of my favorite players, but the NFL is a business, and the financials did not support keeping Boldin at his $7.5 million cap number, and the Ravens did not feel he was worth that kind of money. It happens, remember Ben Grubs last year? Jarret Johnson? What happened? Our Ravens WON THE SUPER BOWL!

In regards to Bernard Pollard, this is not a power play by John Harbaugh, so if you think this is the case you need to get a clue and check out Drew’s blog this morning regarding it. Pollard was not only a disruption on the field sometimes with his constantly penalized hits (I will admit, that did not bother me, he played the game hard and did the Raven thing and intimidated the opponent), but Pollard’s locker room antics were the biggest disruption. Again check out Drew’s blog for the full details and read about his incident with Josh Bynes after the loss to the Washington Redskins. Next season, Pollard will be playing with his fourth team in the NFL in just eight seasons, there is a reason the Chiefs, Texans, and now the Ravens let him go. His teammates do not want him there.

Lastly, and most importantly, Ravens fans need to wake up and realize they have without a shout of a doubt, the best GM in the NFL. Ozzie Newsome has been our GM ever since we came to Baltimore and he has delivered two Super Bowls titles, four Division titles, and nine playoff appearances over 17 years. For you math estute readers, that is more playoff appearances than non playoff appearances, there are not many teams out there that can make that claim over the last 17 years. In fact, if you want to get even more technical, Baltimore has gone to the playoffs nine times in the last 13 seasons!! Newsome has also put together a full out defensive team that won the Super Bowl and a primarily offensive team that won the Super Bowl, thus proving he is not one dimensional in that regard as well. We praise Newsome for ten months of the year, but right around this time of year, all of the sudden Ravens fans either forget or ignore what Ozzie has done for this franchise.

I am not saying that I haven’t been surprised for some of the moves that have occured over the past week, but I sit back and always say to myself that “Ozzie must have a plan, like he always does.”

So please step back from the ledge Baltimore and join me in saying “In Ozzie we Trust!”

The post Ravens fans need to take a deep breath and trust in Ozzie appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Guys were stepping up all across the diamond and especially in the bullpen. The Orioles had one of the best bullpens in the majors last season, largely due to the breakout season of closer Jim Johnson and the shutdown ability of the unorthodox  right-handed setup man Darren O’Day.

However, my Orioles x-factor is not a pitcher because I think this group potentially has a lot of good players to come from it, even though the starting rotation is yet to be determined.

My 2013 x-factor is right fielder Nick Markakis.

Markakis stepped in the role of the leadoff spot in the batting order in the heat of the summer pennant race and it was one of the best moves manager Buck Showalter made. Markakis was hitting lights out, getting on base and giving the Orioles a consistent bat that they seemed to lack in their lineup of streaky hitters.

Markakis is a patient hitter that has the ability to contribute extra-base hits as he has had an average of 61 a season through his first seven years of service in the big leagues. He is a career .295 hitter that averages roughly 185 hits a season and ,with the exception of last season where he played in 104 games, he has played in at least 147 games in each of his first six seasons as a major league player.

The reasons why I think the successes or failures of the Orioles will come through Markakis are because he is a well-rounded player that contributes on so many levels to this team.

Markakis’ health has to be a concern after last season as it was his first season where he had been affected by injuries. Nick is a guy who we rarely see sitting in the dugout having an off-day and this team didn’t feel right without him in the lineup. Nick staying healthy all season is a must with uncertainty in left field with the injury prone Nolan Reimold making a potential return to that position or the designated hitter spot. Plus, who can say that Nate McClouth with be the same player that he was at the tail end of last season and the postseason and not the guy who was basically shipped out of Pittsburgh and Atlanta for being a has-been? Nick provides consistency, something the other options in the outfield can’t say.

Markakis is also stellar in the field. No one plays balls off the right field scoreboard better than Nick. HE doesn’t have the best arm to gun down runners, but guys think twice about a ball hit out his way. The thought of Chris Davis ever playing that position again kind of scares me.

The Orioles are yet to come up with a starting lineup and batting order this early in spring training because they want the guys to compete for starting spots. Markakis has given the Orioles a good problem to have in that they don’t know where to place him in this lineup. When Buck moved Nick into the top spot in the lineup, he batted .335, slugged .489 and his OPS was .879. Nick was one of eight leadoff hitters for the Birds last season as he tallied the most games in the top spot with 54. The team went 33-21 in that span.

However, as good as he was Nate McLouth fared pretty good as well. The O’s went 14-8 when he lead off the top of the lineup and McLouth provides a dynamic that Markakis does not possess; he is a threat on the base-paths.

Brian Roberts coming back is also intriguing as the franchise doesn’t know who the starting second baseman will be, nor do they know how healthy Brian is. Roberts is owed $10 million this season. If he can play, he will play. If he can somewhat return to the player he was before injuries started plaguing his career in 2010, I want him at the top of my lineup. He was a 50 doubles and 40 steal guy. That’s a leadoff hitter.

