He played only four years with the Ravens, but when Rod Woodson enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame tonight, he'll be reopening the door for Baltimore.
A defensive back, Woodson is the first Ravens player to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio. There, he joins 11 members of the Baltimore Colts, the last of whom - former coach Don Shula - was inducted in 1997.
One year later, Woodson joined the Ravens, where he shored up the defense and helped lead them to a Super Bowl victory in January 2001.
On Friday, Woodson sat at a gala luncheon alongside Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' general manager and a Hall of Famer himself, and reflected on the finality of his election.
"Being enshrined in the Hall means you can't be kicked out, cut or traded," Woodson, 44, said. "Even when you're dead, you're still a Hall of Famer."
And today, when he accepts his plaque, the man who spent most of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers will be wearing the Super Bowl ring he earned as a Raven.
"There's a place in my heart for every team that I played for," Woodson said. "All four of those places were a part of me. But it's a huge honor to be the first Hall of Famer to have donned a Ravens uniform.
"I was proud to represent that team for four years, and I'm sure that I'll be joined in the near future by J.O. [recently retired lineman Jonathan Ogden]. Also, five years after he gets tired of playing football, [linebacker] Ray Lewis will be here, too."
Six times first-team All Pro during a 17-year career, Woodson joined Baltimore as a 33-year-old free agent after spending 10 years in Pittsburgh and one in San Francisco. Here, he settled the team's young defense and mentored its rising stars.
Woodson also agreed to shift from cornerback to safety, a change that, in effect, made him the eyes of a unit that excelled during the 2000 season. Four shutouts, a league-record 165 points allowed.
"In that one year, we were arguably the best defense in NFL history," Woodson said. The Super Bowl was a walkover, a 34-7 defeat of the New York Giants.
"We knew that by the fourth quarter of that game, it was over," he said. "We were sitting on the sidelines joking, 'My ring size is a 12.' "
In retrospect, Woodson said: "My journey was to go to Baltimore and become a Raven. My destiny was set. All I had to do was to say 'yes' when [defensive coordinator] Marvin Lewis phoned to ask if I'd like to play there - and get the blessing of [owner] Art Modell."
