With the Ravens’ brass meeting with the media for the end-of-the-year press conference on Thursday morning, here’s an early look at their list of free agents this offseason. Much will be determined by the contract status of quarterback Joe Flacco and whether the organization will need to use the franchise tag or be able to sign him to a long-term contract.

A Flacco long-term agreement is a must to avoid a large number of salary-cap casualties that could include key veterans such as wide receivers Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones, fullback Vonta Leach, and linebacker Jameel McClain.

As we move closer to March, I’ll provide a closer look on how the Ravens might proceed this winter and spring.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

The Ravens will have the opportunity to re-sign any of the 13 following unrestricted free agents before they are free to sign with any other team on March 12 at 4:00 p.m.:

QB Joe Flacco
S Ed Reed
LB Paul Kruger
LB Dannell Ellerbe
OT Bryant McKinnie
CB Cary Williams
DT Ma’ake Kemoeatu
S James Ihedigbo
S Sean Considine
TE Billy Bajema
DT Ryan McBean
LB Ricky Brown
CB Chris Johnson

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

The following players have accrued three years of service and have expiring contracts. The Ravens must tender each with a restricted free agent offer, but other teams may then sign that player to an offer sheet. If that happens, Baltimore has seven days to match the offer and keep the aforementioned player. If the Ravens choose not to match the offer sheet, they would receive compensation based on which tender was initially offered to that player.

There are three different tenders that can be made: a first-round tender (estimated $2.88 million) would award the competing team’s first-round selection, a second-round tender ($2.02 million) would award the competing team’s second-round selection, and a low tender ($1.32 million) would award the competing team’s draft selection equal to the round in which the player was originally chosen. For example, a restricted free agent selected in the fifth round would be worth a fifth-round pick if given the low tender. If a player went undrafted originally and is given the low tender, the Ravens would simply hold the right to match the offer and would not receive any compensation if they elected not to match a competing offer.

The original round in which each player was drafted is noted in parentheses:

TE Dennis Pitta (4th)
DT Arthur Jones (5th)
TE Ed Dickson (3rd)
LS Morgan Cox (undrafted)
WR David Reed (5th)
OL Ramon Harewood (6th)

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS

These players have less than three years of accrued service and must be tendered a contract for the league minimum based on their length of service in the league. If tendered, these players are not free to negotiate with other teams.

LB Josh Bynes
LB Albert McClellan
RB Anthony Allen
RB Damien Berry
RB Bobby Rainey
LB Adrian Hamilton
DT Bryan Hall
S Anthony Levine
S Omar Brown
S Emanuel Cook

NEW ORLEANS — Basking in the glow of the Ravens’ Super Bowl XLVII on Monday morning, head coach John Harbaugh will take some time to enjoy his first NFL championship before turning his attention to another offseason.

Arguably the most intriguing item of business for general manager Ozzie Newsome will be the pending free agency of safety Ed Reed, whose six-year contract will expire after he was paid a base salary of $7.2 million during the 2012 season. The 34-year-old defensive back has expressed his desire to remain in Baltimore, but the a tight salary cap and Reed’s declining skills might force the Ravens to move in a different direction.

Reed intercepted a Colin Kaepernick pass in the second quarter of Sunday night’s game, which tied an NFL postseason record as his ninth career pick in the playoffs. The question now becomes whether that was Reed’s final theft wearing a Ravens uniform.

“We had that conversation [Sunday night] on the bus ride away from the stadium actually,” Harbaugh said. “He and I both agreed that we want him back. I want him back, and Ed wants to come back. You never know how these things are going to work out, but we are going to work like crazy to work it out because Ed’s a Baltimore Raven, and hopefully we can make that happen.”

The future Hall of Fame safety will be entering his 12th season and told reporters he plans to play next season, but he will reassess where he is from a physical standpoint as the offseason progresses. Reed revealed he sprained the medial collateral ligament in each of his knees during Super Bowl XLVII, but he continued to play despite briefly going to the locker room in the first half.

The 2002 first-round pick turned the heads of some earlier this week by expressing how he’d like to play for New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, but he reiterated that his first choice would be to remain in Baltimore. Indianapolis and New Orleans would also be logical destinations for Reed should the Ravens pass on keeping him.

