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NFL Capsules: Ravens, Steelers renew rivalry with much at stake
Comments 0 | Recommend 0BALTIMORE — Whether they're facing each other in the AFC championship game or playing for nothing more than pride, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens never have to wait until the opening kickoff to stoke up the intensity.
The players know what to expect long before Sunday arrives.
"When Baltimore and Pittsburgh get together," Steelers receiver Hines Ward said, "it is all-out war."
When they last played in January, a trip to the Super Bowl was at stake. This season hasn't gone as planned for either team, but these AFC North rivals won't be lacking incentive Sunday night.
The defending Super Bowl champion Steelers (6-4) have lost two straight. The Ravens (5-5) are in danger of falling below .500 and out of the playoff hunt. The winner will not only enhance its postseason hopes, but harm the aspirations of the loser.
"It's two physical football teams, and they're going together head to head. Each of us wants to prove which is the better team and which is the more physical team. I think the way you do that is you go out there and win," Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco said. "I think both sides enjoy it. Whichever side wins is going to enjoy it a little more."
The Steelers are expected to be without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who sustained a concussion in last week's game in Kansas City. Because backup Charlie Batch is out after breaking his wrist against the Chiefs, inexperienced Dennis Dixon will probably make his first NFL start.
The Ravens fully expected Roethlisberger to play, but his absence won't change the intensity this game always generates.
Steelers offensive tackle Max Starks said, "It's like your neighbor — you're always competing against each other. You always want the best of him. They love contact just as much as we do. The important thing is as long as I bruise them more than they bruise me, it's always a good day."
Starks has been involved in this rivalry since 2004. Baltimore second-year running back Ray Rice needed only one season to realize exactly how these teams feel about each other.
"It's very intense. I'm new to it still, but obviously, it seems as if it doesn't matter if we were playing for a championship or playoffs, the Steelers are the Steelers and the Ravens are always going to be the Ravens," Rice said. "It's always going to be a rivalry. You'll see things that typically don't happen in normal games."
Such was the case last year. The Steelers won the first game in overtime after Baltimore blew a 10-point halftime lead, and Pittsburgh captured the rematch when Santonio Holmes was credited with a last-minute touchdown on a goal-line catch that was difficult to decipher even after repeated replays.
Then, in the AFC title game, both teams lost several players to injury in a fierce duel finally decided on an interception return for a touchdown by Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu.
"These are two rough-and-tumble teams who always provide fireworks when they play," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "I think anybody that appreciates the game of football, particularly NFL football, has a level of respect for this rivalry."
It hardly matters that Cincinnati leads the division, or that the Steelers are coming off a loss to the lowly Chiefs, or that Baltimore has lost five of seven. This is a rivalry unlike any other.
"After having been in it for three games, I feel like I've been in for a lifetime after last year," Ravens second-year coach John Harbaugh said. "Obviously, they've got a little bit of an edge on us so far in that span, so we
In the AFC championship game, defensive back Corey Ivy was one of several Ravens injured. Now he's a member of the Steelers, who signed him Tuesday to enhance a special teams unit that has surrendered four kickoff returns for touchdowns over the last five games.
Naturally, Tomlin was asked if Ivy provided any information about the Ravens that might prove useful to Pittsburgh.
"We know the Ravens pretty good, just like they know us pretty good," Tomlin said. "Corey's presence here has nothing to do with insight, and more to do with his ability to make plays in the special teams game."
Concussion expected to sideline Roethlisberger
PITTSBURGH — Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will miss Sunday night's game at Baltimore because of a concussion, an unforeseen development that forces the inexperienced Dennis Dixon to start one of the Super Bowl champions' biggest games this season.
Dixon, the former Oregon star, has spent most of the season as the No. 3 quarterback running the Steelers' scout team during practice. He has thrown only one NFL pass in two seasons, but must play because both Roethlisberger and backup Charlie Batch were hurt during a 27-24 overtime loss to Kansas City last week.
Roethlisberger practiced all week despite sustaining his fourth concussion since 2006. On Thursday, during his only interview of the week, he said he had been cleared to play, joking he passed "thousands of tests."
Roethlisberger, however, experienced headaches resulting from the concussion — his head struck the knee of Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson as he leaned headfirst during a running play in overtime — and he began debating the wisdom of playing after consulting with the team's medical staff.
The Steelers decided Saturday that Roethlisberger will play only in an emergency. He will be the No. 3 quarterback, with former Pitt starter Tyler Palko — who was signed only Thursday and doesn't know the offense — as Dixon's backup.
