Played

The small but heavy package arrived in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and was delivered around lunchtime. Cam Cameron ripped open the package and gazed at his championship ring from Super Bowl XLVII, the one the Ravens went on to win after relieving him of his duties in December. The dazzling ring weighed 380 grams, was encrusted with 243 round-cut diamonds and crafted in 10-karat white gold with yellow highlights. Without a hint of resentment, the team's former offensive coordinator who was at times the most-scrutinized man in the Baltimore area, said he appreciated the gesture from the Ravens and their owner, Steve Bisciotti.

One of Randy Edsall's goals in his final year at Susquehannock High School in Glen Rock, Pa., was to be named to the Pennsylvania roster for the Big 33 Football Classic. Although he wasn't selected for the 1976 game despite being an all-state quarterback, the Maryland football coach was ecstatic last October when he learned the state of Maryland would return to the high school football all-star game this year. The Maryland Football Coaches Association signed a five-year agreement with the Big 33 Scholarship Foundation, Inc., last fall to renew the state's participation in the game after a 21-year hiatus.

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

Reggie and Marquis Ellis nod together when reminded of what their father told them about trophies. "Trophies collect dust," they recalled Reggie Ellis Sr. saying when the two boys were toddlers, long before they led the Franklin football team to a 10-2 record as seniors last fall. "Memories last forever. " The boys always received awards and accolades at the end of a sports season - from football to basketball to soccer to T-ball - while growing up, and another form of recognition came for the two brothers in February when each received an invitation to play for the Maryland team against Pennsylvania in Saturday's Big 33 Football Classic at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Reggie Ellis, the 5-foot-11 versatile athlete who had 1,818 all-purpose yards and 22 touchdowns for the Indians last fall.

Selma Weiss and three other players concentrate on the racks of plastic tiles before them.Then, the four women take turns picking and discarding the rectangular yellow-and-white mah-jongg tiles on the card table in hopes of collecting a winning combination."

GAGS AND ZANY comedy are the high notes for three nights of laughs and slapstick humor as Manchester's firefighters produce their 58th annual play in the theater above the firehouse.Since January, their funny bones have been at work to weave quirky elements into a comedy already tipsy with overripe characters and a murder to solve. "Love is Murder," a mystery, was written by Tim Kelly."It's about a bunch of romance writers who get together for a television special and then a dead body shows up," said Gary Eppley, who plays Leon Ketchem, a befuddled television producer.

For a young squad, Westminster's golf team has been surprisingly consistent this season. It is a characteristic it hopes holds true Monday in the District V tournament at Wakefield Valley Golf Club.Given county schools from Anne Arundel, Harford, and Howard, in addition to Carroll, the district tournament could draw representatives from as many as 36 schools. C. Milton Wright, from Bel Air, is the defending team champion.With five scores counting from among six players in regular 9-hole matches, the Owls (11-1)

Take the 6-feet-wide lacrosse goals of today and widen them a few miles. Strip away the painted boundary lines and plant a tree or a stone somewhere far away, maybe where the next country starts. Multiply the number of team members from 10 to 1,000, and you've got lacrosse the way it was originally played -- back in 1636.The Native-American way."We lived by what the Creator had given us, and lacrosse was one of them," says Wes Patterson, founder and director of the Iroquois National Team, which will be competing in this week's 1998 International Lacrosse Federation World Championship at Johns Hopkins University.

Vincent Percy Lee, a Baltimore native who played with the Baltimore Black Sox in the professional Negro Baseball League, died Saturday of cancer at Levindale Medical Center in Northwest Baltimore.In addition to the Black Sox, Mr. Lee, 89, played for many Negro League teams during his 23-year career, including the Baltimore Elite Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Miami Giants and Denver Monarchs."He just loved to play baseball," said Louis C. Fields, a friend and Negro League historian who has researched the teams and players for the last five years.

Nobody ever said Rowland E. Pilling couldn't jam with the best of them.He could wail his saxophone for the most raucous version of "You Are My Sunshine" one moment, then tone it down the next to a somber rendition of "Harlem Nocturne." And with each, he achieved the feeling he desired to evoke from the listener.Mr. Pilling, 75, a Maryland native and resident of Rosedale who died Thursday of lung failure at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, played saxophone solo or with accompaniment in and around Maryland for nearly 50 years.