There’s always the possibility that Reed decides he’s had enough after dealing with a chronic nerve impingement in his neck and shoulder for the last five years, but he made his feelings about his future clear in the moments following Super Bowl XLVII.

“This is not it,” Reed shouted emphatically. “This is not it. I’m not done.”

BALTIMORE RAVENS HEAD COACH JOHN HARBAUGH

Super Bowl XLVII News Conference

New Orleans, Louisiana – February 4, 2013

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Opening Statement:

“Some of you know I had the pleasure of hosting John Harbaugh’s parents last night in our box. It was fantastic, no incidents occurred, but they were terrific. John has done a great job since he became the head coach of the Ravens, making the playoffs all five seasons as head coach. It’s only been done by two other head coaches and then to win a Super Bowl on top of it, it says a lot about his ability to coach. I also admire what he does off the field. He’s really a guy that loves the game of football with a passion, and he’s demonstrated that. So, Coach, congratulations on your Super Bowl victory.”

Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh Opening Statement:

“We hadn’t seen this (Vince Lombardi Trophy) since last night. We thought we lost it. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out. It was quite a night last night, and I’m just proud of our team, proud of our coaches and our players, happy for our families, and most of all, happy for the people in Baltimore. We saw some amazing pictures last night of in Baltimore of everybody partying. That’s what makes it all great. Probably the best moment of the night was not the end of the game – maybe the most emotional part of the night – was when the National Anthem was being sung and they got to the ‘Oh’ part. It was when the crowd yelled out ‘Oh,’ and it was the loudest ‘Oh’ I’ve heard outside of M&T Bank Stadium. I got a little choked up by that. It just meant so much the fans were able to enjoy that. Congratulations to Joe. Thank you to the NFL and all the amazing things they did to make this week great for us and for us to get a chance to compete. We just appreciate all of that.”

(on losing a few games at the end of the regular season)

“I think our situation is kind of unique. We’ve been galvanized throughout. We won a lot of tough games, close games all the way throughout. We lost a couple tough ones. Philadelphia comes to mind. Seeing these guys sitting there. I don’t think it was so much that, that we needed to be reminded of anything, but it was lot of difficult things. We had a lot of injuries. We played some teams that were playing really well. If you look at our schedule, we didn’t play anybody that had nothing in place. We didn’t play anybody that was on the downside of their season. We played everybody at their best with the most at stake. If you look at the games we lost, we lost to Pittsburgh and they had everything at stake in terms of making the playoffs in overtime on a field goal. We lost to Washington on the road. They were making their playoff run and were their hottest and their best with everything at stake. They went down and scored 8 points in the last minute and kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime. Those were tough losses, Denver coming in and just rolling and the game kind of got away from us. They made some plays on us. That was probably our worst performance of the year. We bounced right back against the New York Giants and played our best game of the year in the regular season. The Cincinnati game was more of a game where we really were not playing anybody. I thought our young guys played really well. I was happy at that game and said so at the time. Through all that adversity, I think that adversity does help. It makes you tougher. It does callus you up. Through all that, we were improving. Even when we were losing, I felt we were improving the young guys were playing which helped drive the playoffs.”

(on how Jimmy Smith played and his future)

“I’m sure it will be a springboard for Jimmy, but how does it get any bigger than the Super Bowl on the last drive? I think he made the two plays at the end of the game to win the game. He played great. Jimmy has been practicing very well. He finally got healthy at the end the year there. He was at his best the last couple weeks. Jimmy is going to be, like we said all along, a great player in this league. I love him. He is really special.”

(on the difficulty of coaching against Jim  Harbaugh)

“That’s a great question. As you stood there on the field before the game, I kind of came to the conclusion that the only thing that would have been worse is if one of us wasn’t there. The only thing that would have been worse than that is if neither one of us weren’t there. It feels pretty rough. It’s really tough. The toughest moment of all was walking across the field. If you can imagine, you feel an incredible amount of elation with an incredible amount of devastation. Those two feelings went hand in hand in that moment. I’m still feeling it. That’s just reality. I’m proud of it. He’s the best coach in the National Football League. His record proves it over the last two seasons. What he’s done is just incredible. It hasn’t been done before that I know of. I’m just really proud of him.”

