One of The Chancellor of Football’s all time favorite teams!
Ray Lewis (The U) was most valuable player in a defensive game for the ages 34-7 over the NY Giants. Ravens allowed 165 points for the season and would have won more if they would have stayed with a 4-3 defense and kept Trent Dilfer in 2001…yet I digress
What was crazy about this was the team meeting at the beginning of the offseason where Billick had Jim Brown talking to the team and he pulled Ray Lewis up. Ray proceeded to address the team and told them he saw them winning the Super Bowl in a vision during his tumultuous off-season. He gave an impassioned talk, in a grey t shirt and wearing a fishing hat, to his team of the need to be great and that he had to fulfill that prophecy in getting to Tampa. Wow!
Consider this is a team that had never been to the playoffs to that point. Not even close in their first 4 yrs from being borne of the Cleveland Brown ashes. Art Modell (Red Right ’88 /The Drive/ The Fumble) was supposed to be snake bitten. He carried the baggage of all the heartache from Cleveland playoff meltdowns.
Both Trent Dilfer and Tony Banks, the teams QBs, were cast off from other teams. This was a true free agency Super Bowl champion with players who brought any real playoff experience was limited. Corey Harris (couple with Packers early 90s), Tony Siragusa (95 Colts run), Rod Woodson (mid 90s Steelers), Dilfer (97 Bucs/injured for 99) and the only player on the team I can think of with a Super Bowl ring was backup WR and special teamer Billy Davis (95 Cowboys)!! And head coach Brian Billick had been hired for his offensive acumen after leading the 1998 Minnesota Vikings to the NFL record of 556 points in a season.
The Chancellor of Football loved watching this team win it all because they did one thing…understood who they were and stayed with that belief. I get so sick of teams copying “oh we’re running the west coast offense” blah blah blah…blow me! Develop who you are and game plan based on your personnel!! Defeat someone with something different than playing their same playbook!!
This team didn’t have the Vikings fleet receivers that Billick had in Minnesota, nor the quarterbacks. They learned early on “Hey we’re a running team and we have to play good defense and keep the score down.” Sam Adams, Tony Siragusa plug up the guard/center/guard and allow Sugar Ray (did I mention he’s from The U) to roam tackle to tackle and smash, Jamie Sharper smacking TEs…yikes! Was there a better CB tandem on a Super Bowl champion than Starks and McAllister? Really? Woodson and Kim Herring were great as a tandem. There just were no holes!
If they were still playing Super Bowl XXXV (15 yrs later) I still don’t think the Giants would have scored a touchdown yet on offense. By the time they reached the Super Bowl it was too late to derail them. It was facing the defending AFC Champions in Tennessee is where many experts thought would be an issue.
By the way… Tom Jackson took Tennessee that day on NFL Countdown… don’t let him fool you
It was beyond too late when they made the AFC Championship in Oakland as well
To watch them bludgeon their way to the Super Bowl was artful. I remember betting 3 friends at Fullerton Dodge that in the AFC championship that not only would the Ravens win, but they’d be the first team since 1970 to hold the host team without scoring a TD in their own stadium. I won both bets! Lional Dalton claims I owe him money plus interest and it shut up Raider fans…Andre Rison pushed off and it was offensive pass interference.

K. Wash at ’18 HoF Ceremony
Keep in mind if this man Keith Washington on the left in this pic doesn’t block those two field goals in the AFC Divisional in Tennessee, this team doesn’t hoist the Lombardi.
Pundits never gave this champion their just due. No defense in NFL history bludgeoned its way to a title as this one did. Back in 2016 I ran a comprehensive study to find the best single season defenses in modern NFL history and this unit ranked #2. Every championship defense, #1 defense, record setting defense, and trend setting defense from 1960 on. Some 200 units…
Yet looking back…
Strong team, strong character, and staying the course are what this team taught. Even had a string of 22 quarters or so without an offensive touchdown…just keep going!
2000 Baltimore Ravens-powerful Super Bowl champion!

Ray Lewis locker at PFHOF enshrinement weekend 2018.

At the 2016 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, ran into current Cincinnati Head Coach Marvin Lewis. The Defensive Coordinator of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens record setting defense.


The Titans were powered on offense by Eddie George from Ohio St. who bludgeoned defenders with his running style for over 1,300 yards. Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews & John Runyan were leaders on a very physical line. The late Steve McNair was a developing quarterback who had his struggles in 1999 but was a legitimate running threat himself. In that 41-14 thrashing he threw for 5 of his 12 TDs for the season. He had a short to intermediate passing game that complimented their running game.
McNair, in a display of immense heart, willed the Titans downfield on a last second drive to bring Super Bowl XXXIV to a crescendo. On the last play with :07 left from the 10, McNair hit Kevin Dyson hoping for another miracle finish. This time Ram Linebacker Mike Jones brought down an outstretched Dyson at the 1 as time ran out.
Wanna hear a strange fact? In week 3 of the 1999 season the Bengals hosted the Rams and these teams were tied for the most losses in the NFL for the 1990’s. This game was a tiebreaker that the Bengals lost and “won” the title of the losingest team of the decade…the Rams …uh…well…they went in a different direction..



On The Chancellor of Football’s list of greatest ever champions this team comes in at #2.
Yet you have to understand where the spirit of the Atlanta Falcons came from. To do that let me welcome you to “The Second Chance Saloon”. All the principles of this football team were retreads that were unsuccessful at becoming a champion elsewhere yet combined with others in the same position, & melded into a tremendous fighting force.
As many sporting events and teams go…emotion and playing for a cause greater than themselves propelled them into the playoffs where they ran into Minnesota and one team HAD to lose.

I still thought the 98 Vikings were the best team that year but guess what? History doesn’t care what The Chancellor thinks so after a 34-19 win over the Falcons; this was the crowning jewel for becoming back to back champions! And just like what happened with the early 90’s Cowboys we’re left with the glut of never ending questions when we’re drinking and talking football…”Would they have three-peated if___?” In this instance had John Elway come back….would they have? Well that wasn’t rhetorical, what do you think?
They leaned on their celebrated running game that had matured thru the previous post season. Terrell Davis came into 1998 running strong. The Achilles heel from the season before was stopping the run, the best thing to do was to get an early lead and impose your running game on your opponent while forcing them to pass. The Broncos did this with great aplomb as Davis became the first 2,000 yard rusher in the AFC since OJ Simpson in 1973.
For the first time in the latter half of 1998, Denver faced a team that was not intimidated by them. The Giants pulled off the upset when Kent Graham hit Amani Toomer with a late game touchdown 20-16. The dream of the undefeated season had melted away, and after a Monday night loss to the Dolphins, there was concern the Broncos had lost their edge. The playoffs beckoned yet Shanahan started resting his players. Countenance turned to anguish as some Denver fans remembered the ’96 finish and upset to the Jaguars at home in the playoffs.

In the previous 3 seasons, you saw the AFC getting more physical in their Super Bowl representative. San Diego in XXIX, Steelers in XXX, and Patriots in XXXI. They weren’t like my Buffalo Bills in 3 of the previous 4 Super Bowls before that were being beaten on the lines and out hit. Yet Green Bay was set to defend their title with Reggie White, Gilbert Brown, Santana Dotson and that defensive front.

Yet this team did win the NFC Championship in San Francisco with a 23-10 win to end Steve Mariucci’s rookie season. The week before they held off the upstart Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional game 21-7 in a game made famous by the back and forth taunting between Brett Favre and Warren Sapp. That was a transcendent game yet Tampa didn’t have a ready for primetime offense that sank them. This team should have repeated.
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