A lot of things need to go correctly for the Orioles in order to have success for this season. They need to be lucky once again, there I said it.

If I am Buck Showalter, I am taking Nick Markakis and making him my No. 2 hitter simply because he will get on base and has the ability to move runners over and across the plate more consistently than Adam Jones does. In a perfect world, Brian Roberts is in the nine hole, or second leadoff spot, Nate McLouth is in the traditional leadoff spot, and Nick Markakis is hitting doubles off the right field scoreboard in the second spot.

If Nick stays healthy, this Orioles team will be much better off and maybe replicate some of the magic they brought in 2012 back to Baltimore.

The post My 2013 Orioles x-factor is… appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

The post My New Orleans march & Baltimore parade Super Bowl scrapbook of Ravens memories appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

First person to get an accurate headcount gets a free Hurricane next time in The Big Easy!

I’m wondering which 10 of these are the only listeners we have at WNST. LOL…

Enjoy the march…and if you spot yourself, throw us a note: nasty@wnst.net.

We’re planning the NOLA March reunion over a beer in the spring!

The post More than 5K Ravens fans at 2:52 marching thru streets of New Orleans at Super Bowl 47 appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Our FREE tailgate party will begin at 10 a.m. There’s plenty of cold beer, drinks, great food and awesome music from legendary Baltimore DJ Bobby Nyk at the edge of Woldenberg Park at the foot of the Mississippi River.

At 2:52 p.m. in Sunday we’ll gather and begin our march to the Superdome by making a left onto Decatur, which becomes N. Peters which becomes Tchoupitoulas and then a right onto Poydras for the long boulevard walk to the Dome and the Super Bowl. We expect to arrive at the Dome about two hours before game time.

Bring your cameras, shoot video and show everyone back in Baltimore the power of the purple flash mob in New Orleans as we support the Ravens and honor Ray Lewis with a block for every one of his 17 seasons in the Charm City and making football great.

Our parade route: we’ll make a left out of Woldenberg Park onto Decatur which becomes N. Peters which becomes Tchoupitoulas and then a right into Poydras, which is a wide-open boulevard that leads to the Superdome.

And if you want to know what it looks like when several thousand Baltimore Ravens fans get together in the streets, check out this 2010 video from our Indianapolis purple flash mob and march to their dome:

The post Gigantic purple march to honor Ray Lewis set for 2:52 p.m. Sunday in New Orleans appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Here’s a link to learn more about The Howlin’ Wolf, a legendary place for music in New Orleans that will be a round-the-clock purple palace catering to Baltimore fans with legendary Louisiana hospitality, food and music.

If you’re on the WNST trips or shuttles coming from the Gulf Coast, The Howlin’ Wolf will also be where you get dropped and picked up in New Orleans. It is truly our “Purple Ground Zero” for all things Baltimore and Ravens while in The Big Easy.

Now for the important news:

We have a GRAMMY AWARD WINNING group of beloved local New Orleans musicians — Rebirth Brass Band will be rocking our Saturday night Purple Throwdown in The Crescent City.

Here’s video of them crushing Bourbon Street four years ago:

We’re wondering if they can learn Seven Nations Army?

We’re giving them a week!

The doors open at 7 p.m. and Rebirth Brass Band is expected to hit the stage around 11 p.m.

The WNST buses back to Gulfport have suddenly moved to a 1 a.m. departure!

At some point, we have to rest up for our 2:52 p.m. march on the Superdome to honor Ray Lewis on Super Bowl gameday.

On Sunday night…after we win the Super Bowl, we’ll return to The Howlin’ Wolf for a victory party to remember with the Hot 8 Brass Band, another awesome New Orleans act that will provide celebration music while the libations flow and the final dance of Ray Lewis’ career has been danced.

If you have purchased a WNST V.I.P. Purple Party Pass, you already have admission for both nights (and a free bread pudding at The Howlin’ Wolf, if you decide to dine there)!

And if you’re on the WNST Super Trips to New Orleans, you’ll also get the V.I.P. treatment.

Both of these events are open to all adult Baltimore Ravens fans coming to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

Tickets for each event are $25 (ala carte) in advance.

You can buy each night separately or you can buy the two-day pass for $40, saving you $10 and any words like “sold out.”

Age requirements: Law is no one under the age of 18 can enter The Howlin’ Wolf. If you are 18-to-21, you can enter but not drink. You must be 21 to drink at The Howlin’ Wolf. (During lunch, children are welcome at The Den inside The Howlin’ Wolf, while dining with family.)

When in N’Awlins, do what the locals do, eat what the locals eat and listen to what the locals love.

Old friends and new friends, if you’re a Baltimore Ravens fans on Super Bowl weekend, this is going to be the place to be — just like in Nashville, Charlotte, San Diego, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Boston or anywhere else the purple has played before, when it comes to throwing a party our WNST crew intends to make this little bowl game on bayou, truly SUPER!

