This was at training camp 2008, in the conference room at the Best Western Hotel in Westminster, the place so quiet you could hear hearts beat.
O.J. Brigance stood in front of the Ravens with a body ravaged by Lou Gehrig's disease and told them in essence: Don't look at me any differently. Don't feel sorry for me. I'm still here. I'm still one of you.
He told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" program that he gave the speech for one simple reason.
"They were going to have one of the toughest jobs in the league," he said of the Ravens. "They were going to have to watch a man walk out of life right before their eyes."
But that man isn't ready to walk out of life just yet.
Next Tuesday, O.J. Brigance turns 40, still a Raven, still inspiring the team with his quiet courage in the face of a horrible disease.
That night, the Brigance Brigade Foundation, which he founded to raise awareness of the disease, will hold a fundraiser at M&T Bank Stadium.
They're calling it "Two Rings for O.J.," a testimony to his 12-year pro career as the only player to win a Super Bowl ring (Ravens, 2001) and a Grey Cup ring (Baltimore Stallions, 1995) in the same city.
Tickets are $175 a pop, more if you want to rub shoulders at the VIP reception with some of the Ravens and former NFL greats. (For more info, go to www.bcf.org/brigance.)
But what you need to know about Brigance and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, the other name for the cruel neurodegenerative disease that cripples the body but leaves brain function intact, is that the Ravens still draw strength from him.
"We talk about the spirit of our football team," coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday before practice. "And O.J. is at the core of that spirit right now."
It's been nearly 2 1/2 years since Brigance was diagnosed with ALS. But he still goes to work every day at the Castle in Owings Mills, where he's in his seventh season as the Ravens' director of player development.
He still attends all the practices and team meetings. Veteran players still seek his counsel and push the rookies to do the same.
And the rookies always leave impressed.
Harry Swayne, the former offensive lineman and a teammate of Brigance's who's now the Ravens' assistant director of player programs, recalled one young player asking him about Brigance's ALS last year.
"Why does this kind of thing happen to such good people?" the player asked.
