Ray Lewis made his point about the Belichick chicanery. “You watch the Houston game last week and it’s a huge example of how they can confuse you and get you to line up not right, and then a touchdown is too easy,” Lewis said. “In a game of that magnitude, you have to be able to look at them and say, ‘Come play football.’ Because if they can get you out of position … I mean, anybody is going to do that. Defenses, we draw up schemes to get people out of position and things. So, anytime you get that type of offense, you’ve got to be ready to play every play like it’s your last play.”
The previous fall Harbaugh had spoken out while on WIYY in Baltimore and made some comments regarding Belichick’s Spygate issues from 2007 and the Patriots breaking the rules to win that weren’t out of line with Ayanbadejo’s ideology. “Everything is brought before the light of day when it’s all said and done,” he said on the radio show. “Even the thing in New England – no matter whether those things had any impact on whether they won any of their championships or not, they’ve got asterisks now. They’ve been stained. So to me, it’s never worth it. I mean, you’ve got to figure out ways to use the rules to your advantage, and figure out ways to make the most of everything. We’ve got new work rules [in the new CBA] about what he can and can’t do with our players, and we’re going to make the most of it. What we’re finding out is that … man, we can do something even better than we did before, because these rules make us focus on some things we didn’t do before. That’s what success is in this world – you’ve got to find ways to do things better than somebody else.
“But if you’re cheating? In the end, you’re going to get discredited. It’s just not worth it.”
The next day, Harbaugh found himself issuing a clarification and an apology of his own.
“I answered a question about playing within the rules and referred to the perception that the Super Bowl championships won by the Patriots and Saints have a stain,” Harbaugh said. “My reference was to the perception out there that came as the result of the league’s actions. I could have been more clear that I was referring to those viewpoints. I totally believe that the Patriot and Saint coaches and players earned those championships. Bill [Belichick] and Sean [Payton] both know that.” After reaching out to Belichick with a phone call, Harbaugh also called Tedy Bruschi, who lashed out at Harbaugh on ESPN, with a personal apology.
Belichick is a polarizing figure.
In the same way he’s respected for his football acumen and his strategic ability to game plan and win big games, he’s reviled and thought of as a cheater in many coaching circles. So, what’s a little “bitchassness” in snapping the ball before the defense is ready to play amongst men, right? If you don’t think that Bill Belichick would bend a rule or two when the Super Bowl is on the line, then you haven’t studied his track record on videotaping coaching signals. If there’s an edge to be had, Belichick will look to find it and exploit it.
But this was not a week for a war of words, and certainly no one from the Ravens wanted to rehash anything from the past. They lost the previous year. It was over. And more importanly, it had taken them 51 weeks of work, sweat, wins, losses, and determination to get themselves back to within 60 minutes of going to the Super Bowl.
“We fought hard to get back to this point,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. “We are definitely proud of being here, and we feel like it is going to take a lot for someone to come and kick us off that field come the AFC Championship Game. We are going to give it our all, and we know what it felt like last year. We walked off that field without that win. We know what we’ve put in to get back to this point. It is going to be a great game.”
No one on the Ravens side talked much about revenge or getting even with New England. All of them had long memories, but nothing that would take place in 2013 would change the outcome in 2012. All they had was this opportunity, this Sunday – another chance to go to a Super Bowl and the Patriots just happened to be in the way.
Nothing personal. Just business.
But, make no mistake, the memories of the past were very clear.
“You probably are influenced and motivated by everything in life and certainly, that experience up there, getting to that point,” Harbaugh said. “Obviously, everything it took to get to that championship game last year, and then being in that game and having it be such a great football game – an epic kind of a game – and then losing it in a way that was tough … It’s tough to lose a game at the end like that.”
Privately, most of the Ravens were rooting for the Patriots on Sunday night when they were playing the Texans. Not just because of the outcome in Houston earlier in the season, but more because of the outcome last season in New England.
“I think we, personally, kind of wanted to play the Patriots again,” defensive tackle Haloti Ngata said. “If we were to go to the Super Bowl, it would be great to go through Foxborough and win there. Hopefully, we can get it done this time.”
The Ravens had deep links to Belichick throughout the organization – Newsome, Kokinis, and the scouting philosophy of “The Process” came from the Cleveland tree of Belichick wisdom in the early 1990’s. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees spent six seasons in New England. He was on the staff during the Spygate era, and served four as the defensive coordinator for the Patriots before leaving for “personal reasons” in 2010 to come to the Ravens as a linebackers coach for Harbaugh.
“It’s always an emotional day,” Pees said when the Ravens played the Patriots in September. “I’m not going to lie about that and act like it’s just another game. It’s a big game for me. It’s kind of like when you go out and you play golf against somebody and you want to win, but when you play your brothers, you really want to win. There’s a lot of friends over there on the other sideline, a lot of old colleagues, a lot of players that I coached.”
