Michael Phelps

As Baltimore continued to come down from the euphoria of the Ravens' Super Bowl win, superfan Michael Phelps took to Instagram this week to show the special access afforded an 18-time Olympic gold medalist. On Valentine's Day, Phelps posted pictures of his dogs, Catahoula mix Stella and English bulldog Herman, posing with the Lombardi Trophy. “Champ and champ!!!” Phelps posted under the color photo of Herman, sidling up to the gleaming silver football. Phelps, a regular presence at the team's big games and in its post-victory locker rooms, did not mention how his pooches got so close to the coveted trophy.

Standing in the Ravens' victorious locker room, Michael Phelps could not contain his emotions. The Towson native, wearing a purple shirt, took in the scene. "To be able to watch that, I was in tears," he said. "I've never cried this much for anything in my life. " Phelps won 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold. He is widely considered the greatest swimmer of all time. But seeing players he has come to know over the years finally achieve their ultimate goal left Phelps blubbering like the life-long fan he is. "This is a very special moment," he said.

The last time the Ravens were in the Super Bowl, Michael Phelps was a 15-year-old boy who had just gone to his first Olympics but had yet to win any of the 22 medals that last year made him the most decorated Olympian of all time. Plus, on the day his beloved Ravens were playing in Tampa -- Jan. 28, 2001 -- Phelps was across the Atlantic Ocean. "I was in Paris for a swim meet," Phelps recalled Friday, when he dropped by the Super Bowl media center. "And we tried to set the alarm to wake up in the night, but we slept through it. " Phelps, who retired from swimming after his fourth Olympics in London last year, cleared his calendar to make sure he could attend this year's game.

After rewriting the Olympic record books for swimming, Michael Phelps and his longtime coach might have the Kentucky Derby in their sights with a 3-year-old colt named Cerro who won a race Saturday at Gulfstream Park for Team Valor International. Baltimore's Phelps and Bob Bowman joined the Team Valor group that races Cerro after he finished third at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach, Fla., on Jan. 1 for Maryland-based trainer Graham Motion. Team Valor and Motion won the Derby two years ago with Animal Kingdom.

An occasional look at sports business stories from across the country ... Brendon Ayanbadejo knows there is no better time to speak than in the lead up to the Super Bowl. Thousands of reporters from every sort of outlet will be in New Orleans to cover the spectacle, and a good number of them will look to seize on something beyond the battle of the brothers Harbaugh, or Ray Lewis' last stand. How about gay marriage? Ayanbadejo is a long-time and unabashed advocate for gay rights . That's an unusual thing for a pro athlete to be in the most normal of times.

Ravens strong safety Bernard Pollard lived up to his intimidating reputation as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL, knocking New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley out of Sunday's AFC championship game with a devastating fourth-quarter tackle. During the Ravens' 28-13 AFC victory at Gillette Stadium, Ridley was down on the ground for several scary minutes before finally walking off the field under his own power. "Bernard, man, he's a hitter," Ravens free safety Ed Reed said.

Imagine, if you will, Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon. When you're weary Feeling small When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all Now replace the images of those two men with Ray Lewis and Michael Phelps, and you'll understand the apparent dynamic between the fellows who are arguably Baltimore's greatest athletes. In a post- AFC-Championship-game interview with Yahoo Sports , Phelps credits Lewis with motivating him to return to that Olympic swimming pool in 2012, where he would become the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Michael Phelps is playing some serious poker in the Bahamas with the likes of Jason Alexander. But cards, shmards. At least one reporter is more interested in nominating the swimmer/golfer/card shark/retiree for the next episode of "What Not to Wear. " Chris Chase of USA Today offered quite the post-game analysis of Phelps' wardrobe  in a Thursday blog post: "Let's analyze the look Phelps is sporting in the Caribbean," he writes. "It's a style that screams, 'I'm retired and the only time I'm setting foot in a pool is if there's a swim-up bar attached to it.'" It actually also seems to scream, "I'm comfortable and wearing a lot of stuff I probably got for free.

Fiscal cliff is so last year. In 2013, it's all about the trillion-dollar coin. And there's at least one news outlet campaigning for the dream coin to feature Michael Phelps. If you haven't been paying attention, the idea of a trillion dollar coin -- apparently like a silver dollar but A LOT heavier -- is gaining some degree of traction in Washington as lawmakers kick around ways to fix the ginormous national debt. A legal loophole would allow the U.S. Treasury to make huge-value coins.

Baltimore native and superstar Olympian Michael Phelps has dumped model-waitress Megan Rossee, according to TMZ . The gossip site cited anonymous sources who said that Phelps "felt the relationship wasn't going anywhere, so he decided to end it so he could pursue other options. " The two first appeared in public as a couple during the London Olympics. Phelps played (consolation?) beer pong Saturday evening with Stacy Keibler in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, according to Keibler's Instagram feed.