November 22, 2002: Ozzie Newsome Becomes the 1st Black GM In the NFL

November 22, 2002: Ozzie Newsome is named the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens. This makes him the 1st black general manager in the National Football League.

He was born in 1956 in Alabama, a State where football is king, and in a town whose name suggests strength, in football and other things: Muscle Shoals. A tight end, he played for coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama, and was a member of their 1978 National Champions.

Playing for the Cleveland Browns, he caught 662 passes, for 7,980 yards and 47 touchdowns, in each of those statistics more than any tight end before him. He made 3 Pro Bowls, and helped the Browns reach 3 AFC Championship Games. He was named to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team, and the Cleveland Browns Ring of Honor. Each of these honors was for his playing career alone. (The Browns have not, however, retired his Number 82.)

Upon his retirement before the 1991 season, he was named an executive with the Browns. When team owner Art Modell controversially moved the team for the 1996 season, making them the Baltimore Ravens, Newsome went with them. As executive vice president for player personnel (for all intents and purposes, the assistant GM), he received a ring when the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV in 2001.

He was named their GM in 2002, holding the job for 17 seasons, an unusually long time for an NFL GM. They made the Playoffs 9 times, reached 3 AFC Championship Games, and won Super Bowl XLVII. After the 2018 season, he stepped back, and returned to the position of executive vice president for player personnel, making him more of a GM emeritus than an assistant GM: Eric DeCosta holds the title, but Newsome is the guy he listens to the most.

The NFL allowed the founding of a new Browns franchise, with all of the team's 1946-95 history and trademarks, starting with the 1999 season. They have been considerably less successful than the Ravens, and Browns fans despise the Ravens nearly as much as they do their traditional rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ravens fans don't think that way: The Steelers are their arch-rivals, too, while they think of the Browns as more of a minor annoyance. Ozzie Newsome is the only man who is popular with both sets of fans.

In 2022, while only 3 of the 32 NFL teams have black head coaches, 7 have black general managers: Andrew Berry of the Browns, Terry Fontenot of the Atlanta Falcons, Ryan Poles of the Chicago Bears, Brad Holmes of the Detroit Lions, Chris Grier of the Miami Dolphins, Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings, and Martin Mayhew of the Washington Commanders.

The Ravens currently have a black team president, Sashi Brown. (DeCosta may sound like a Hispanic name, but he is actually of Portuguese descent.) The Las Vegas Raiders have a team president (not "general manager") who is not only black, but female: Sandra Douglass Morgan.

*

November 22, 2002 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 12 games in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks lost to the New Orleans Hornets, 105-97 in overtime at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-79 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-98 in double overtime at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Paul Pierce scored 36 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors, 90-80 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Miami Heat, 75-72 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Washington Wizards, 93-86 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 95-86 at the SBC Center (now the AT&T Center) in San Antonio.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Orlando Magic, 106-70 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 72-70 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 86-73 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 95-91 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland).

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 118-101 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Stephon Marbury, in defeat, led all scorers on the night with 39 points.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-1 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-4 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Florida Panthers and the Phoenix Coyotes played to a tie, 3-3 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 4-0 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

November 12, 2001: The Too-Soon Crash

November 12, 2001: American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashes in the Belle Harbor section of Queens, near its takeoff point at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Coming just 2 months after the 9/11 attacks, everyone's first thought was that was more terrorism, but it was due to pilot error causing mechanical failure.

One of the victims, Hilda Yolanda Mayol, survived the 9/11 attacks, having escaped from the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The plane was headed for Las Américas International Airport, which serves Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Most of the people on board were Dominican-Americans on their way to visit family, or Dominican citizens returning home from so doing.

From the Dominican community in Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan, to the Rockaways in Queens, where the plane went down, killing 260 on board and 5 on the ground, the tragedy hit home (literally) from one end of New York City to the other. It was an awful day, and, had it not been for the 9/11 attacks, it would have been the dominant story of the year in New York City.

Belkis Lora, a relative of a passenger on Flight 587, said, "Every Dominican in New York has either taken that flight or knows someone who has. It gets you there early. At home, there are songs about it."