FoxSports.com first reported that Roethlisberger would not play.
The Steelers (6-4), losers of their last two and a game behind Cincinnati (7-3) in the AFC North, were so convinced Roethlisberger would play, they did not sign an experienced quarterback even after Batch broke his left wrist a few plays after replacing Roethlisberger on Sunday. Their game plan for the Ravens (5-5) also was built around Roethlisberger playing.
Coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday the team expected Roethlisberger to play, and there were no signs Wednesday or Thursday he wouldn't. Dixon took more snaps than usual in practice Friday — the first sign Roethlisberger's status might change.
The Steelers likely will rely mostly on running backs Rashard Mendenhall and Willie Parker and limit the amount of throws Dixon makes. Dixon was an excellent runner in Oregon's spread offense, but the Steelers — like every NFL team — don't want their quarterback running consistently because of the risk of injury.
Dixon's only game action came in a mop-up role against Cleveland in the final game of last season, after Roethlisberger also received a concussion. Dixon will be the most inexperienced Steelers quarterback to be thrown into a starting role since rookie Mike Kruczek replaced the injured Terry Bradshaw in 1976. Kruczek went 6-0 as a starter despite not throwing a single touchdown pass, and ended his five-season NFL career in 1980 without throwing a scoring pass.
Roethlisberger's decision to not play comes in the same week the NFL has taken a heightened stance on protecting players from head injuries. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams outlining steps the league is taking to reduce head impacts.
Roethlisberger also had two concussions in 2006, one in a motorcycle accident, and the other last season.
"It's part of the nature of the beast of playing this game," Roethlisberger said Thursday. "It's a violent, physical contact sport and there's a chance you're going to get hit. You guys don't talk about the bruises we have all over our bodies. If I showed you a bruise on my shoulder and a bruise on my shin, it wouldn't get talked about as much. It's a violent sport we play."
-- Alan Robinson
Cards 7-3 again and looking to avoid '08 letdown
TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals were flying high a year ago, 7-3 and running away in the NFC West. What followed was four losses in five games, three by at least 21 points.
Well, here they are again, 7-3 with a three-game lead in their division. Memories of that letdown were fresh as the Cardinals prepared for Sunday's game at Tennessee.
The next few weeks will show whether this group has matured enough to know how to handle success.
"It's on us not to repeat the past," wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said, "and it starts this Sunday."
A major difference is the team's assessment of its own play. A year ago, the long-suffering Cardinals were riding a run of success unprecedented since the franchise moved from St. Louis two decades earlier. This year, 7-3 is in some ways disappointing.
"Last year when we got to 7-3, we were like 'Man, we're 7-3,'" Fitzgerald said. "This year we feel like we let some games get away from us. We feel like we haven't played up to our potential at this point."
Coach Ken Whisenhunt says there is some evidence this is a team better equipped to avoid a letdown.
"Last year when you look back at this time everybody was saying we were 7-3 but we couldn't run the ball and we couldn't win on the road," he said. "This year we're at 7-3 and we're running the ball a little better and we've won on the road. Does that make us different? Does it mean we're going to play better down the stretch? I hope so, but it remains to be seen."
After beating San Francisco for their seventh win last season, Arizona played the New York Giants tough in a 37-29 home loss, then were blown out at Philadelphia on Thanksgiving 48-20.
The Cardinals returned home to beat St. Louis 34-10, clinching the division title with three to play. Then it got real ugly. Arizona lost at home to Minnesota 35-14, then in the snow of New England, was routed by the Patriots 47-7.
That's why Whisenhunt could empathize when the same thing happened to Tennessee on a trip to New England in the same kind of weather this season.
"It looked eerily familiar to be honest with you," he said.
But while success was as foreign as an ice cube in the desert a year ago, this year's Cardinals have seen the heights of the game.
After beating Seattle in the regular season finale to stagger into the playoffs at 9-7, Arizona — as anyone who has read this far knows — earned stunning victories over Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia. The improbable Super Bowl run concluded with a near-miss against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa.
That raised expectations exponentially this season, and led to the self-assessment that Arizona really has yet to play to its potential, despite its record.
"I think now we want to see how good can we get every game," defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "We just want to make sure we're able to get better every game. How good can we be?"
The next couple of games are tough. After resurgent Tennessee, Arizona has a Sunday night home matchup with Minnesota. Then it's a road game against a 49ers team that beat the Cardinals in the season opener, Arizona's only loss within the division the past two seasons.
