Baltimore Ravens Football Team

The refrain began soon after the Baltimore Ravens left the field Sunday with a decisive playoff win in hand. Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan was only too happy to nudge it along. "Nobody has respected this team until right now, and that's fine with us," Ryan said. "Tough on everybody else, just right for us." Respect is a motivational tactic as old as sport itself. Coaches and players portray themselves as unwanted, overlooked and underpraised.

Through all 18 meetings between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans there has been one constant for Tennessee. Jeff Fisher has been on the sideline. Fisher has led the Titans and their precursors, the Houston Oilers, as head coach for 14 full seasons and part of another. That's longer than the Ravens have been in Baltimore. That's longer than any other NFL coach, with the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick a distant second at nine seasons.

Nothing in this city's rich football heritage will ever replace the Immaculate Reception, the nickname given Franco Harris' great catch to win a 1972 AFC playoff game against the Oakland Raiders in the final seconds. Now the Steelers have an interception that deserves a title too.

By naming his NFL team the Ravens on Friday, Art Modell transformed it from one revered by dog-mask wearing fans in Cleveland to a franchise that draws on the literary bones of Edgar Allan Poe. Barketh the Dawg Pound: Nevermore. Modell announced his team's new name on a noontime dreary before a crowd of officials and several hundred fans huddled under umbrellas at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It was 12 years to the day that the Colts deserted Baltimore in the middle of the night for Indianapolis.

The suspension of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Jeff George and rumors swirling about his possible trade have caught the attention of Baltimore Ravens Coach Ted Marchibroda. Marchibroda coached George in 1992 and 1993 when both were with the Indianapolis Colts. George completed 234 of 407 passes for 2,526 and eight touchdowns in 1993, and 167 of 306 passes for 1,963 yards and seven touchdowns in 1992. He was one of only four quarterbacks who passed for more than 4,000 yards in 1995.

Dr. Jack Vaeth, acknowledged as one of the country's top psychiatrists, went, well, crazy a few weeks ago, prompting a standing ovation and the kind of emotion pulsating feeling that sports history can provide. Dr. Jack, dressed all in white, assumed his rightful position as drum major--that's drum major--in front of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band--that's the Baltimore Colts Marching Band.

The Baltimore Ravens are 2-0. That's short for two and Ohio. The Ravens, whose two victories have come against the winless Cincinnati Bengals and 1-3 Cleveland Browns, will face their first big test tonight when they play at Pittsburgh with the AFC North lead at stake. It will be the first road game for Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, and the pressure will be on Baltimore's defense to prove its first two games were no mirage.

There are no bounties on the heads of Pittsburgh Steelers -- the Baltimore Ravens swear to that -- but no one on either side of today's bitter rivalry denies the bountiful reward of winning. "We're playing for a home-field bye," Steelers receiver Hines Ward told reporters last week. "That's our goal, that's what we're playing for." That's no simple task for Pittsburgh, which hasn't beaten the Ravens on the road since 2002.

Johnny Unitas, legendary quarterback of the Baltimore Colts years before that organization scurried off to Indianapolis, once famously told his adopted Baltimore Ravens: "I'm not you, but I'm certainly not them." After Unitas died in 2002, the Ravens honored him with a larger-than-life bronze statue outside M&T Bank Stadium. As fans enter for home games, they routinely touch his high-top cleats for good luck.

Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning has acquired a can't-win-the-big-one reputation because the Colts have been bounced from the playoffs several times when they were favored to win. But this Saturday, Manning and Co. will be underdogs at Baltimore against the Ravens' intimidating defense. Manning, who had three passes intercepted in the Colts' wild-card victory over Kansas City, is still looking for his first road playoff victory since Jan. 11, 2004 -- another Colts victory over the Chiefs.