Seth Kugel, writing for The New York Times, said, "For many Dominicans in New York, these journeys home are the defining metaphor of their complex push-pull relationship with their homeland; they embody, vividly and poignantly, the tug between their current lives and their former selves. That fact gave Monday's tragedy a particularly horrible resonance for New York's Dominicans."

He added, "Even before Monday's crash, Dominicans had developed a complex love-hate relationship with American Airlines, complaining about high prices and baggage restrictions even while favoring the carrier over other airlines that used to travel the same route."

David Rivas, a New York City travel agency owner, said, "For the Dominican to go to Santo Domingo during Christmas and Summer is like the Muslims going to Mecca."

As of November 12, 2022, it remains the 2nd-deadliest plane crash in American history. More people died on this plane than on any of the 4 planes hijacked 2 months earlier.

*

November 12, 2001 was a Monday. Baseball season had ended 8 days earlier, when the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.

On ABC Monday Night Football, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans, 16-10 at Adelphia Coliseum (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 86-79 at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis. And the Utah Jazz beat the Orlando Magic, 105-98 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

One game was played in the NHL: The Buffalo Sabres beat the Florida Panthers, 5-3 at the National Car Rental Center (now named the Amerant Bank Center) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

November 6, 1995: The Cleveland Browns Are Moved

November 6, 1995: Art Modell announces that he's moving the NFL's Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, where they later announced that they will become the Baltimore Ravens.

He does so because the City of Cleveland, the County of Cuyahoga and the State of Ohio refused to listen to his pleas to either build him a new stadium, or at least give him a better lease at the existing Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

Modell owned the Browns/Ravens franchise from 1961 to 2004, then maintaining a minority ownership until his death in 2012. His ownership produced 2 NFL Championships: In Cleveland in 1964, and in Baltimore in the 2000-01 season. The former title is the last World Championship won by a Cleveland-area football team, a drought now reaching 57 years; and was the last won by a Cleveland-based team in any sport until the 2016 Cavaliers, a drought that reached 52 years.

In between, the Browns had lots of close calls, losing the NFL Championship Game to the Baltimore Colts in 1968 and the Minnesota Vikings in 1969; losing a 1980-81 AFC Playoff Game at home that they probably should have won, to the Oakland Raiders; and the AFC Championship Games for the 1986, 1987 and 1989 seasons, all to the Denver Broncos, the 1st at home, and the 1st 2 in traumatic fashion: "The Drive" and "The Fumble."

The Browns and their fans also had to endure their last coach, Bill Belichick, prove, why, yes, he could coach, winning 6 Super Bowls with the New England Patriots... until it was revealed that he'd cheated, suggesting that the Cleveland Belichick may have been the real one, not the Foxborough Belichick.

Modell had been deeply involved in charities in Northern Ohio, and had struggled for years to get a new stadium for his team, or to at least get a better lease on Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which was right on Lake Erie and subject to nasty weather, and was then 64 years old and not in good shape. A mile inland and still susceptible to Great Lakes weather, but a bit less so, right next-door to each other, new buildings were built for baseball's Indians and basketball's Cavaliers.

The City, the County and the State were not willing to build, or to help him build, a new stadium for the Browns. The Maryland Stadium Authority, which had recently built Oriole Park at Camden Yards to prevent the Orioles from moving (most likely down the Parkway to Washington, D.C.), was willing to build a stadium at the Camden Yards site. It did: The facility now known as M&T Bank Stadium opened in 1998, after the Ravens spent 2 years at the old Memorial Stadium, and is generally regarded as one of the best stadiums in the NFL.

There were people to blame for the move, other than Modell. The local authorities could have listened to his calls to help with the stadium situation. Baltimore, which had its Colts taken from them by a greedy owner in 1984, should have known better: Yes, they had been shafted by the NFL expansion of 1993 (for the 1995 season), but stealing another city's team, when your own had been stolen just a few years earlier? That was not right.

