Nfl Team

Baltimore already has spent more than $1 million trying to land an NFL team to replace the Colts.1. Do you agree that Baltimore should aggressively pursue an NFL expansion franchise?2. Do you think Baltimore will get a team if the league expands?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County) today through midnight. After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your touch-tone phone. Punch 4600 and you'll be connected with "It's Your Call," The Evening Sun's phone survey on topical issues.

Given that the Ravens have made a trade in the first round of the draft five times in the past seven years, most fans are well aware there is a chance the team could trade out of the first round again Thursday night. A deep but unspectacular class of quarterbacks may mean the Ravens receive a few trade calls for pick No. 32. “The phone lines are open,” Ravens assistant general manager Eric DeCosta declared last week. Last year, Indianapolis picked Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the first overall pick and Washington picked Baylor's Robert Griffin III. Miami also took a quarterback, Ryan Tannehill of Texas A&M, in the top 10. Some have said Tannehill would have been the top quarterback in this class had he waited a year to declare.

Even though in the last six years Baltimoreans have found other ways to spend their Sunday fall afternoons, most still would prefer to be watching a local NFL team.Three out of every four callers to SUNDIAL this past weekend said they want pro football to return to Baltimore, which has been without a team since Robert Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis under cover of darkness in 1984.Of the 1,154 people who responded to our "It's Your Call" question, 870 (75 percent) said they wanted the city to get an NFL expansion team, while 284 (25 percent)

Though the flicker of collegiate game tape isn't exactly candlelight, it can sometimes be love at first sight for a scout sitting in a dark film room, pining over pro prospects. Daniel Jeremiah, a former NFL scout who worked four years in the Ravens organization, experienced one of those moments in the months leading up to the 2007 NFL draft while watching tape of Iowa's Marshal Yanda. Years later, he still remembers one play when the senior offensive lineman de-cleated a defender with a violent peel-back block.

When former postmaster general Robert Tisch ended his campaign to bring an expansion NFL franchise to Baltimore to buy 50 percent of the New York Giants, it was felt Baltimore suffered a setback in the expansion race. Tisch is wealthy and has NFL connections, two prerequisites for an NFL owner.Are you less optimistic now that Tisch is out of the picture?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County) today through midnight Sunday. After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your touch-tone phone.

San Antonio Spurs owner Red McCombs said he filed an application yesterday for ownership of an NFL franchise and indicated he would sell his interest in the NBA team if necessary."

No one in Baltimore watches the National Football League expansion derby more closely or with a sharper eye than Tony Agnone. He says this city is "a lock" to get in, probably for the 1994 season.Agnone is the Baltimore-based agent for 47 NFL players including nine Pro Bowlers. Among his clients are Chip Lohmiller, Sean Landeta, Dave Meggett, Bart Oates and Ferrell Edmunds.Moreover, Agnone is one smart lawyer. Before becoming an agent he was assistant to the dean at the University of Baltimore Law School.

Putting up the most money, an incongruous $210 million, may not win Peter Angelos a bid for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it's motivated by a desire to right a wrong and restore Baltimore to the National Football League.Imagine paying out that much for the right to have a football team when actually owning a franchise provides only a toy for the man who has everything.Being a member of the NFL does only one thing for a city, and that is it makes almost everyone (excluding Jim Speros, owner of Baltimore's Canadian League outfit)

THE RAVENS have landed, back for a third year of summer training camp at Western Maryland College, with a cast of more than 100 performers and staff. But Westminster merchants and officials don't have unrealistic dreams that this third time will be the charm for the local economy.The past two seasons have been a learning experience for the pro football team, but just as much for the Carroll County seat. The anticipated invasion of hungry, souvenir-grabbing Ravens fans has been small, without as much bang as hoped for the downtown.

Although the decision may not be made for another week, Ravens appears to be the slight favorite of the people charged with naming Baltimore's new NFL team but that ranking could change quickly.The name was well-received by focus groups assembled to consider possible names, according to sources familiar with the search who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The name refers to a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, who lived and is buried in Baltimore."There is no consensus among us," said one team official.

COLLEGE PARK -- More than a dozen former Maryland football players made their way onto the field at Byrd Stadium on Wednesday, likely for the final time in their playing careers. It was the Terps ' pro day, and the players were looking to show off their capabilities to 14 NFL scouts on hand. It's a nerve-racking experience. The players took part in a series of drills that tested their speed, agility and athleticism in hopes that their performance will lead to a team calling their name during April's NFL draft.