(on drafting Joe Flacco and his development into the quarterback he is now)

“It was a dinner that we had at a place called Tark’s in Baltimore. We sat down, and for a couple hours, sat and talked. Joe impressed me as a guy that was really determined to be really good. It felt he had a lot to prove. Joe came up the hard way. Joe is not a guy that had everything laid out there perfectly before him in college. He dealt with the adversity. I just felt like he was a guy that would do whatever it took to overcome whatever to be the best that he was going to be. That’s proven to be true. He’s a guy that no matter what happens, no matter what criticism he felt in front of him, no matter what disappointments he might have, he steps up and he bounces back and he comes back and goes to work. I think he’ll be the same with this success. I think he’ll be right back there in OTA’s and mini camps. He’ll be going to work just like, maybe, we had lost this game. He’ll be just as motivated and just as determined. That’s one of the things that makes him great”

(on his level of rest)

“You’re into the sleep thing. You’re kind of concerned with how much rest everybody got. (Reporter: ‘I saw pictures of you at 4:30 in the morning’). With my daughter Alison? We were dancing the night away to Mary J (Blige). It was great. We had a lot of fun last night and that was a great moment. It was just a fun time. Steve (Bisciotti) puts on a good party.”

(on whether he would ever re-watch the game with Jim Harbaugh)

“No, I don’t ever think we will ever watch that game together.  Absolutely not.”

(on how they recovered from the Denver loss)

“It’s funny; it looked the bleakest to everybody on the outside. If you guys go back and look at our quotes, and I know you do, all of our guys were holding firm, all of them understood that we were improving and what we were up against. I remember a team break after the Denver game. I think it was Sizzle (Terrell Suggs) who said ‘All of our goals are in front of us; we can accomplish everything that we need to accomplish, let’s just go to work.’ That’s what they did. Our guys never flinched. They never blinked thought that adversity. If that’s not a great lesson, if that’s not something we can draw on in the future as a team and as an organization, I don’t know what is. I’m proud of the guys for that. You at least saw in real time, when it was happening, I think we all believed, like Joe (Flacco) said, we all believed that we could do things.”

(on whether his parents would rather the brothers not coach against each other)

“Thanks to Roger Goodell for what he did for my parents. He had them in the box, along with tom and Joanie Crean. I didn’t know until Roger just told me, they didn’t say a word through the whole game. I think the week was great. They were under orders from Jim and I both to enjoy the week and have a great time. That was our instructions, and they did. They made they most of it and had a great time. I think it was great for them right up until kickoff, then it wasn’t so great. I think they are just happy that we are beyond it now, and they’re proud as can be. They are happy for both of us. There is not loser in the Super Bowl. We are kind of a ‘one-or-nothing society’ but that is so not right. Those are two great teams that just fought a heated battle, played a great football game, a historic football game, a really exciting game. We will be watching that on NFL Films for years to come. That’s what counts. That’s what is deserving of respect.”

(on the postgame and his interactions with his family)

“You can never anticipate it. I have not talked to Jim at all. You know we will talk at some point in time, there is no hurry. My parents I saw in the locker room, along with their kids and Tom and Joanie, after the game. They were elated for us, for the Ravens. They know all of our players and coaches. They were elated on the one hand, and they were just devastated on the other hand. I could see behind their eyes. It was both things. Emotions are incredible.”

(on if his parents attended the party)

“I just saw them at the stadium, and then they went back to the hotel.”

(on Eddie Robinson being a good role model and now his role as a great coach and role model)

“Eddie Robinson is a great role model. Not just for kids but for coaches everywhere. He treated players with respect. He treated the game with respect. He was all about competing. For kids I would say is faith. Believe in one another. Always dream big, and never limit your dreams. Just always know that whatever path you lay our out for yourself, God’s plans could be so much greater and so beyond what you could even imagine or plan for yourself. Trust that. Trust your own abilities. Trust your imagination. Trust our parents. Go to work and see what you make of yourself.”

(on his exchange with the officials after the blackout)

“The whole blackout thing, I way overreacted. It wasn’t anything to do with the blackout. The blackout had nothing to do with the game. The 49ers just outplayed us for a stretch. They played great. We did not, for a stretch of the game, but I was proud that our guys bounced back and finished. I was just concerned about some things that had to do with the headsets and coaches in the press box and if you have to bring guys down. It was really stuff that was never going to be an issue because they handled it so well. A total overreaction on my part and I feel bad about it. It was the one thing I look back on the game and I am disappointed in myself about, because I didn’t have very much poise in that moment.”