And Modell's fellow NFL team owners, who normally roll over for each other, could have stood up and said, "Not this time: The history and the fan base of the Browns needs to be respected." But Art was too good a friend to most of them, and they were all too happy to allow the move.

And the owners did rule that, while the business that ran the team and all its contracts -- players, coaches, executives, etc. -- could be moved to Baltimore, an expansion franchise would be established in 1999, and it would carry the Cleveland Browns name, and that team's trademarks (including its uniforms) and history. Municipal Stadium would be torn down, and a new stadium built on the site.

The name of the stadium was established as Cleveland Browns Stadium, not a corporate name. Sadly, that ended in 2013, when it became FirstEnergy Stadium. And while there were 3 seasons without a team, and the team was horrible at first, it did make the Playoffs in 2002, year 4. Of course, they didn't make the Playoffs again until 2020, 18 years.

In 2005, ESPN used their series The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... to explain why Modell should not be blamed for moving the team. Here were their reasons:

5. Bill Belichick. Suggesting that, if he'd coached the Browns better, Modell would have kept the team there.

4. Al Davis and Bob Irsay. Or, more accurately, The Other NFL Team Owners. Davis moved the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles in 1982 and back to Oakland in 1995, just before Modell's move. And Irsay moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984. The NFL tried to stop Davis the first time, but not hard enough. They didn't lift a finger to stop Irsay, or Davis the second time (although that second time was righting a wrong). Since these moves had established the precedent, the NFL owners bear some responsibility for the Modell move.

3. The Cleveland Indians. Or, more accurately, The Government of the City of Cleveland. The Indians' new ballpark and their new success starting in 1994 turned Cleveland into a baseball town. Modell wondered why the far less successful team, which had nearly moved a few times due to desperate finances, and the even less successful basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, both got new venues, while the Browns weren't getting one.

2. Modell's Finances. He was going broke.

1. Rock and Roll. Or, more accurate, the city's building of things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center, the International Women's Air & Space Museum -- all of these within a 10-minute walk of Municipal Stadium. As well as, as previously mentioned, Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) and Gund Arena (now Rocket Arena).

Makes sense, doesn't it? There was a problem: That ESPN series ran with the intention of making sports fans see controversial actions and in-game blunders in a new light, but had the air of an exoneration project. And it shouldn't have been. It should have been like a trial, with a verdict at the end: Yes, you can still blame the person or franchise in question, at least first and foremost, while the others you blamed were secondary causes at best; or, no, you're right, we should let the accused off the hook.

Letting Modell off the hook for the Browns' move is wrong. The man was guilty as sin.

Belichick winning with the Browns wouldn't have mattered. That franchise took the place of the Cleveland Rams, who won the NFL Championship in 1945, and moved to Los Angeles the next season anyway. The Raiders won the Super Bowl in the 1980-81 season, but Davis moved the team a year later anyway.

This also holds for other sports: Walter O'Malley moved the Brooklyn Dodgers just 1 year after Walter Alston led them to a Pennant and 2 years after he led them to win the World Series. In 1968, former Knicks All-Star Richie Guerin coached the St. Louis Hawks to the NBA's regular-season Western Division title, but new owner Tom Cousins moved them to Atlanta anyway. In 1973, Gene Shue coached the Baltimore Bullets to an NBA Central Division title, just 2 years after coaching them into the NBA Finals, but owner Abe Pollin moved them to Washington anyway.

And earlier in 1995, Marc Crawford led the Quebec Nordiques to a regular-season division title, and Terry Simpson led the Winnipeg Jets to the Playoffs the next year. Yet both of those teams were moved.

As for Davis and Irsay, you'd think the NFL would have learned: Two wrongs -- or three -- don't make a right. And using the Indians as an excuse is weak: Like Baltimore itself, Cleveland is a football town first and a baseball town second.

Modell's finances? This excuse is a joke. The NFL has revenue sharing. It has better licensing than any of the other North American sports leagues. It has higher TV ratings than any of the other leagues. And it has better attendance than any of the other leagues: While Municipal Stadium held 85,703 for football at its peak, and still held over 80,000 at the time, it wasn't hitting that mark for every home game. But, despite going 5-11, the Browns were averaging 66,772 for their home games before the November 6 announcement. It all should have been enough to cover Modell's expenses.

