Larry Brown Sports

Bernard Pollard was one of the key members of the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl-winning defense last season. Despite his great season last year, the team released him in March. He signed with the Tennessee Titans, and it sounds like there are some hard feelings between him and some people associated with the team.

During an interview with Norris & Davis Show on 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, Pollard said he was “stunned a little bit” over his release. He said he would not be joining the team in DC for its celebratory visit to the White House, explaining that he already had a family vacation scheduled. But he says he would not have made the trip anyway even if he didn’t have a conflict.

“I’m not gonna be there,” Pollard told the hosts, via Pro Football Talk. “I’m either going to have someone get my ring or have them ship it to me. I gotta sit this one out, man. I actually have a vacation with my family and then I’m coming back to get [my ring]. If I didn’t have a vacation, I wouldn’t come anyway.”

“If I didn’t have a vacation, I still wouldn’t want to go. I’m not sour,” said Pollard.

“It’s not my teammates. It’s not my teammates at all. I would celebrate with them any time, any day of the week I would celebrate with them. But at the end of the day, I know what happened, I know what took place. . . . I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to be in the room with certain people.”

Pollard was going to count for $3.5 million against the salary cap this season, which doesn’t seem like a ton for what he would do. He said he believes the story GM Ozzie Newsome told him regarding his release.

Pollard led the Ravens in tackles last season, but he isn’t great in pass coverage. The big reason that seems to account for his release is what appears to be a rocky relationship with coach John Harbaugh. The team reportedly had a near mutiny situation in October, and Pollard along with Ed Reed were said to have been the strongest opponents to Harbaugh. Reed signed with another team while Pollard was released. That likely explains his release and bitter comments.

Baltimore Ravens fans have watched their Super Bowl champion defense basically fall apart over the offseason. Ray Lewis has retired and Ed Reed, Paul Kruger, Dannell Ellerbe, and Cary Williams have all left via free agency. That means Baltimore will have an entirely new look on defense, but fans will be happy to know that the makeover now includes the addition of Elvis Dumervil.

According to Mike Klis of the Denver Post, Dumveril and the Ravens have agreed to a five-year deal worth a reported $35 million. Dumervil is a few years older than Kruger, but the former Denver Bronco has 63.5 sacks in his career and is considered one of the best pass rushers in the game. Does he make the Ravens a dream team? Defensive lineman Arthur Jones seems to think so.

“That’s awesome. It’s like a dream team in the making,” Jones said of the trade, via the Baltimore Sun’s Aaron Wilson. “I can’t wait until we all get together.”

Dumervil, who was released on March 15 after his revised contract with the Broncos was not faxed in time, is arguably the best free agent signing of the offseason. That being said, the Ravens will still have a ton of adjustments to make after losing their biggest leaders on defense in Lewis and Reed. Winning back-to-back Super Bowls is difficult enough, let alone doing so with a totally revamped defense.

Moreover, doesn’t Jones realize that the words “dream team” are the worst ones he can possibly use? Remember what Vince Young and Jason Babin said about the Eagles before the start of the 2011 season? We all see how that has worked out. Jones probably should have found a different way to express his excitement.

H/T Pro Football Talk

When word surfaced on Monday that the Minnesota Vikings had traded Percy Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks, Adrian Peterson was not shy about expressing his disappointment on Twitter. Later in the day, the Baltimore Ravens traded playoff hero Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers. As you might expect, his teammates were just as disappointed.

The Ravens had made it quite clear that Boldin needed to take a pay cut to remain with the team, and it seemed unlikely that they would be able to find a trade partner given the fact that they had given up most of their leverage. However, San Francisco offered a sixth-round pick and Baltimore pulled the trigger. This did not please Torrey Smith.

This business is BS at times

— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) March 11, 2013

As CSNBaltimore.com pointed out, a number of other Ravens players were also disappointed and confused after learning that the man who caught four touchdown passes in the playoffs en route to a Super Bowl championship had been dealt.

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Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones is the latest professional athlete to get a championship tattoo, and it’s a big one. As you can see from the photo above that he posted on his Instagram account on Monday, Jones recently got a tattoo of the Ravens logo and the Vince Lombardi Trophy on his back.

The artwork has been ongoing for a while now, and the logo and trophy appear to be the finishing touches in front of a backdrop of the city of New Orleans. You can make out the Superdome in the background if you look carefully.

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When Ray Lewis announced that he would be retiring after the season, it instantly became the biggest story out of the Baltimore Ravens locker room and probably the entire NFL. Most of us grew tired of hearing about it. Lewis’ love for drama and hyperbole is exhausting to the average fan, but Terrell Suggs said it is one of the main reasons the Ravens won the Super Bowl.

During an appearance on NFL Network’s “Total Access” Friday, Suggs said that Baltimore would “probably not” have won the Super Bowl if not for Lewis announcing that 2012 would be his final season.

“You could say what sparked it was Ray’s announcement when he said that this would be his last playoff run with us,” Suggs said, via Pro Football Talk. “I would definitely say that was hands-down what sparked it and got our minds going in the right place.”

Suggs says the announcement helped the team focus. Of course, it is easy to say that now that the Ravens are the champs. Had they lost to the New England Patriots or San Francisco 49ers, my guess is you wouldn’t have trouble finding someone who believed Lewis’ announcement distracted the team.  If you remember, Torrey Smith was quick to remind the media that Lewis wasn’t the only guy going to the Super Bowl after Baltimore won the AFC Championship Game.

Nevertheless, the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Lewis got his fairytale ending and there’s no way you can say he distracted the team. Good for him, I guess.

Joe Flacco was so desperate to win the Super Bowl on Sunday that he was encouraging his teammates on the sidelines to tackle 49ers return man Ted Ginn Jr. if it looked like he was going to score on the game’s final play.

The Ravens were up 34-31 and punted on a free kick with four seconds left for what would ultimately be the last play of the game.

On NFL Films’ “Sound FX,” Flacco can be heard telling his teammates on the sidelines to tackle Ginn in case the returner broke one.

Here’s how his conversations went, as transcribed by Shutdown Corner:

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By leading the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl championship, Joe Flacco not only did the best possible thing he could do for the organization, but also for his own contract situation. Flacco will become a free agent this offseason, and there is no better leverage in contract negotiations than the Vince Lombardi trophy.

The 28-year-old is in for a massive payday, but how big are we talking? We already know he wants to stick it to Baltimore’s owners. And at the moment, Flacco’s agent Joe Linta believes his client deserves to be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.

“When you do a contract of this magnitude, you look at what is the player’s body of work presently,” Linta said, via Brian A. Shactman of CNBC. “And what are the expectations going forward over the next four, five or six years.

“Joe wins on both accounts.”

When asked if Flacco should be the league’s top earner at the quarterback position, Linta emphatically said that he should be. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees averages $20 million per season with his new deal, which means the Ravens would have to eclipse that number to put Flacco at the top. He would also make more than Peyton Manning if that happened, as Manning made $18 million with the Denver Broncos this past season.

Linta pointed to the fact that Flacco is several years younger than both Manning and Brees and has already won the same amount of championships. While Flacco and his agent have the hardware and age needed to prove their point, you have to assume at least some common sense will come into play.

Do the Ravens want to lose Flacco after what he just accomplished? Absolutely not, and they won’t. But you have to wonder if Flacco is capable of single-handedly leading his team to Super Bowls the way guys like Brees, Manning, and Tom Brady have. His record says he is. Statistics say he isn’t. If Baltimore’s defense slips as it gets older, will Flacco be able to carry the team? Quarterbacks who earn $20 million per year need to be able to do just that.

H/T Pro Football Talk