Brendon Ayanbadejo could have been happy staying in Chicago, where fans knew his name and recognized his value on the Bears' special teams.
He could have been comfortable in New York, too, where the Jets told him he would simply hang out with punters and kickers at practice.
So why did one of the NFL's best special teams players wind up in Baltimore, staying after practice at training camp to learn defensive plays for a team that once cut him?
The answers: money and opportunity.
The Ravens made the best offer for Ayanbadejo, and it included more than the four-year, $4.9 million contract. They also said he could get defensive snaps in camp and a chance to become a primary backup at linebacker.
Hence the extra time spent learning defensive coordinator Rex Ryan's schemes before and after practice at McDaniel College.
"When I met Coach [John] Harbaugh, I sat down with Rex for 30 minutes, and he said, 'I can teach you this defense in five minutes,' " Ayanbadejo said. "I learned it wasn't that simple."
Make no mistake, Ayanbadejo was the Ravens' biggest free-agent signing this offseason because of the impact he can make on special teams. He was a Pro Bowl player on the Bears' top-ranked special teams the past two seasons.
The Bears wanted to keep him and made an offer that reflected his contribution. When Ayanbadejo's agent started shopping the offer, the Bears announced that they had withdrawn it.
Said Ayanbadejo, "They said that publicly, but they didn't say that to my agent."
Nevertheless, Chicago's loss was Baltimore's gain. Ayanbadejo has considerably more cachet the second time around with the Ravens. In his first stint in 2001, he was signed to play in NFL Europe but never made it to training camp with the defending Super Bowl champions.
George Kokinis, the Ravens' director of pro personnel, remembers the impression Ayanbadejo made back then.
"He could always run down on kicks and play special teams because he always had that drive and desire and toughness," Kokinis said. But "he has matured in terms of his body - he's more put-together - and his instincts at linebacker are so much better than they were."
Ayanbadejo took a circuitous route back to Baltimore, where his brother, Obafemi, played fullback on the Super Bowl-winning team. He passed through Atlanta (waived by the Falcons) and the Canadian Football League (All-Pro linebacker with the British Columbia Lions in 2002) before landing a job in the NFL (Miami Dolphins, 2003).