And even if it wasn't, where were Modell's good friends to help him out with the stadium issue? A few NFL owners are also lawyers. At the very least, they all know great lawyers and great accountants. All Modell had to do was go up to Wellington Mara of the New York Giants, or Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, or even Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns' arch-rivals, and say, "Hey, old buddy, old pal, I could use some help here. Can you give me a hand?" As far as we know, he didn't do it.

Put these factors together, and you've got to come to an unpalatable conclusion: You've got to be a damn fool to lose money operating a National Football League team. And yet, we're supposed to believe that Art Modell was losing money operating a National Football League team.

And if the City, or the County, or the State had the money for those other building projects, how much harder would it have been to add one more? Remember, this was 1995, the Clinton years. The economy was booming. And after years of "Cleveland jokes," and "the Cleveland Comeback" being one of them, the comeback was real: The city was doing better than ever.

"I had no choice," Art Modell said about moving the Browns. That is complete and utter bullshit. He had a choice. Hell, the likeliest scenario that would have helped him is the one that sports team owners had already been using since at least O'Malley in the mid-1950s: "Build me a new stadium, or I'll move my team."

He never even seriously threatened to move before he actually announced that he was doing it. Unlike O'Malley, Davis, Irsay, and many others, he never put the gun to their head. But if he had, and they'd caved in, he would still have been more honorable than he was when he moved the team.

Like Davis, Irsay, O'Malley, Bob Short, Jeffrey Loria, Marcel Aubut, Peter Karmanos and Clayton Bennett, all the good Modell did -- including restoring the NFL to Baltimore, which was clearly going to happen anyway -- is secondary to his despicable act.

He had a choice. The people of Northern Ohio no longer have that particular knife in their back, but the wound is still bleeding.

UPDATE: FirstEnergy Stadium again became Cleveland Browns Stadium in 2023, then was renamed Huntington Bank Field in 2024. In 2025, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam managed to do what Modell couldn't do, and got the State of Ohio to build him a new stadium, in suburban Brook Park, adjacent to Hopkins International Airport. It will keep the Huntington Bank Field name, with the intent on opening in the 2029 season. The Browns will give the City money to tear down the current stadium and make infrastructure improvements around the airport.

Haslam made a deal to keep the Browns in the Cleveland metropolitan area, if not in the city, because he would have looked like a bit of a hypocrite if he hadn't: He had bought Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew to keep them from moving to Austin, Texas. His brother, Bill Haslam, owns the NHL's Nashville Predators.

*

November 6, 1995 was a Monday. The baseball season was over. But on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-12 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

There were 2 games played in the NBA: The Orlando Magic beat the Washington Bullets, 105-95 at the Orlando Arena; and the Utah Jazz beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-96 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

And 1 game was played in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Calgary Flames, 4-2 at Madison Square Garden. Mark Messier scored a hat trick, including his 500th career goal, with Adam Graves getting the other Blueshirt goal. 

September 26, 2021: Justin Tucker Kicks a 66-Yard Field Goal

September 26, 2021: Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens sets a new NFL record, kicking a 66-yard field goal. It is the final play of a 19-17 Ravens win over the Detroit Lions, at Ford Field in Detroit.

It broke the record of 64 yards, by Matt Prater of the Denver Broncos in 2013. That broke the record of 63 yards, which had been done 3 times by that point. The 1st time was by Tom Dempsey of the New Orleans Saints in 1970. That field goal, like Tucker's was the last and winning play in a 19-17 win over the Lions, albeit in New Orleans instead of Detroit.

Tucker kicked another last-play field goal later in the season, a mere 36 yards, to beat the Minnesota Vikings in overtime. He was selected to his 5th Pro Bowl that season.