(on Ed Reed returning)

“We had that conversation yesterday on the bus ride away from the stadium actually. He and I both agreed that we want him back. I want him back, and Ed wants to come back. Like Joe says, you never know how these things are going to work out, but we are going to work like crazy to work it out because Ed’s a Baltimore Raven, and hopefully we can make that happen.”

(on the advantage the blackout created for the 49ers)

“It probably gave them an opportunity to get their balance. I’m not surprised. I don’t know that it would have taken that. I know the guy coaching them. I know how he competes. I know what he’s made of and therefore what their team is made of. There was really no doubt in my mind that they were going to do that at some point, and they were going to start throwing counter punches. They’ve got talent. They’ve got a great scheme and that’s what they did. It was really on us to stem the tide, which obviously we were eventually able to do, but man, they were throwing some haymakers at us, and they did a great job of that.”

(on what Jim is going through)

“Jim is a great competitor. Jim will do what he has always done. He will come out swinging. He will go back to work and work on the draft. Everybody in this room that has ever competed understands what we all go through when you lose a tough game or a big game. It’s tough because you put so much in to it, your heart and your soul. You feel for everybody. No one will handle it better than Jim Harbaugh. He is the best coach in football, and he will have that team roaring back again very soon.”

(on the fans that traveled and the parade waiting for them in Baltimore)

“Cannot wait. Cannot wait. I can’t imagine. With the sendoff we had when we went out there – I’ve never heard of a sendoff for the Super Bowl, maybe some other cities have had it, but we had thousands and thousands of people there for that. I can’t imagine what this parade is going to be like. The stadium, it really seemed like it was almost full after the game with the Purple Wall all around us when we were doing the trophy celebration. We have the best fans in football, we really do. I might be biased, but that’s OK. Our fans are incredible. We saw the pictures of everybody celebrating in the street. To Baltimore, congratulations, and to all of our fans everywhere, we are proud of you. Thanks for all you do.”

NEW ORLEANS — After two weeks of preparation and buildup, the time has finally arrived for Super Bowl XLVII.

Trying to win the second Super Bowl championship in the 17-year history of the franchise, the Baltimore Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans in the culmination of a 20-game marathon that included tragedy, trials, and tribulations. Led by quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens have rolled off playoff wins over Indianapolis, Denver, and New England to wind up in the Super Bowl only a month after most left them for dead in the final month of the regular season.

Both teams are in excellent shape — or as well as can be expected at the end of a long season — from a health standpoint as no players were listed worse than probable on the final injury report of the week.

Six of the seven inactives for the Ravens are a repeat of the AFC Championship game, with only defensive lineman DeAngelo Tyson replacing veteran cornerback Chris Johnson among the 46 active players for the Super Bowl. This isn’t surprising given the 49ers’ propensity for running the football in comparison to the pass-happy Patriots.

Baltimore owns the 3-1 edge in the all-time series as these teams meet in the postseason for the first time ever. The Ravens are looking to win their first championship since the 2000 season while San Francisco eyes its sixth Super Bowl championship and first since the 1994 season.

The Ravens are wearing white jerseys and black pants while the 49ers are donning their red tops with gold pants.

The referee for Super Bowl XLVII is Jerome Boger.

Here are Sunday night’s inactives …

BALTIMORE
CB Asa Jackson
S Omar Brown
CB Chris Johnson
LB Adrian Hamilton
OL Ramon Harewood
WR Deonte Thompson
DT Bryan Hall

SAN FRANCISCO
QB Scott Tolzien
S Trenton Robinson
RB Jewel Hampton
LB Cam Johnson
DT Tony Jerod-Eddie
G Joe Looney
DT Ian Williams

Follow WNST on Twitter throughout the night as Drew Forrester, Nestor Aparicio, Glenn Clark, and I bring live updates and analysis from New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS — A week of buildup to Super Bowl XLVII ended on a bizarre note Friday as SWATS owner Mitch Ross addressed the controversial Sports Illustrated article reporting he sold deer antler spray to Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis to aid in his recovery from right triceps surgery.

