Baltimore Ravens

PURPLE AND BLACK are the colors of not one, but two, Ravens football teams, and both line up in Carroll County.The Baltimore Ravens' summer training camp at Western Maryland College probably inspires many youths to play football. In Hampstead, that inspiration has become a youth football club with more than 100 kids, ages 5 to 13, in five groups, learning to tackle, pass and run since Aug. 1. There's also a cheerleading squad of 35.The Baltimore Ravens have been better than inspiration, however.

The man who spent six years as the personal driver for Baltimore Ravens owner Arthur B. Modell is suing his former boss, saying he was unjustly fired last year after taking a few days off work for medical reasons. Jeffrey H. Dickson, 50, said he was unable to drive Modell for a few days in July because he was taking a narcotic painkiller prescribed by a physician for serious gum and sinus inflammation. Soon thereafter, he said, Modell's son, Ravens President David Modell, fired him. "I had never missed a day's work for [Arthur Modell]

CBS Super Bowl broadcasters Jim Nantz and Phil Simms say they see a lot more than just Ray Lewis when they look at the Baltimore Ravens. And come Sunday, the conversation they do have about Lewis in the biggest broadcast booth in popular culture is going to be primarily about his play on the field and inspirational power in the locker room - not what happened in Atlanta. "I would just say, Ravens?" Nantz said Tuesday when asked for his sense of the team's image during a teleconference.

The mourners followed the coffin of 15-year-old Grace McComas out of the church and into the morning sunlight of a beautiful Easter season. Christine McComas carried her child's stuffed toy in the crook of her arm. Grief made her look almost wistful. As Grace's parents and her three sisters left the crowded St. Michael's Catholic Church in Mount Airy a year ago, they weren't thinking that their journey of grief would take them to Annapolis. But the determination of that grief-stricken mother to tell her daughter's story - powered by a Ravens player, Maryland's first lady and a state legislator - resulted in "Grace's Law," which Gov. Martin O'Malley is scheduled to sign Thursday.

To Deontae Smith's mother, there was no question her son had been to the Super Bowl parade on Tuesday. And she's upset that Baltimore police didn't make the same connection sooner. Deontae was fatally stabbed outside a McDonald's restaurant at Howard and Fayette streets downtown during a fight involving a large group of teens three blocks from the parade route, police said. Two other teens were also injured, and no suspect has been identified. Baltimore police said Tuesday that the stabbing incidents weren't related to the parade but said Wednesday that they believed Smith had been at the parade.

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith appears to not only have good taste in jewelry but also to be engaged to his lady love. Smith (@TorreySmithWR) posted this update on Twitter late Friday afternoon: "Gave @LibraLadii_ this now she will be stuck with me for a long time. " The post was accompanied by a link to Smith's Instagram feed, which did indeed show a hand with a dazzling ring on it. According to Twitter, the hand - and the ring - belong to Chanel Williams, who is listed as the owner of the Twitter handle @LibraLadii_.

Terrell Suggs always detested the offseason mandatory minicamp . He hated leaving his family and his offseason home long before the start of training camp. He had zero interest in spending the week running around and sweating through the same tedious drills and activities. But as he watched his teammates head on and off the practice fields in Owings Mills this week, his right foot encased in a big boot that extended below his knee, Suggs would have done anything to get out there with them, even in Wednesday's heat and Tuesday's rain.

Is life great or what? For Baltimore Ravens fans - and we're guessing that this newspaper's readership is pretty much birds of a feather in this regard - the last two weeks have been a delight. To beat the Indianapolis Colts in a home playoff game and then the highly-touted Denver Broncos in the mile-high city in a nail-biting double-overtime contest the following week has not only been a thrill ride, but it has united this city - or at least diverted its collective attention from the less easily-resolved challenges of the day - in the way that only popular sporting events can. "Team of destiny" is how a lot of the nation's sportswriters have taken to describing the Ravens after their upset victory over Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

In Baltimore, Cassandra Sneed Ogden isn't a household name. But her son is.He's Jonathan Ogden, the 320-pound, 6-foot-8 lineman who was this year's No. 1 draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens.These days, Jonathan works through the trials of his first National Football League training camp. His mother is faced with an assignment no less daunting.The elder Ogden is executive director of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, a nonprofit organization designed to give financial and moral support to minority and low-income law students.

With the possible exception of Mayan calendar followers and all others who expect the world to end in a matter of hours, is there a gloomier bunch around metropolitan Baltimore than Ravens fans? Rarely in the history of professional sports have people with so little to grouse about made themselves so miserable. It can't be a Baltimore thing. Just three months ago, this city was thrilled over the unexpected good fortune of a hometown team that hoped to - in the final days of its season - capture a playoff spot.