*

September 26, 2021 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 17-14 at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to the Denver Broncos, 26-0 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the New England Patriots, 28-13 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-10 at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Chicago Bears, 26-6 at FirstEnergy Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field) in Cleveland.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the team then known as the Washington Football Team, 43-21 at the original Highmark Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium and Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the Indianapolis Colts, 25-16 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31-19 at TIAA Bank Field (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Seattle Seahawks, 30-17 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 30-24 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Las Vegas Raiders beat the Miami Dolphins, 31-28 at Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. Daniel Carlson kicked a 22-yard field goal as time ran out in overtime.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-24 at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 30-28 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, San Francisco.

(There was a game played the preceding Thursday: The Carolina Panthers beat the Houston Texans, 24-9 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston. And, the next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 41-21 at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.)

And these Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Fenway Park. The Yankees scored 4 runs in the top of the 8th inning, including a home run by Giancarlo Stanton. Chad Green was the winning pitcher, in relief of Jordan Montgomery. But the Red Sox would beat the Yankees in the American League Wild Card Game.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-4 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Five Pirate pitchers combined on a 6-hit shutout.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at Camden Yards.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat their cross-State rivals, the Miami Marlins, 3-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Nationals, 9-2 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-2 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-0 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Five Dodger pitchers combined on a 7-hit shutout.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels, 5-1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the RingCentral Coliseum).

And in a North London Derby in English soccer, Arsenal beat Tottenham Hotspur, 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium. Goals were scored by Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Bukayo Saka, who apparently only needs 2 names to score, instead of 3.

September 8, 2014: Ray Rice's Career Is Ended

September 8, 2014: Ray Rice is indefinitely suspended by the NFL, and cut by his team, the Baltimore Ravens, over a domestic violence incident.

It may have been an unfair case of double jeopardy.

Raymell Mourice Rice was born January 22, 1987 in New Rochelle, in Westchester County, New York. He grew up there. He was the biggest star of Rutgers University's rise from football jokehood to a school that could be taken seriously. He was one of the best running backs in the country in the 2005, '06 and '07 seasons.

And, at the time, he seemed like a good person. As far as I know, he was not a disciplinary problem at RU, nor was there ever a report of him being arrested. No fights, no public drunkenness, no traffic accidents, no parking tickets. And never, not once, did we hear about him mistreating a woman. Or a child. Or an animal, unlike Michael Vick, whom I saw lead Virginia Tech into Rutgers Stadium and torch the Scarlet Knights 59-19 in 1997.

When he entered the professional ranks, he helped the Baltimore Ravens rise from mediocrity to a World Championship: And the end of the 2012 season, he helped the Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII. Through the end of the 2013 season, there was never a mention of him being a problem, on the field or off. To that point, in regular-season NFL play, he had rushed for 6,180 yards for 37 touchdowns; and caught 359 passes for 3,034 yards and 6 touchdowns. Going into the 2014 season, he was 27 years old, and he looked like he was headed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Then came the night of February 15, 2014. Ray and his girlfriend, Janay Palmer, were at the Revel Casino & Hotel, at the northern end of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. They got into an elevator, and started arguing, and he punched her in the face, knocking her unconscious. When the elevator doors opened, he dragged her out.

This was caught on a security camera, and the world found out about it. At first, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him for 2 games.

On March 27, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office indicted Rice for third-degree aggravated assault. If convicted, he could be fined $15,000 -- not a small amount of money for a modern pro athlete, but still more of an insult than a hardship -- and could be sentenced to 3 to 5 years in prison. The criminal charges were later dropped after Rice agreed to undergo court-supervised counseling.

The day after the indictment, Ray and Janay were married. She forgave him. He called his actions "inexcusable," and said, "I let so many people down, because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can't take back." 

But in September, the video was seen by Goodell and Ravens officials. They already knew that it had happened. Actually seeing the video didn't change the facts: If he was wrong to have done it, it doesn't make it more wrong now that you've actually seen it.

The Ravens organization cut Rice. They did the right thing by doing this. Regardless of what his wife, or anyone else who cares about him, thinks, neither he nor any other person has the unalienable right to play professional football.