Ross provided just as many questions as answers as he evaded countless questions about Lewis and their communication following the injury on Oct. 14 and argued over semantics with reporters gathered outside the media center in New Orleans. Earlier this week, Lewis dismissed and vehemently denied the report saying he acquired deer antler spray from Ross following his triceps injury.

“Ray was right about one thing,” Ross said. “This whole story — this whole slander — was the tactic of the devil.”

Ross said he was “catfished” by Sports Illustrated in how the story portrayed him, but he wouldn’t answer whether he communicated with Lewis on the night he was injured or in the days immediately following that. He later revealed he sent Lewis a text message earlier this week that read, “God bless.”

Confirming that he first met Lewis in 2008, Ross said he didn’t have any proof the linebacker took the deer antler spray that contains IGF-1, a banned substance in the NFL. He would not answer questions over whether he had sent Lewis the spray to aid in his recovery, telling reporters to reference the SI article he was also denouncing throughout the session with reporters.

He spent much of the hour-plus session dodging questions and trying to promote his products, but Ross said Ravens safety James Ihedigbo remains a client of his. He also indicated the Ravens continued to use his products this postseason, though the one specified isn’t banned by the NFL.

“The [performance] chips were used by Baltimore against Denver and the Patriots, and I have text messages in my phone to prove it from James Ihedigbo,” Ross said. “I sent 600 of them in a two-week period. And I have mailing slips from FedEx.”

Ross apologized to the many athletes he’s worked with while also dropping names throughout the interview session.

“Athletes will do anything to improve performance,” said Ross, who claims he’s received death threats from Ravens fans since the SI article was published earlier this week. “The guys that work with me are doing it the right way — not the Lance Armstrong way.”

Here are this weekend’s picks as The D&L Window Tinting Morning Reaction will pick every NFL game this season.

Drew Forrester finished 2-0 in conference championship weekend and Luke Jones was 1-1. Forrester is now 168-80 and Jones is 159-89 overall. Their postseason marks are locked, however, with Forrester and Jones each holding a 7-3 record. Official standings are only kept based on the NFL picks.

With the WNST.net crew in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII coverage this week, Glenn Clark joined the Friday segment as a guest prognosticator.

To hear their full explanation, click HERE.

Ravens vs. 49ers: Baltimore 27-17 (Drew), Baltimore 27-24 (Luke), Baltimore 27-23 (Glenn)

HEAD COACH JOHN HARBAUGH

(opening statement) “Good to see everybody. Thanks for coming out. We have a tradition here in Baltimore, Joe Plantania always asks the first question and he made it so here we go.”

(on how his coaching style has changed since his first year as a head coach) ”I think the first time you’re new at everything so you kind of learn the job. We’ve done that over the course of five years. I really don’t think it’s changed that much in all honesty. I pretty much think it’s the same as it was early on when I was an assistant. You always put the players first. If you’re a teacher, you put the students first. But you also have a process for things that you believe in and ways of doing things that you stand by. So that’s what you try to do. Guys want to know the way. There’s a vision that you have for them. We painted that vision for them right out of the gate and you keep building on it. The key word, and I shared this word with you yesterday, the key word is build. You build that. You build trust, you build relationships, and it takes time to do that. We’ve been able to do that over the course of five years.”

(on how being a special teams coach in Philadelphia prepared him for his current role as head coach) “In the Philadelphia days, we were there together, I saw you in your fur coat before every game. Your legendary fur coat. Special teams is a great place to start as a coach. It’s a great place to be. I had an opportunity to work with every single player on the team. Players are different. Quarterbacks are different than defensive linemen. Defensive backs are different than offensive linemen. You do have an opportunity to work with all those different diverse groups every single day, working on football and meetings and all those different things, which is a great training ground for the job that I’m doing right now. So it’s been a big plus but Philadelphia was a tremendous organization, great people, great head coach, first class media without question, tough talk radio. That was good too. You get a little work with the media, it was a good training ground with the media too. That’s a pretty important part of this job too. It was just a great experience.”

(on the decision to change the offensive coordinator) “You’re always trying to build. It goes back to that word. You’re trying to become as good as you can be. We had built something over the course of a long period of time and we were where we were and I think it became kind of obvious and apparent that we needed to shake things up a little bit and head down a little bit of a different road to get where we need to go. It’s not reflective of a job that anyone was or was not doing. Everyone was doing their best. Everybody was doing a great job. We just needed to change the chemistry and the dynamic and we did that and it worked out for us.”