West Virginia star wide receiver Tavon Austin once embarrassed a proud Oklahoma defense with his unique brand of elusiveness. Almost casually last November, the dynamic former Dunbar standout repeatedly made the Sooners' safeties and linebackers fall to the ground with a series of body-twisting cuts. Primarily lining up at running back, Austin piled up 572 all-purpose yards against Oklahoma for the second-highest single-game total in NCAA history. He rushed for 344 yards and two touchdowns, caught four passes for 82 yards and gained 146 yards on eight kick returns.

NFL teams already have their stopwatches poised to time draft prospects at the annual scouting combine that begins Wednesday in Indianapolis. Should Notre Dame inside linebacker Manti Te'o or Georgia inside linebacker Alec Ogletree plummet to the Ravens' 32nd overall draft pick of the first round in late April, NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock thinks the Super Bowl champions would bolt into a speedy 40-yard dash to select either coveted defender....

These are extremely expensive, pivotal times for the Ravens, an organization facing major financial and roster decisions surrounding quarterback Joe Flacco. Monday marks the first day NFL teams can name a franchise player, and general manager Ozzie Newsome says Flacco is the Ravens' only candidate for the designation. If the Super Bowl champions don't sign Flacco to a contract extension prior to a March 4 deadline to utilize the franchise tag, they're expected to prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent through either an exclusive franchise tender of $20.46 million or a non-exclusive franchise tender of $14.6 million.

Falcons keep coming Dan Pompei Chicago Tribune If you are looking for the next 1972 Miami Dolphins, you won't find it. That type of team does not exist. Not this year, anyway. Every team will have dips, valleys, slumps and losses. But you have to give the Falcons props. Their record says they are the best team in the NFL, and as Bill Parcells famously said, you are what your record says you are. The Falcons didn't get lucky six times. They are winning because Matt Ryan is playing as well as any quarterback in the NFL. And because they are averaging 28.5 points per game and allowing only 18.8 per game.

Cardinals, Browns Dan Pompei Chicago Tribune I never thought I'd be writing this, but the team that might remain unblemished the longest could be the Cardinals. Their 3-0 record is more impressive than the 3-0 records of the Falcons and Texans because the Cardinals have beaten better teams — the Seahawks, Patriots and Eagles. And the Cardinals should be heavy favorites in at least their next three games, against the Dolphins, Rams and Vikings. The team that could be the last remaining team without a win is the Browns.

Baltimore's new NFL team is scouring the city's gritty industrial history for possible names, and has come up with two new ones for consideration: the Railers and Steamers.The names -- which join Bombers, Marauders and Ravens -- hark back to the city's role as the birthplace of American railroading. -- The team solicited ideas from the B&O Museum.The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, running from Baltimore to the Ohio River, was the nation's first major railroad. And the team's stadium will be built at Camden Yards, near Camden Station -- once the B&O's headquarters and the world's biggest train station.

Best-selling author Tom Clancy, the Baltimore native who was a Colts' fan in their heyday, soon likely will become an NFL owner.Clancy, a minority owner of the Orioles, was notified yesterday that the Minnesota Vikings' board of directors has agreed to sell the team to his group of investors for an NFL record price of $202 million.The sale must be approved by three-quarters of the 30 NFL owners. That is likely to take place at the annual owners meeting in Orlando, Fla., next month."It's a profitable business, and it's fun. It doesn't get much better than that," Clancy said of why he wanted to own a team.

Rico Wallace has already made history. Now it's just a matter of making the team. When the Meade alum signed with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent on Sunday, he became the first ever from his college, Division III Shenandoah University, to do so. The wide receiver is one of at least five former high school players from the Baltimore area who have signed with NFL teams following last weekend's draft. Despite coming from a small school, Wallace impressed scouts by running a 4.53-second 40-yard dash at James Madison University's Pro Day after making 67 catches for 1,241 yards and 14 touchdowns in his senior year at Shenandoah.

Ravens officials watched, occasionally with jaws dropped, as Ray Rice danced and darted around opposing defenders in his first four NFL seasons. Now the time has come for the Ravens to wrap up Rice and make sure that the diminutive running back remains one of the focal points of their offense going forward. Monday marks the first day teams are allowed to place the franchise tag on one of their own unrestricted free agents, meaning that the Ravens are officially on the clock in their effort to sign Rice to a contract extension.