However, after Goodell saw the video, of an incident he already knew had happened, he suspended Rice indefinitely -- admitting that he "didn't get it right" the first time. No one doubted that. But he's been suspended indefinitely for something for which Goodell had already suspended him for 2 games. Yes, the initial punishment was not enough. Yes, the indefinite suspension should have happened first.

But suspending him twice for the same crime? That's not right. In legal terms, that's "double jeopardy." If a man commits a crime, and he's convicted based on forensic evidence, and he's sent to prison, you can't add prison time just because video of the crime has surfaced.

Kobe Bryant was still allowed to play basketball. We've never actually seen what he did to get indicted in Colorado in the Summer of 2003 -- though he did plead out, and avoided jail time.

Rice wasn't released by the Ravens because he committed a crime. We already knew that he committed a crime. He was released because he embarrassed his team. He wasn't suspended indefinitely by the NFL because he committed a crime. He wasn't even suspended indefinitely because the video made him look worse. He was suspended indefinitely because the video made the NFL look stupid for not getting it right the first time.

You can do whatever you want in the National Football League, as long as you aren't seen embarrassing your team, or causing the League to look bad.

On November 28, 2014, Rice won an appeal to be reinstated to the NFL. On January 15, 2015, he and the Ravens reached a settlement for about $3.5 million in back pay that he would have received had the NFL handled his suspension properly and he had been allowed to play for most of the 2014 season, as he would have been allowed to do under the original penalty.

In 2016, he announced that if he were signed by an NFL team, he would donate his entire salary to charities dealing with domestic violence. On December 18, 2018, he sat for an interview for CBS This Morning, he said, "I don't have to retire to tell you I'm done with football." Janay, still married to him (they have 2 children), was by his side, and says that he has never hurt her again.

Ray says he feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders by not being in the NFL spotlight. He's become a -- well, "motivational speaker" isn't really the right term. But he's kept his word about working with domestic violence charities, and has spoken before the NFL Players Association rookie program, and several college football teams, including such big names as Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame. He wants to prevent young men from becoming what he became that night in Atlantic City.

*

September 8, 2014 was a Monday. It Labor Day, and it was the opening week of the NFL seasons, and 2 games were played on Monday Night Football: The New York Giants lost to the Detroit Lions, 35-14 at Ford Field in Detroit; and the Arizona Cardinals beat the San Diego Chargers, 18-17 at what University of Phoenix Stadium (now named State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-2 at Citi Field.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. It took 5 Oriole pitchers to pitch a 7-hit shutout.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-1 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Marcus Stroman pitched a 3-hit shutout, all by himself.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 12-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-0 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-5 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-4 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

* The New York Yankees, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Minnesota Twins, the San Francisco Giants, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled.

February 3, 2013: Power Failure at the Super Bowl

February 3, 2013: Super Bowl XLVII is played at the Superdome in New Orleans. It was the 7th time the building had hosted, a record. But it was the 1st time since Hurricane Katrina forced the building's renovation in 2005-06. (UPDATE: There has since been an 8th played there.)

The San Francisco 49ers were the NFC Champions for the 1st time since the 1994 season. They came in with a 5-0 record in Super Bowls. The Baltimore Ravens were the AFC Champions, having made 1 previous Super Bowl appearance, winning Super Bowl XXXV in 2001.

The 49ers' head coach was Jim Harbaugh. The Ravens' head coach was his younger brother, John Harbaugh. On John's staff was Jim's son, Jay Harbaugh. The family is from the Toledo area in northwestern Ohio. Jim and John were the sons of Jack Harbaugh, a running back at Bowling Green University in Ohio, who later served as head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky.

John (left) and Jim Harbaugh

Jim had played quarterback for the University of Michigan, and had gotten both the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts to Conference Championship Games. He had even played the 1998 season with the Ravens. He was on Jon Gruden's staff when the Oakland Raiders reached Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. John had played safety at Miami University of Ohio, a.k.a. "The Cradle of Coaches," and went right into coaching, serving on Andy Reid's staff as the Philadelphia Eagles reached Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. Jay's playing career ended with an injury as a high school defensive lineman. He graduated from Oregon State, and went into coaching.