(on practicing outside on a baseball field in the elements) “You know I think Tulane has done a remarkable job. The people at Tulane – it has really been incredible what they’ve done there. They’re building a new stadium, and on campus 30,000 seat stadium. It’s going to be first class; it’s going to be beautiful. The people are so nice, so professional. Everything has been great at Tulane. The facility is under construction right now so that’s a little bit tough. It’s put us on the baseball field. We’re going to work some things out today to try to accomplish what we need to accomplish over the course of the week and we’re working that schedule out right now. We just have to see how that plays out. We’re working on that.”

(on working with owner Steve Bisciotti) “When you’re with him one-on-one, he’s not such a quiet guy. He’s a great personality. He’s a very strong guy. He’s a very smart man. He’s involved in really almost everything we do. He’s not involved in the day-to-day football stuff, but he has his observations on football as well. Definitely involved in all the things we do with the cap. All the things we do throughout the draft. He’s got a hand in what we’re doing. He’s the guy that establishes the vision for the organization, and I think Steve deserves a lot of credit. He’s not a guy that wants the limelight is what you’re talking about. He’s not a guy that wants to be out front banging his chest. He’s a humble man too. So he’s just a great role model for all of us.”
(on his relationship with assistant special teams coach Chris Hewitt) “Chris Hewitt is working with our special teams now. We brought him in from Rutgers where he spent a lot of time over there as an assistant coach. He played at the University of Cincinnati, played in the National Football League. Tremendous family man. He’s a guy that I have always personally admired and respected even in his playing days as being a really mature guy. I was a 30 year old coach at Cincinnati and Chris came in as a 17 year old freshman and started for us right away. He ended up being second in the nation in kickoff returns right out of the gate, so that will bond a coach and a player really fast. We’ve just had a great friendship all these years and I think Chris is one of the great young coaches in this league. He has been a huge addition to our staff, he’s made us better. I think the sky is the limit for Chris’ career.”

(on Joe Flacco’s contract negotiations) “It really hasn’t been a challenge. It’s been amazingly non-challenging. I think that’s a credit to Joe (Flacco) first of all. Joe doesn’t worry about that stuff. It’s not something that matters to him. He’s not a guy that’s all wrapped up in that. I think he feels that it’s going to work out, you do all you’re talking on the field. It’s about football. He figured that he’ll go out there and take care of business this year, lead the team, play as well as he could play and see what happens. That’s kind of his approach to things. It’s also a credit to this organization. Steve (Bisciotti) and Ozzie (Newsome) didn’t get worked up about it either. You’d love to have your quarterback signed up. There were some great negotiations, some very generous offers back and forth and those kind of things. But when it got to that point in time where everybody kind of said, “You know what, it’s about football right now. Let’s have the best season we can have. We’ll revisit after the season.’ That, as a coach, I felt pretty good about it. We really haven’t talked about it since.”

(on the expression ‘grind the meat and rattle the mollers’) “That’s Bo. That’s straight Jerry Hanlon, Bo Schembechler, Michigan, Midwest, Big 10, grey skies football. That goes back to the roots. When Michigan would be ahead Bo would get on the headphones with Jerry and say, ‘It’s time to grind some meat’. That means it’s time to run the ball, four minute offense. They’d run an off tackle play. Rattle the molars, that’s coming off the ball. That’s trench warfare for football upfront. That’s football.”

(on kicker Justin Tucker) “Justin Tucker, Jerry Rosburg did a great job of finding Justin Tucker. I mean, you find the guy at the University of Texas but he wasn’t a highly ranked kicker. He wasn’t one of the top guys coming out on all the pre-rankings and those kind of things. Jerry did a tremendous job of evaluating Justin. He saw talent; he saw a gifted guy, went down there and worked him out, loved his personality. He felt like with a few adjustments technique wise he could become really consistent. The first time I liked him was the very first kick. Standing behind him, hearing the ball come off his foot, and seeing how straight it tracked. You could tell that he’s just a really talented guy. When we finally decided to make him the kicker, it was really right at the end. Billy Cundiff and he had a really great battle. Both those guys kicked incredibly well. We just felt like at the end, kind of a gut decision, that Tuck would be our guy.”