This has been one of the truly spectacular weeks of my life planning all of these WNST.net events so that we can set our media and community bar as high as Ray Lewis and Joe Flacco as we plan events that we — as a nation of Baltimore Ravens fans — want to remember for the rest of our lives as well as we party at the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

For more information about our WNST trips and all WNST events in New Orleans: http://wnst.net/nfl/all-faqs-for-wnst-super-trips-parties-in-new-orleans-here/

And please consider out WNST Super Purple V.I.P. Party Pass for $115.70 here: https://wnst.net/brian-billick/buy-our-wnst-super-v-i-p-party-pass-and-soak-up-the-excitement-of-new-orleans/

For all “party only purchasers”: We’ll have will call locations set up in New Orleans at each of our evening events beginning Friday night at Empire (300 Decatur) from 6 til 10pm and again on Saturday from noon til 2 p.m. at Steamboat Nanchez doors (Toulouse at The River). We’ll also have will call at Saturday & Sunday Howlin’ Wolf events right at the front door if those are the only events you’ll be attend with us in The Big Easy.

You’ll have an envelope and a wristband for your purchase. If you have a multiple-day pass, you’ll have a vinyl band that’s non-transferable.

PURCHASE THE TWO-DAY PURPLE HOWLING WOLF PASS HERE:

Email address

Mobile contact

BUY SATURDAY NIGHT AT HOWLIN’ WOLF ONLY HERE:

Email address

Mobile contact

BUY SUNDAY NIGHT AT HOWLIN’ WOLF ONLY HERE:

Email address

Mobile contact

OR BUY THE WNST SUPER V.I.P. PURPLE PARTY PASS FOR $115.70 HERE:

Email address

Mobile contact

And if I can answer any questions for you, please email me: nasty@wnst.net. My inbox is stacking up but I’m doing my best to keep the pace because I know how important this is to you.

It’s pretty cool for me as well. We’d love to see your face in the place in New Orleans at all of our events for Super Bowl weekend.

And please spread the word about our Sunday march from where Toulouse meets The River…

The post Legendary Howlin’ Wolf will be Purple Ground Zero for all Baltimore Ravens fans in NOLA appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

The post My Final Conversation with Earl Weaver appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Ray Lewis is and always will be the Baltimore Ravens.

Yes, Jonathan Ogden was the first  ever draft pick by the organization. However, Lewis is the most memorable player in franchise history for several reasons.

Coming out of the University of Miami (FL) in 1996, Lewis was undermined as a player going into the NFL Draft. He was undersized and under-appreciated even though he had quite a college career.

From the day he arrived at the Baltimore Ravens’ facilities, he was always looking and working to be great.

Kevin Byrne is the senior VP of public and community relations for the Ravens. Byrne  joined Drew Forrester on The Morning Reaction Thursday to put the career of Lewis in perspective. He said from the very beginning of his career, Lewis always had great expectations and ambitions as a player.

Listen to the entire interview here.

“I asked him if he had any goals and he said he wanted to be the best player ever,” Byrne said. “That was the first time I met him.”

Byrne also said that Lewis had told him in private earlier this season that this would be his final season. One might question the timing of this announcement as this being a selfish move on Lewis’ part to draw attention to himself and away from Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and his battle with cancer.

I say bologna.

This is the BEST time for this announcement for several reasons.

Preparation

Ray Lewis is and always will be the Baltimore Ravens as a franchise. It was hard seeing him struggle at times getting off of blocks, failing to drop back quickly enough in pass coverage and ultimately to see him tear his right triceps muscle and lose a large chunk of the season. However, even though his physical abilities have taken a significant blow at this stage of his career, no one can deny his knowledge of the game of football and the amount of preparation he puts into each game each week. His ability to communicate has made him the player he is today and why he is regarded as one of the greatest of all-time.

Sam Adams joined Glenn Clark Wednesday on The Reality Check to put the career of Ray Lewis in perspective. He admired he physicality on the field and also the amount of time and effort he put into preparing for each opponent on the schedule.

“You need to stop trying to be like Ray Lewis,” Adams said. “That’s a benchmark you simply can’t do. But if you can take away something from him, it’ll make you better at what you’re doing because it’s too much. Those are shoes that cannot be filled. I think he would tell you don’t try to ‘Be as I am. You need to look at the things that I’ve done and make your life better. Maybe I’ve inspired you to do something better in your life.’ As far as playing the game like him, you can’t do it. But if you want to know how to play the game, you better analyze him. He played that position as it was defined. A pure headhunter. They don’t have a lot of those anymore. When they make rules to save people from you knocking them out, you know you’ve made an impact when they have to change the way things are done because of how you play the game.”

The Ravens are facing a capable quarterback in Andrew Luck this week, who happens to also lead the NFL in total turnovers (28). Luck is a student of the game and has a very high football IQ.

So does Ray Lewis.

What he can no longer offer physically as a force to be reckoned with on defense, his mind and ability to call out signals can only benefit the Ravens as he is the chief of the tribe that used to be regarded as “organized chaos.”

PLEASE SEE NEXT PAGE

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