Midway through the xx's set at April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival in Indio, Calif., the London-based trio threw a cover song into its set: Aaliyah's smoldering 1997 single "Hot Like Fire. " Solange, the R&B singer and friend of the xx, joined the band on stage to solidify one of the weekend's standout moments. Guitarist and vocalist Romy Madley Croft, 23, talks modestly about her acclaimed band, but doesn't hesitate to gush about the two R&B singers who helped make the highlight possible.

Now that Major League Soccer has its first openly gay player , the league is launching a new effort to tackle anti-gay attitudes and encourage inclusion in its ranks. Through a partnership with the You Can Play Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting LGBT discrimination in sports, the MLS and MLS Players Union hope to build on existing anti-discrimination efforts to offer greater support for gay players and fans. "The diversity found in our League has always been a point of pride for us," MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a statement released today.

In theater history, the names Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne still register strongly -- the husband-and-wife team enjoyed enormous popularity on the American stage from the 1920s into the '50s. (Some of us, quite wickedly, get a very different image of Lunt and Fontanne, thanks to the duo of "Funt and Mundane" portrayed in terrific skits by Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman.)  One of the most durable vehicles the Lunts rode in their career was a comedy called "The Guardsman" that they first played on Broadway in 1924.

Edward Henry Weiss, a retired marketing executive who put the name Wacky Noodle on a children's flotation device used in swimming pools, died of a stroke Monday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 74. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the son of Sidney Weiss, who owned a printing business, and the former Fannie Brand, a homemaker. As a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, he played the saxophone and clarinet in the school band. He befriended a classmate, a young composer and performer, Neil Sedaka, who wrote hits including "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. " "In the summer my husband and Neil would go to the Catskills early in the season," said his wife, Susan Pace Weiss.

Tim Goettelmann, one of Major League Lacrosse's inaugural players, will suit up for the  Chesapeake Bayhawks on Thursday night against the New York Lizards - the team for which he has played his entire 11-year MLL career. Goettelmann, 35, had announced his retirement from the league in January 2012, but he confirmed he is back in a phone interview Wednesday morning. And his nickname, "Monster," might not fit. Goettelmann has slimmed down to 205 pounds and has been training with an MMA fighter.

As Tom Hanks' character famously says in "A League of Their Own," there is no crying in baseball. But there is, apparently, tying in baseball. At least there was Tuesday afternoon in the 32nd annual Brooks Robinson All-Star Game at Camden Yards. The North and South teams, each comprised of 15 of the state's top high school seniors, played to a 3-3 tie in the showcase game. The game was rescheduled for Tuesday after being stopped in the third inning Sunday evening because of thunderstorms.

EVERY SPRING, the zany side of Manchester's firefighters comes out in three nights of laughs, practical jokes and slapstick humor, and town residents fill the tiny theater above the firehouse."

George P. Regner, a skilled electrician and guitarist who played for President Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin at the end of World War II, died Monday of cancer. He was 76.Friends said Mr. Regner could "wire the heck out of anything until it sizzled," but he most enjoyed playing the guitar.From his assortment of guitars and banjos, Mr. Regner, a Carney resident, would pluck a tune fast or slow, make it twang and wail, friends said."I spent 46 years with him, but that [guitar playing]

Maryland's decision to join the Big Ten last year prompted plenty of speculation about how the school's most popular sports - football and men's basketball - would fare in a new conference. But it also prompted this important question: What about lacrosse? Given Maryland's impressive lacrosse history, the future course of the Terps - who would Maryland play? - was among the most important unresolved questions raised by the conference shift. “We sat down and went through a lot of different options,” Maryland men's coach John Tillman said Monday.

Anne Arundel County's budget process turned rocky on Friday, as the County Council cut $5 million from the school system -- a move the schools superintendent called a "spiteful and petty power play. " On a 7-0 vote, the County Council cut the school system's roof replacement budget from $2 million to zero, and the maintenance backlog budget from $4.1 million to $1.1 million. County Executive Laura Neuman's budget officer, John Hammond, opposed the cuts. The cuts represent a tiny portion of the school system's nearly $600 million budget.