Arizona wraps it up with a trip to Detroit, followed by home games against St. Louis and Green Bay.
"There's a lot of stuff in front of us. We've got a lot to play for. That's the bottom line," quarterback Kurt Warner said. "You've got to show up every week and nothing's guaranteed, especially after 10 weeks in the season. You've got to understand that. We've got some tough football games coming up."
-- Bob Baum
NFL players often prone to financial fumbles
Danan Hughes endured a lot of crushing hits during six years in the NFL. The hardest blow of all, though, came at the end — when he went from mega-paycheck to no paycheck.
Hughes grossed over $1 million as a wide receiver and special teams player for the Kansas City Chiefs, including close to $400,000 in each of his final two seasons. But when he retired in 1999, he took a three-month internship at a local bank that paid nothing.
Talk about not being game-ready — he had just $70,000 savings from his entire career to fall back on.
"Athletes tend to think they are invincible, and that's the way they handle their finances," says Hughes, 38. "But players often crash and burn with their money."
Despite salaries averaging $1.1 million a year, financial success stories are rare after players step off the field for good. Whispers circulating around the league for years hold that many players end up in financial difficulties or bankruptcy soon after retirement, although player groups know of no formal data to back that up.
Hughes bounced back quickly from his rocky transition to the real world. He has been a mortgage loan officer working with professional athletes for the past nine years and lives comfortably outside Kansas City with his wife and five children.
But he and others are troubled by the fact that so many NFL players can't seem to break free of the pattern of rags to riches to rags again, especially with a potential lockout looming ahead that could force players to be self-reliant.
Years of soaring salaries could come to a halt when the players' collective bargaining agreement ends after next season. If a lengthy work stoppage wipes out the 2011 season, as union representatives have warned it could, players will have to get by on no income in the middle of careers that last an average of just 3½ years.
Their plight may not elicit much sympathy at a time when unemployment tops 10 percent and running backs and linebackers can make more in a year than teachers or firefighters make in a lifetime. Their money woes, though, often are as much about joining the league with no background in managing money and being generous with friends and family as they are about greed and excessive spending.
"Coming into big money so young is like hitting the lottery," says New York Jets guard Brandon Moore, an eight-year veteran. "A lot of guys just aren't ready for it."
The players association is stepping up efforts to help prepare them now that a lockout may be nearing.
The union has launched a "50/50" financial preparedness campaign, encouraging players to save at least 50 percent of their 2009 and 2010 salaries so they have a nest egg to rely on if the checks and benefits disappear.
It also teamed earlier this year with a financial education company to provide an online platform that gives players access to guidance as well as qualified, screened advisers. Gary Smola, a certified financial planner with Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Financial Finesse Inc., says the online tool teaches NFL players how to protect their income, buy a home, avoid fraud and draw up their after-football financial plans.
Such advice may be too late for those who have already gone overboard with their spending.
Jets' kicker Jay Feely says the first thing new players tend to do when they get into the league is spend at least $50,000 to $60,000 on a new car, even without a guaranteed playing contract in hand. He recalls seeing a late-round pick go out and buy a Hummer and then get cut before the end of training camp.
Many also admit to him that they are not contributing to their 401(k) plan, to which the NFL kicks in a generous $2 match for every dollar they sock away.
"You can't hold a guy's hand and make him learn things," says the 33-year-old Feely, a licensed stockbroker. "But hopefully we can help them get a better baseline of knowledge through these programs."
His teammate Tony Richardson, a fullback who's in his 16th NFL season, still hears stories all the time about players investing with dubious financial advisers and getting taken for millions of dollars. Often it's through bad investments in restaurants, nightclubs and strip clubs — the three types of deals he was told in business school that you should always avoid.
Richardson has learned to fend off acquaintances trying to take his money the way he might stiff-arm a would-be tackler. Twice in the past year, different college pals have called and urged him to get in on the ground level of a business that is "moving fast" but which they couldn't tell him much about. They promised returns of about 30 percent; he didn't return their calls.
"I think financial responsibility comes with age and maturity," the 37-year-old Richardson says. "Some young guys just don't care financially. It really scares me to see them having all these kids with different women and not building a secure base. There's all kinds of things that can come about."
Hughes, who works for U.S. Bank Home Mortgage in Kansas City, has an arsenal of his own money mistakes to point to when he works with players as clients.
