With Courtney Upshaw’s arrival in Baltimore, the Sergio Kindle era, one that up to now has been full of disappointment, underachievement and misfortune, looked like it was coming to an end for the former Texas Longhorn. A mere three months after he was drafted, Kindle’s career got off to a bad start as he fell down two flights of stairs. A fractured skull and limited hearing out of his left ear put Kindle’s football career in jeopardy before it even started. After already beating the odds and being cleared to step onto an NFL field, the lasting effects of his injury still rears its ugly head as Kindle tries to make his mark in the big leagues. Kindle was only active for two games during the Ravens 2011 season and possibly lacked the confidence he needed from the coaching staff. Yesterday I asked Kindle if his loss of hearing impacts his performance. “It’s a big deal. I’m more acclimated with it now but we’re not in the stadium either.&#...

The Ravens will be holding Organized Team Activities for the next three weeks. The team will practice Tuesday through Thursday with each Wednesday practice open to the media. These light practices are run in gym shorts and helmets without any other pads. Minimal contact is made and it’s mostly watching players run through light drills as they prepare to battle for their jobs in training camp. Roll Call: OTA’s are voluntary for veteran players and many notable Ravens were not in attendance -Ray Lewis,Haloti Ngata, Matt Birk, Ray Rice (contract) and Terrell Suggs (injury) were not present Wednesday. One rookie of note not in attendance was fifth-round pick Asa Jackson who was still finishing up school at Cal Poly. Notable Spectators: Former Ravens owner Art Modell was brought out to the field in a golf cart to get his first look at some key pieces to the 2012 team. NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith was also in attendance and spent most of practi...

Former Baltimore Raven, Maryland Terrapin and Randallstown native, Domonique Foxworth is calling it quits, ending a 7 year NFL playing career. In an article with United Kingdom based website Double Coverage and brought stateside by The Sun’s Matt Vensel, Foxworth said, “I think that I’ve probably made the decision that I’m going to move forward and stop playing football.” Originally drafted in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos, Foxworth’s three seasons with the Ravens were ravaged by injuries. After tearing his ACL in the beginning of training camp in 2010, the fleet-footed corner was barely an asset to the team’s secondary in 2011 after rehabbing his knee. Recently Foxworth revealed that he underwent hip surgery. Clearly the game’s violence took its toll on his 5’11’, 180 pound frame. Fortunately for Foxworth, he had one more interception up his sleeve when he picked off a job with the NFLPA and ...

A couple years ago, I personally witnessed Ravens OLB Terrell Suggs playing pick-up basketball at a Baltimore-area facility and I thought to myself, “I hope he doesn’t get hurt playing a pick-up game. What a stupid move.” In fact, that might have been right before he signed that big contract. He wasn’t thinking clearly back then, either. Little did I know a few years ago that my concerns were prophetic. Suggs, the 2011 Defensive Player of the Year, will not get a chance to defend his title in 2012. He’s likely going to undergo surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon that will require a lot of rehab. The Ravens will be lucky if he comes back at full strength for the 2013 season, despite the fact that Suggs claims he'll be back in 2012. I understand the competitive nature of athletes. I get the fact that these athletes are wired to compete at everything. From Call of Duty to Madden ’12 to corn hole or darts, they tend to compete at everything off...

Whenever I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is pick up my phone to check for any text alerts from ESPN, MASN or the Ravens text alert. On an average day I wake up to maybe one or two notifications of semi interesting news. When I awoke this morning I saw five new alerts as well as 10 text message so I knew either something really good or really bad had happened in the world of sports. Unfortunately for all of RavensNation and me it was the latter. I would soon find out, as many of you know by now, that the man called Sizzle will be missing the majority if not all of the 2012 season with a torn Achilles tendon. First let me state that it doesn’t really matter how Suggs injured himself. It’s almost disheartening that so many fans who worship this man on Sundays could show such frustration and anger in response to the possibility that Suggs injured himself playing basketball. The two main reports that have been floating around are that the reigning defensive play...