(on this being the final day of media availability for the players and whether there are any surprises planned for his press conference with Jim Harbaugh tomorrow) “You know they’ve done a great job with that. I think they’ve done a great job of compartmentalizing. I was worried I was going to mess that word up. They’ve done well with that. They’ve focused on the football. I’m proud of the way that they’ve handled the media as well.  As far as the joint press conference tomorrow, we thought that we would switch uniforms. I would come dressed as Jim, and Jim would come dressed as me. We’ll see if you guys can figure it out.”

(on his statement that the two best safety groups are playing in the Super Bowl) “I can’t say I’ve looked at all the safety groups and made a plot. But it would be hard for me to find two groups that are better than these two groups of guys playing together. To me the first and foremost thing is they’re very talented on both sides. I know Ed (Reed) gets some heat for tackling a little bit, but if you watch the way he’s tackling this year, you see the Ed Reed of old. He’s tackling very well. Bernard Pollard is obviously a very physical player. Both of their players are very physical players. They combine that with a great awareness of the backend. They play well together. How many teams do you see both safeties up or both safeties back, and they’re supposed to be working together? You really see that with these two groups.”

(on the benefit of having two running backs and whether he thinks that is a lasting trend in the NFL) “I would agree with that. We’re very blessed and we’re lucky to have these guys. Bernard Pierce has just been a guy that has lit it up for us this year. We liked him a lot, but I don’t think we thought he’d be this good of a player. The two styles contrast perfectly. They’re different kinds of running backs between Ray (Rice) and Bernard, so that helps us a lot too. I don’t know how one running back could do it, especially if you’re going to run the ball the way we’re going to run the ball. I don’t think one running back could carry the load or last very long in this league. It gives you a chance to have some longevity with those two guys.”

(on Art Modell and his potential Hall of Fame nomination) “The National Football League wouldn’t be the same. Isn’t that the measurement, how much better they made our game and the National Football League? By any measurement it wouldn’t be the same and it wouldn’t be as good as it is right now. He changed football. He changed the way that it was perceived. He helped make it the popular game that it is today. He had a vision that very few people had in his time. The minute you got to know Art, we really became such good friends because he wanted to be your friend. He wanted to get close to you and your family, my wife and my daughter. Pat Modell, Pat Modell drove Art. Pat was the driving force I think in that partnership. But they became great friends with Joe with Ray with all our players. And then Steve Bisciotti is that same type of person. And Rene Bisciotti, they have the same type of partnership that they had. I would hope at this point after what we’ve been through with Art and Pat in this last year. What it’s meant to our team, the focus that it’s put on our success and what they’ve done. I hope people would find it in their hearts to do the right thing and vote Art Modell into the hall of fame. There’s no question he belongs there, there’s no question he’s going to be in the hall of fame. Why wait? Let’s just do it right now. Let’s do the right thing.”

(on what advice he has taken from Steve Bisciotti) “Any advice, there’s so much advice, but the one thing that just always, I think about every single day, is the way he talks about how you approach a day. His thought on that, he received that from a mentor at some point down the road. He said basically, ‘approach every day at work like it’s your first day at work. With that same kind of enthusiasm. Approach every day with your family like it may be your last with your family. If you do that every single day, you’re going to do okay.’ That’s pretty good advice.”

(on his experience as a graduate assistant at Michigan) “Well like any young coach you think you know everything and you find out real quickly that you know nothing. As you grow as a coach and you kind of go down the road, you realize you know less than that. It was a great experience being with my dad every single day. Driving to work, driving home from work, kind of seeing the frustrations as a head coach.  I was in charge of the cards and the computers and kind of doing all the things that young coaches do, you learn from the bottom up, just like Jim did when he went to Oakland. Having a chance to see my dad as the head coach and wanting so badly for him to be successful in that role, I saw some of the things that he struggled with and I think having that now in the memory banks has been a positive thing.”

NEW ORLEANS — Much has been discussed about the pending retirement of Ray Lewis and the uncertain future of veterans such as Ed Reed and Matt Birk, but Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome eliminated himself from that discussion on Tuesday.