He bought a new Jeep Cherokee and a house before reporting to training camp as a seventh-round draft pick. He ordered the vehicle by phone with no clue about the lease terms. Like most of his teammates, he didn't pay much attention — or didn't understand — when speakers came in to talk to them about how to handle their finances.
Now he's on the other end of those talks, hoping his words will serve as a wakeup call but realizing most will not heed them.
"These guys will be going from high income to no income and child support and alimony in many cases," he says. "They have to learn that when they get off the football field they'll be starting over from scratch, maybe just a little bit of money in their pockets."
-- Dave Carpenter
Rice, Smith among Hall of Fame semifinalists
CANTON, Ohio — Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith are among 25 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Former Raiders receiver Tim Brown and Cardinals and Rams defensive back Aeneas Williams were the only other players selected in their first year of eligibility.
Rice and Smith hold some of the NFL's biggest records. Smith is the league's all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards for the Cowboys and Cardinals from 1990-2004. Rice is the all-time leading receiver with 1,549 catches for 22,895 yards with the 49ers, Raiders and Seahawks from 1985-2004.
The semifinalists include a coach, Don Coryell, and two contributors, Art Modell and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
The list will be reduced to 15 by Jan. 7. Dick LeBeau and Floyd Little have already been selected as finalists by the Seniors Committee.
Saints honor former defensive tackle Glover
NEW ORLEANS — La'Roi Glover, who was claimed off waivers just prior to the 1997 season and went on to be a dominating force in the middle of the defensive line for the next five seasons, is being added to the New Orleans Saints "Hall of Honor."
Glover between 1997 and 2001, Glover had 50 sacks — sixth-best in franchise history — 318 tackles with 10 forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
Glover made two Pro Bowl appearances and was a two-time All-Pro selection as a Saint. He earned four NFC Defensive Player of the Week awards along with being named NFC Defensive Player of the Month in October 2000.
His performance in 2000 helped push the Saints to a NFC West division title and the first postseason victory in team history, as he led the league with 17 sacks, the third consecutive season that he led the team in sacks.
A five-foot tall photo of Glover joins a gallery of other past Saints players, former executive Jim Finks and former coach Jim Mora on the walls of the hallway that current players use on the way to the locker room.
Player Injuries
Panthers WR Smith questionable with sore ribs
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith has sore ribs and has been added to the injury list as questionable for Sunday's game at the New York Jets.
It was unclear when Smith was injured. He took a knee to the back in a victory over Atlanta on Nov. 15, but hadn't missed any practice time since.
Smith leads Carolina with 45 catches for 599 yards and four touchdowns.
Panthers reserve defensive end Charles Johnson didn't make the trip Saturday and will miss his second straight game with a strained chest muscle.
Grove out for Bills game
DAVIE, Fla. — Miami Dolphins starting center Jake Grove will miss Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills with an ankle injury.
Joe Berger will replace Grove. Berger will be making his first NFL start in his fifth season in the league and third with the Dolphins. He appeared in three games as a rookie for Miami in 2005 after he was claimed off waivers from the team that drafted him in the seventh round, the Carolina Panthers.
Second-year defensive end Lionel Dotson (ankle) is also out for the game and the Dolphins signed rookie defensive end Ryan Baker from the practice squad. To make room for Baker on the 53-man roster, defensive end Evan Oglesby was waived.
Player Movement
Jets waive CB-KR Justin Miller
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The New York Jets have waived former Pro Bowl cornerback-kick returner Justin Miller a month after re-signing him.
Miller played in one game for New York, but was inactive the last two. There was some concern Miller lacked some of the explosiveness that made him a Pro Bowl pick in 2006.
Special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said Friday that he was "pretty sure" Miller would be active and return kicks Sunday against Carolina. He could be replaced by David Clowney, who returned one kick for 37 yards at New England on Sunday.
Miller, a second-round pick of the Jets in 2005, was waived last season and claimed by Oakland. The Raiders re-signed him for one game this season and released him before the Jets signed him Oct. 27.
Bills add Mace to roster, release tight end
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills have signed defensive lineman Corey Mace to the 53-man roster and released tight end Joe Klopfenstein.
Mace spent the first 11 weeks of the season on the Bills' practice squad. The 6-foot-3, 287-pound Mace joined Buffalo in May 2007 as an undrafted free agent and spent parts of the 2007 and 2008 season on the team's practice squad. He played in three games last season after being added to the roster in early December.
Mace, from Port Moody, British Columbia, was added to the Buffalo roster Saturday, just over a week before the Bills take on the New York Jets in Toronto.
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