This was the first time I followed a Super Bowl on social media, in my case both Facebook and Twitter. And when Jacoby Jones of the Ravens took the 49ers' opening kickoff of the 2nd half a Super Bowl record 108 yards for a touchdown, the score was Ravens 28, 49ers 6. I wrote on Twitter, "It's been a while since we had a good old-fashioned smackdown in a Super Bowl."

Beyoncé Knowles reunited with her Destiny's Child teammates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams to perform the halftime show. A little while later, with the score unchanged, I wrote: "Looks like the Ravens are following Beyoncé's advice: They're putting a ring on it."

A moment after that, I cited the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback turned ABC Monday Night Football announcer, who liked to announce a blowout by singing a Willie Nelson song, before his retirement in 1985 and his death in 2010: "Cue the ghost of Don Meredith: Turn out the lights! The party's over!"

And then, somebody did turn out the lights. A power outage caused the lights to go out in half of the stadium, stopping play for 34 minutes. The outage was caused by equipment failure near the stadium.

Thinking of the line about the roof being on fire in House Party, I wrote, "The roof! The roof! The roof is ill-wired!" About a dozen others, thinking of the Superdome being an inappropriate haven for refugees during Hurricane Katrina, wrote words to the effect of, "Now it's the rich people trapped in the Superdome."

But once power was restored, the 49ers seemed restored as well. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick drove them, and threw a touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree, cutting the deficit to 28-13. They forced the Ravens to end their next drive with a punt, and Kaepernick went to work again, the drive ending with a 6-yard touchdown run by Frank Gore. It was 28-20, and the Niners were back in the game. On the Ravens' next drive, Tarell Brown forced a fumble by Ray Rice, and recovered it. David Akers missed a field goal attempt, but a Raven penalty gave him a second chance, and he cut the lead to 28-23.

The Ravens finally woke up, but their drive stalled, and a Justin Tucker field goal made it 31-23. The 49ers' last drive included the last catch of Randy Moss' career -- in spite of regular-season totals of 983 catches for 15,295 yards and 157 touchdowns, he went 0-2 in Super Bowls -- and Kaepernick rushing for 15 yards, the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. But they missed what would have been a tying 2-point conversion, and the score stayed 31-29.

With 4:19 left in regulation, another Tucker field goal made it 34-29. The 49ers got to a 1st & goal on the Ravens' 7, but couldn't punch it in, and turned the ball over on downs with 1:46 left. The Ravens took an intentional safety, leaving time for one more play, a kickoff from their 20. Ted Ginn Jr. could only return it 31 yards, and the Ravens won, 34-31.

Those of us who saw the 49ers go 5-0 in Super Bowls from 1982 to 1995 had begun to think they would pull off the great comeback. But then, as Rick Pitino would say, Joe Montana, Roger Craig and Jerry Rice weren't walking through that door.

The Ravens had their 2nd title, and the 5th NFL Championship for the City of Baltimore. Raven linebacker Ray Lewis kept his word, and retired. In the end, though, despite the controversy that followed him during the Ravens' successful pursuit of Super Bowl XXXV, the most controversial player in this game turned out to be Colin Kaepernick -- not because he lied to the police, as Lewis did, but because he exposed them.

When the NFL Network ranked its 100 Greatest Players in 2010, Lewis was ranked 18th, and Ed Reed 88th.

UPDATE: Jay Harbaugh won a Super Bowl ring in 2026, as special teams coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks.

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February 3, 2013 was, like all Super Bowl days, a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-104 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors, 100-85 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 98-97 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 3-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 2-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 6-3 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Chris Kunitz scored 4 goals for the Penguins. Neither Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby nor Washington's Alex Ovechkin scored a goal, although Crosby had 2 assists, and Ovechkin 1.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

 

January 28, 2001: Baltimore Football Finally Moves On

January 28, 2001: Super Bowl XXXV is played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The Baltimore Ravens beat the New York Giants, 34-7. It is the 1st NFL Championship won by the franchise formerly known as the Cleveland Browns in 36 years, and the 1st by a Baltimore-based team in 30 years.

