Pees had already been Ray Lewis’ coach over the past two seasons and Reed, who grew up with Pagano as a kid at Miami, also loved the inevitable transition of the defense and his ability to speak up regarding game planning and calls.
“Rex [Ryan] was aggressive in his calls,” Reed said. “Chuck [Pagano], believe it or not, was even more aggressive. He’d put us in ‘cover one’ six, seven, eight times in a row. Coach [Dean] Pees, he’s very aggressive, too, and he keeps guys like Ray [Lewis] and me included in the planning. He has more of an open door. We like the way he wants input from us.”
The end of the season is all about decisions for players and franchises. Even though the emotions of tough playoff losses are massive and genuine, life moves on. Newsome and Harbaugh know the NFL waits for no team. There’s the Senior Bowl, scouting, the combine, free agency, losing players, searching for new ones, contracts, the salary cap on top of the lingering questions about dropping a Super Bowl touchdown pass, and shanking a field goal in a rush with a timeout that was never used.
The following week, during the lead up to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, instead of preparing for a title game with the New York Giants, veteran Ravens center Matt Birk was in the land of Irsay and Mayflowers accepting the NFL honor of “Walter Payton Man of The Year” for his efforts with the Hike Foundation and his tireless commitment to helping children learn how to read. At this point, Birk was still mulling his future, and it appeared at the time that he was leaning more toward retiring than returning for a 16th year in the NFL.
At the NFL Honors program, the league’s answer to a Hollywood awards show, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Birk, “represents the best of the best – on and off the field” recognizing his efforts to build one of the most successful child literacy programs in the country.
“Reading is the building block, the basis of any kid’s education,” Birk said. “You’re teaching them something that they’re going to use for the rest of their lives. And you see their joy when they’re reading a book and that’s really rewarding. When a kid says ‘I’m smart’ they get a sense of self worth. We try to show them that reading is fun. Sometimes when you’re a football player you don’t realize just how big you can be in young people’s lives. You might shake a million kids hands and you don’t remember them, but that kid is going to remember you. When a parent says thanks for helping out their kid, that really means a lot.”
His speech reminded the Ravens front office what a quality man they had in Birk and how he was essentially jettisoned from the Vikings and had brought all of his Harvard wisdom, football intelligence and leadership for a young Joe Flacco over three key, formative years in Baltimore. But would he be willing to come back for one more try to fulfill his desire to win an elusive Super Bowl ring?
Birk had done almost everything in the game. He’d made millions of dollars, he’d been to Pro Bowls, he’d been to the AFC and NFC Championship Games and lost. Birk had commuted his wife, Adrianna, and five small children back and forth from Minnesota, which was not only his former home for football, but where he spent his childhood. So, given all of the circumstances, there was palpable reason to believe that given his injuries, age, and family situation that he was 50-50 at best to commit to another year of the rigors of the NFL.
At the Indianapolis combine, Harbaugh appeared for the first time and spoke about the loss and the psychology of the 2012 offseason for the Ravens having come so close to going to the Super Bowl. It was the first time he had some perspective to go along with the month that had passed since the Foxborough loss as well as his brother Jim’s loss as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, making January 22, 2012 the worst night of football in the history of the Harbaugh family.
