Ed Reed

We have countless awesome sports photos in the archives here at The Baltimore Sun , and I have decided to share one with you each week in a regular feature called "Throwback Thursday. " Ed Reed has been a popular topic the past 24 hours. One reason is that he said he wants to retire as a member of the Ravens. “I always said I wanted to retire here and play for one organization,” the safety said Wednesday during his football camp , adding that “after the lockout is over and the collective bargaining agreement is done, I'll go back to the table with the Ravens and see what makes sense to them and what makes sense for me.” Since Reed is talking about finishing his career in Baltimore, let's take a look back to when it began.

Here's a big surprise: Ed Reed is driving the Ravens nuts again. One minute he says he's not 100 percent committed to playing this season. The next minute he says he could play for years. One minute he says he feels disrespected by the Ravens and questions their loyalty to him. The next minute he says he's open to discussing a contract extension to "help the team. " Don't we go through something like this every year with Reed? Is this just "Ed being Ed" again? Maybe.

ESPN’s Ed Werder tracked down Ravens safety Ed Reed at his annual football camp in Louisiana this week, and Reed said that when he entered the NFL, he planned on playing until he was 35. But after suffering a hip injury and a nerve impingement in his neck in recent years, he isn’t sure how much longer he will play. “I don’t want to be like these guys having neck surgery and then you got to have another surgery just to continue to play this game,” said Reed, who missed six games in 2010.

Will he or won't he? What's a Ravens offseason without some drama surrounding Ed Reed's future? Hours after general manager Ozzie Newsome reiterated that the team expects Reed to be its starting free safety in 2012, the enigmatic future Hall of Famer said in a Wednesday night interview on 105.7 The Fan that he feels disrespected by the Ravens -- enough to make him question playing this season. “I plan on playing. Everybody in the world knows that plans tend to change,” said Reed, who is in the final year of his contract.

Ray Lewis showed up Tuesday for the first day of the Ravens' mandatory minicamp, looking considerably leaner after an offseason in which he dedicated himself to adjusting to a quicker and pass-oriented NFL. Lewis' longtime teammate, Ed Reed, meanwhile, made his own statement by not showing up, spurring even more questions about the mercurial safety's commitment and mindset heading into the 2012 season. While running back Ray Rice expectedly stayed away from the mandatory camp as his agent works on a long-term contract extension , Reed was an unexcused absence, his latest display of discontent with the team as he heads into the final year of his contract.

Ed Reed's interview on 105.7 The Fan last night rambled on for more than 20 entertaining minutes, so there were a few interesting comments that couldn't be squeezed into my story published in Thursday's newspaper . Reed on fans who criticized him on Twitter: "The fact of the matter is that people don't understand that football players are regular people just like them. And half of them don't understand the business. And most of them just want you to entertain them. There's a lot of good fans out there, but there's also a lot of bad -- I don't want to say bad people, but a lot of people who just want to try to get on your nerves and stuff like that, man. I'm not the kind of person to hold my tongue.

When Ed Reed came back to the Ravens defense in late October, he made an immediate impact. Five plays into his first game, he knocked a fumble loose. One play into the second half, he had an interception. And three games later, the Pro Bowl safety is back to his havoc-inducing tricks — while still trying to smooth up the rough edges of communication and reinforce a battered secondary. For all of Reed's big-play ability, he hasn't been able to save the Ravens from the big-play strikes of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chad Henne or Matt Ryan the last three games.

In just two games, Ed Reed already leads the Ravens in interceptions, collecting his third of the season in the team's 26-10 win against the Miami Dolphins this Sunday. In fact, the six-time Pro Bowl free safety has almost as many interceptions as the rest of his teammates, who have four between cornerbacks Chris Carr and Lardarius Webb , inside linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ken Hamlin . After Sunday's contest, NFL Network analyst and former Ravens cornerback Deion Sanders called Reed "the best safety in the game.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh doesn't anticipate a rib injury from preventing seven-time Pro Bowl free safety Ed Reed from playing in the AFC wild-card playoff contest against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. "He's getting treatment and all that," Harbaugh said Monday. "I'd be surprised if he's not ready to go, but you never know. " Reed said he sustained the injury while getting tackled at the end of his second interception toward the end of the second quarter in the team's 13-7 win against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday.

A day after fully practicing, Ed Reed was not spotted during the portion of Thursday's session open to the media. Reed suffered a stinger in Monday night's 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but did not appear to show any aftereffects during Wednesday's practice. The Ravens practiced on the far field at their training facility in Owings Mills, which can be tough for media observers. The injury report, which will be distributed later in the afternoon, should clear up any confusion over the status of the seven-time Pro Bowl free safety.