Since the Giants' only touchdown is scored on a kickoff return -- by Ron Dixon, followed immediately by the Ravens doing the same, by Jermaine Lewis -- the Giants became the only team in Super Bowl history whose offense scored no points.

It marks Kerry Collins as the worst quarterback in Super Bowl history. He went 15-for-39, for 112 yards, 4 interceptions, and no touchdowns. In contrast, Trent Dilfer -- who has often been mocked as the worst quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl, and indeed became the 1st winning quarterback ever let go before the next season (as opposed to retiring) -- went 12-for-25, 153 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions. Quarterback ratings: Dilfer 80.9, Collins 7.1.

Under head coach Brian Billick and defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, the Ravens' defense drew comparisons to the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and the 1985 Chicago Bears in terms of effectiveness and ferocity. Linebacker Ray Lewis was the best player and the emotional leader of a side that also included defensive end Michael McCrary, linebacker Peter Boulware, and cornerback Rod Woodson, who won his 1st title after a long career with the Steelers. The offense was led by Dilfer, veteran running back Earnest Byner and rookie running back Jamal Lewis, with protection from tackle Jonathan Ogden. (Safety Ed Reed arrived 2 seasons later.)

A cloud hung over the team, particularly over Ray Lewis. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the stabbing deaths of two men at a Super Bowl afterparty in Atlanta. He testified as a key witness at the trial, and a jury determined the killings were acts of self-defense. Ever since, people who don't like the Ravens have speculated that he had more to do with those deaths than has been publicly let on.

It had now been 5 full seasons since the Ravens arrived, 17 years since the Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis, 23 years since the Colts' last Playoff berth in Baltimore, and 30 years since their last Super Bowl win in Baltimore. What's more, the Ravens had not only been to a Super Bowl, while the Colts had not yet been to one since they moved, but won it.

This game, putting Baltimore back on top of the football world, enabled their fans to finally move on from the legend and mystique of the Colts: They could celebrate their former team, but they no longer had to mourn it. Baltimore was now the NFL Champions of 1958, 1959, 1970 and 2000, and Indianapolis was still waiting.

The Colts didn't just bury the Giants, they laid the legend of the Baltimore Colts to rest, giving it the memorial service it deserved.

Over the next 11 seasons, the Colts would win a Super Bowl as an Indianapolis team, and lose another; while the Ravens made the Playoffs 7 times, including 2 trips to the AFC Championship Game. In the 2012 season, with Lewis the only holdover from the 2000 season, they won Super Bowl XLVII, for the team's 2nd title, and the city's 5th. At that point, the only cities with more were Green Bay with 13, Chicago with 11 (9 by the Bears, 2 by the Cardinals), New York with 9 (8 by the Giants, 1 by the Jets), the San Francisco Bay Area with 7 (5 by the 49ers, 2 by the Raiders), and Pittsburgh with 6. Boston now has 6, and if Providence (the 1928 Steam Roller) is counted as part of their area, that's 7. Dallas also has 5, and now, so does Philadelphia (4 by the Eagles, 1 by the 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets).

UPDATE: Philadelphia now has 6.

The Ravens have a Ring of Honor. It honors Ravens founder Art Modell, head coach Brian Billick; Super Bowl XXXV winners Earnest Byner, Michael McCrary, Peter Boulware, Jonathan Ogden, Matt Stover, Jamal Lewis, Ray Lewis; Super Bowl XLVII winners Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Marshal Yanda; and Todd Heap, who played between the Super Bowl wins. It also honors Colts Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Art Donovan, Jim Parker, Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, John Mackey and Ted Hendricks.

When the NFL Network ranked its 100 Greatest Players in 2010, Lewis was ranked 18th, Woodson 41st, and Ogden 72nd.

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January 28, 2001, like all Super Bowl gamedays, was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. Knowing that TV ratings would probably not be good, the NBA scheduled only 2 games for the day. The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 91-81 at Madison Square Garden. And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 86-81 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.