Some have speculated that the 56-year-old executive might ponder retirement if the Ravens win their second Super Bowl title in franchise history on Sunday, but Newsome eliminated that possibility when speaking with reporters at media day in New Orleans. The Ravens promoted Newsome’s right-hand man Eric DeCosta to the title of assistant general manager last January, but Newsome isn’t ready to step down just yet despite his confidence that the organization will be in fine shape after he retires.

Owner Steve Bisciotti has already publicly stated that DeCosta is the heir apparent to Newsome in Baltimore.

“I know he’s going to be [the successor],” Newsome said. “Steve has said that. I know the Ravens will be in good hands when that time comes. That’s a long time away though.”

DeCosta has often been linked to other organizations seeking a general manager, but the 41-year-old is being paid as well as many general managers in the league and has strong ties to the area through his wife’s family. He has been with the organization since starting as a player personnel assistant in 1996.

Newsome explained why DeCosta has been coveted by so many teams in recent years.

“Eric can process information very quickly,” Newsome said. “He came up through the program. You have to look at Phil [Savage], you look at George [Kokinis], you look at [James "Shack" Harris] — all of those guys were very good. With Eric and his ability to process information so quick, I don’t think he ever allows himself to put himself above the Ravens. Everything he wants to do, he wants to do for the Ravens.”

Newsome chuckled as he addressed his future and admitted last week how much fun he is having with the role after years of working in isolation from players as he studied film and worked on reports for potential college draft prospects.

The architect of the AFC champions has cultivated relationships with role players such as cornerback Chykie Brown and defensive lineman Bryan Hall while growing closer with the stars of the franchise.

“You get a chance to be around these guys,” Newsome said last week. “I’ve seen [Terrell] Suggs change, and I’ve seen Ray [Lewis] change, and I’ve seen Ed [Reed change]. To watch these guys grow and mature. Evaluating players is one thing, doing contracts is another, going down to the principal’s office and spending time with Steve [Bisciotti], that’s another thing. To be there with those guys and to watch those guys grow up, you can’t separate that. You can’t find anything better than that, so I enjoy it.”

FLACCO UPDATE: Newsome once again addressed quarterback Joe Flacco’s expiring contract, reiterating his intention for the fifth-year product to remain in Baltimore for years to come.

The Ravens will attempt to sign him to a long-term contract to avoid the need to use the franchise tag that is estimated to be $14.6 million for a quarterback in the 2013 season.

“People fail to realize that he was a dropped pass away from getting to the Super Bowl last year,” Newsome said. “So, what he did was just back up to what he did a year ago. He’s doing a great job. He has great chemistry with Jim Caldwell. Hopefully, as long as I’m the general manager in Baltimore, he’s the quarterback in Baltimore.”

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Even as he prepares for the most important football game of his coaching career, Ravens coach John Harbaugh couldn’t resist the urge to play a practical joke on Thursday morning.

His parents Jack and Jackie Harbaugh and sister Joani Crean were in the middle of a national conference call discussing their thoughts and reactions to both John and Jim Harbaugh making it to the Super Bowl when “John from Baltimore” was recognized by the moderator to ask a question. The trio had been answering questions for nearly 20 minutes when the Baltimore coach joined the conversation.

“Yeah, a question from Baltimore. Is it true that both of you like Jim better than John?” the faux reporter asked the Harbaugh parents.

Harbaugh mother Jackie was ready to “come right through” the phone in anger before sister Joani figured out it was John on the other end of the phone. Jack then enthusiastically asked, “Is that John Harbaugh?”

The family members shared a few laughs and words as John complimented his parents and sister for how they handled an assortment of questions about the Harbaugh brothers and which team they’d be rooting for.

Jack Harbaugh revealed son John considered a career in politics prior to settling on the idea of coaching upon graduating from Miami University of Ohio in 1984. He joined his father’s Western Michigan staff as an assistant that fall.

The coach of the Ravens was asked during his Thursday press conference whether it was difficult to put his family allegiances aside to square off against his brother’s San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

“I don’t think you ever put your family aside,” said Harbaugh while laughing. “We have a job to do. All of us have a job to do. Jim has a job to do, all of his coaches, all of our coaches, all of our players. Everybody’s going to be focused on doing their job.”

Hear the entire conference call with Jack and Jackie Harbaugh and Joani Crean right HERE.