Buddy Ryan picks the Baltimore Ravens, of course.
“I said so in August,” the former defensive coordinator of the Bears said. “I’ve been in their training camp two years in a row and I told [owner] Art Modell, `I think you’re going to win the Super Bowl.'”
One of Ryan’s sons, Rex, is the Ravens’ defensive line coach. Rex’s twin, Rob, is the New England Patriots’ linebackers coach.
“If you’re going to win, you have to have a defense,” Ryan said from his horse farm in Kentucky. “It still wins games. Some people try to act like it doesn’t.”
Ryan told Rex he had one reservation about the Ravens–they had to get quarterback Tony Banks out of the lineup. Trent Dilfer replaced Banks at midseason.
“He fumbles so much,” Ryan said of Banks. “He doesn’t have a knack for feeling pressure on his back.”
Ryan likes the New York Giants’ defense, too, but it hasn’t dominated like the Ravens’.
“Those two ends [Michael McCrary and Rob Burnett] come hard all the time, and [defensive tackle] Sam Adams never has played this good. He was always an underachiever. He had ability and Rex got it out of him. And that middle linebacker [Ray Lewis] knocks the stuffing out of you.”
The Ravens don’t rush the passer as well as the 1985 Bears did, but that’s because the Ravens have better coverage in the secondary than the Bears did.
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Ryan recently picked an all-star defense from his 1985 Bears and the current Ravens for the Cincinnati Enquirer. He selected six Ravens and five Bears.
He picked Bears defensive ends Dan Hampton and Richard Dent over McCrary and Burnett and Ravens defensive tackles Adams and Tony Siragusa over William Perry and Steve McMichael. He picked Lewis over Mike Singletary at middle linebacker, but Bears outside linebackers Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall over Peter Boulware and Jamie Sharper.
In the secondary, Ryan took Ravens cornerbacks Duane Starks and Chris McAlister over Leslie Frazier and Mike Richardson. At strong safety he took the Ravens’ Corey Harris over Dave Duerson. At free safety, he took the Bears’ Gary Fencik over Rod Woodson.
Only the choices at safety would raise eyebrows. Harris is a backup filling in for Kim Herring. But Ryan always considered Duerson a backup for Todd Bell, even though Duerson turned into a better player and an All-Pro. Ryan called Fencik “smart and tough.” Woodson was on the NFL’s 75th anniversary team, but as a cornerback in his prime, not a safety.
Palmer critics: When he fired head coach Chris Palmer, Cleveland Browns boss Carmen Policy said: “I think that football . . . is almost as much feel and emotion as it is execution. And I can’t help but recognize that the feel and emotion that everyone in that stadium experienced when the Cleveland Browns played was flat. A team will never grow unless it has spirit, energy, direction and hope. And I think we were lacking a great deal of each of those.”
Obviously, Bears coach Dick Jauron doesn’t intend to seek a recommendation from Policy before deciding on his offensive coordinator.
Texas capers: The Houston Texans have agreed in principle with Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Dom Capers to coach their expansion team that begins play in 2002. That would make Capers the coach of two expansion teams. He started with the Carolina Panthers in 1995.
Herman raves: Tampa Bay Pro Bowl safety John Lynch, a former pitcher for the Kane County Cougars, was frustrated in 1995 and fired a football at Bucs secondary coach Herman Edwards.
“I threw a fastball, but he didn’t blink. He just looked, caught it and kind of stared me down like, `Hey, I know what you’re doing,'” Lynch said.
Said Edwards, named Thursday head coach of the New York Jets: “I knew then something was wrong. I called him over and I just told him one thing, `John, the cream always rises to the top. You keep plugging, and good things are going to happen for you.'”
Said Lynch: “We’re as close as I’ve ever been to a coach and that’s for a lot of reasons. He wants you to strive for perfection each and every day, and it doesn’t stop on the field. It’s beyond that.”
Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber called Edwards “a father figure,” and cornerback Brian Kelly called him “a great player’s coach” and teacher.
Fine with them: Ravens Lewis and Siragusa disputed their fines for hits on quarterbacks Steve McNair and Rich Gannon the last two games.
Lewis, who hit Tennessee’s McNair helmet-to-helmet, said: “I play the game like the game is supposed to be played. I play the way I was fundamentally taught to hit people. You hit people, you wrap them up and take them to the ground. If you do that to anybody else in the league, you don’t get a fine–they’re trying to protect quarterbacks. But if a quarterback tries to run you over on third-and-1, he’s a hero. You can’t win. It doesn’t matter. If that changed the momentum of the game, hey, if I get another fine, I get another one.”
Siragusa, who landed all 340-something pounds on top of Gannon, separating Gannon’s left shoulder, said: “I don’t understand why I’d be fined. This isn’t tennis. These people, if you’re worried about getting hit, go get some golf clubs. . . . This is a contact sport. I don’t see how you can let a guy who sits behind a desk with a pencil go and determine whether I should get fined or not for a hit. If I got flagged or if it was blatant [and] I’m trying to ruin somebody’s career, that’s one thing. But if it’s a legitimate hit, why are you going to fine the guy?”
Lewis was fined $7,500, Siragusa $10,000.
Raiders center Barret Robbins called Siragusa a “fat” unprintable.
“You want to hurt the guy, but he’s so big. What do you do? You hurt your neck trying to hit him,” Robbins said.
Robbins said he couldn’t blame Siragusa for trying to hurt Gannon.
“If I was a defensive player, I’d try to hurt the [quarterback] every time,” Robbins said. “That is the name of the game. Just so happens he is so fat, when he falls on you, he is going to hurt you.”
Super meaning: Baltimore tight end Shannon Sharpe on what it means to win the Super Bowl:
“I know if you win this game, it changes your life forever. You’ll never be viewed the same way ever, ever again. Before, I was just a guy who caught a lot of passes. Everybody was saying, `Yeah, he’s a great pass-catching tight end.’ But the minute I won that game, all of a sudden they started talking about the Hall of Fame. Then I won again and they started mentioning it even more.
“It’ll take a guy like Ray [Lewis] and it can make him one of the all-time best to ever play the game. It’ll take an average guy and make him good, take a good guy and make him great, take a great guy and make him a Hall of Famer.
“This is what this game has done for a career.”
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