Champ

The Ravens 2013 preseason schedule is highlighted by a prime-time home game against the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, Aug. 22 at M&T Bank Stadium, the NFL announced today. That game, which will be the third of four preseason games for the Super Bowl XLVII champions, will start at 8 p.m. and be televised by ESPN. The Ravens will open up the preseason against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. The exact date and time of the game has yet to be announced. In Week Two of the preseason, the Ravens will host the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday, Aug. 15 at M&T Bank Stadium.

The Havre de Grace 7-8year-old co-ed clinic basketball team won the league championship Saturday, beating a team from Aberdeen, 22-11. The win completed the winning season with a perfect 12-0 record. Pictured, front row from left, are Brody Strong, Will Lawder, Braydyn Malloy, Brian Pearson, Will Burley, Aidan Gresock, Erica Belcher, Morgan Custer and Michael Malia; back row from left, coaches Bill Lawder, Matt Belcher and Jeff Gresock. DeJuan Jordan is not pictured.

With little salary cap room and other priorities, the Ravens knew that they'd lose several key contributors from the team that beat the San Francisco 49ers last month to win Super Bowl XLVII. Their first free agent defection came less than an hour after the market opened today as outside linebacker Paul Kruger agreed to terms on a five-year deal with the Cleveland Browns worth $40 million, according to league sources. Kruger's loss was expected after the 27-year-old linebacker had a breakout 2012-13 season, leading the Ravens with nine sacks to go along with 42 tackles, one interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Leading wire-to-wire, sixth-seeded Manhattan held off a furious Loyola charge and defeated the Greyhounds, 55-52, to advance to the semifinals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in a game that started Saturday night and ended Sunday morning. The Jaspers (13-17) moved on to face No. 7 Fairfield, which upset No. 2 Rider before the third-seeded Greyhounds, the defending tournament champions, also went down. No. 1 Niagara and No. 4 Iona will play in the other semifinal.

I was, as were many other sports fans, proud and excited about the accomplishments of the Baltimore Ravens in the month of January. However, it can not be denied that the Baltimore Sun sports writers neglected to mention the triumphant performance of a young professional boxer named Emanuel Taylor. Mr. Taylor, a local prospect in the junior welterweight division with a record of 15 wins and one defeat, was fighting a more experienced Ramon Serrano of Philadelphia with an 18-1 record.

Joe Flacco must have been a strong enough draw Monday night to leave David Letterman wanting more Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl mojo. The "Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday announced that Ravens coach John Harbaugh will be on Thursday night. Here's the release from CBS: John Harbaugh, head coach of the Super Bowl XLVII champion Baltimore Ravens, will visit the LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN Thursday, Feb. 7 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.  John Harbaugh and his younger brother Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, became the first pair of brothers to serve as head coaches in the NFL back in 2011 and made more headlines this year when they became the first brothers in NFL history to face each other in a Super Bowl, one which quickly became dubbed the “Harbaugh Bowl.”  The Ravens went on to defeat the 49ers Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII by a score of 34-31, giving the Ravens their second championship title in franchise history.

"Baltimore!" It was the first thing Ray Lewis said as he stood on the field, Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand, confetti drifting down around him. He'd said it before, three times in a row, at the Ravens send-off the week before. "Baltimore! Baltimore! Baltimore!" We are a city that believes - that wants to believe. But we are also a city with a chip on our shoulder. We get no respect from the media. People think we're just like "The Wire. " The Ravens know it, and they're proud of it. There were so many reasons to win the Super Bowl . To send off Lewis the right way. To prove that Joe Flacco is one of the league's best quarterbacks.

SATURDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS M. bask. Maryland@North Carolina ESPNNoon Connecticut@Pittsburgh ESPN2Noon St. John's@DePaul MASNNoon St. Bonaventure@Temple CBSSN1 Nebraska@Penn State ESPNU1 Wake Forest@Virginia Tech 5, 542 West Virginia@Purdue 13, 92 Missouri@Florida ESPN2 Texas Tech@Oklahoma State ESPN22 Oregon@UCLA 13, 94 ...

Ravens speedy wide receiver Torrey Smith kept accelerating past Denver Broncos star cornerback Champ Bailey on Saturday, finding another gear that the veteran defensive back couldn't match or even approach. Shut down by Bailey earlier this season during a regular-season defeat in December at M&T Bank Stadium, Smith transformed his personal rematch Saturday into a steady measure of revenge. Smith made the perennial Pro Bowl cornerback look every bit of his 34 years on Saturday, burning him twice for touchdowns during the Ravens' dramatic 38-35 double-overtime victory at frosty Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium.

2013 began with a very unique occurrence in the world of pro wrestling. On Jan. 6 in Toronto, Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA, two very well-respected outfits among professional wrestling fans, saw both their champions in the same ring, facing off against each other. It wasn't exactly as expected. The match that was promoted by independent wrestling outfit Smash Wrestling was to be a 1-on-1 non-title encounter between Kevin Steen (ROH champ) and Johnny Gargano (DGUSA champ)