“Ouch, this hurts.” That’s not just what Terrell Suggs was saying after he hurt his Achilles tendon over the weekend, it’s what the majority of Ravens fans were saying today when Vinny Cerrato broke the news on 105.7 The Fan earlier this morning. For the second time in three years, the Baltimore Ravens find themselves shaking their heads in disbelief after a freak offseason accident claims another player. When Sergio Kindle missed the season in 2010 after fracturing his skull falling down a flight of stairs, the Ravens were only faced with replacing an unproven second-round rookie. This time, they must look for a way to replace the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year.  Because this story is so new, not all the details have come out nor may we ever know how Suggs really was injured. Early reports by Cerrato and NFL Insider Adam Schefter suggested Suggs was playing basketball during the time of the injury. This afternoon, Suggs was in...

If anyone has ever listened to an interview of John Harbaugh, you’ll know his answers to difficult questions are about as predictable as Cam Cameron’s offensive play calling. However, today Harbaugh said something the national media jumped on and now he’s backtracking. What I want to know is why? The ultra-conservative Ravens head coach was interviewed on 98 Rock this morning and asked a question in regards to bending the rules and if it was worth it in the New Orleans Saints Bountygate situation Harbaugh responded, “In the end, everything is brought before the light of day, when it’s all said and done”. Instead of talking about the Saints, Harbaugh shifted focus to the 2007 Spygate controversy involving the New England Patriots. “What happens, even the thing in New England, no matter whether those things had any impact on whether they won their championships or not, they got asterisks now. It’s been stained.” Di...

The draft is upon us and some teams have made it crystal clear what they plan on doing when the proceedings start Thursday night. Others have been quiet and very reluctant to disclose much about their plans. You even have some teams that can’t stop talking about their plans in an attempt to drum up interest in their pick. The Ravens? Well they fall somewhere in between. They haven't been shy about what their needs are but there remains a lot of if's going into the 29th selection this tonight. What if a player the Ravens covet makes an unexpected fall into the 20's? What if a player another team likes falls to 29? And how do the quarterback prospects in this draft effect the Ravens? Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Ryan Tannehill are expected to be off the board well before 29 but a team desperate for a QB may be willing to offer a nice package to get up to 29 to take Brandon Weeden before a team sitting at the top of the 2nd is able to draft him. The Ravens have plenty o...

With the NFL schedule being released this evening, we now know exactly when and where our heroes in purple will be suiting up for the 2012 NFL season. They open up with their first home “Monday Night Football” match up since way back in 2007 (the Bart Scott flag-throwing loss to New England), against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens have beaten the Bengals in Baltimore three of the four times they’ve met here in the John Harbaugh/Joe Flacco era. If the emotion on Opening Night this year is anything like it was on Opening Day last year against Pittsburgh, Andy Dalton and the rest of the Bengals probably don’t stand a chance. Speaking of Pittsburgh, the NFL didn’t repeat the same silly mistake they made last year, when the Steelers and Ravens were completely done playing one another by week 10. This year, the marquee Pittsburgh-Baltimore matchups were screwed up in a different way – the teams meet twice in a span of three weeks, in ...

The Ravens were able to lock up one of their up and coming stars and key components to success when cornerback Lardarius Webb signed a 6 year contract worth 50 million dollars including a 10 million dollar signing bonus with 20 million of that money guaranteed. So what does this mean for the Ravens? To put it in perspective 4 years ago if you asked any Ravens fan “what is the biggest problem with our team?” they would reply with “our secondary”. Gone are the days of Frank Walker and his “hug first, tackle later” style of play and all of the yellow hankies associated with it. Gone are the days where the only time our Ravens made it on Sport Center were to show a not top 10 of our corners getting abused or for the talking heads at to bash our secondary. Those days seem so distant now as we admire the plethora of talent that roams the turf at M&T Bank carefully waiting and watching to ensure no team takes to the air while funneling quarterbacks ...