Preseason

ST. LOUIS -- Ever since the Ravens hired Brian Billick in January, he has displayed all the characteristics of a high-quality head coach. He is disciplined, a motivator and organized almost to a fault, and he communicates well with players.His charisma and articulation have played well in the community, increasing permanent seat license sales by nearly 3,000 for a franchise that has only won 16 games in three previous seasons.But as the Ravens travel to the Trans World Dome today to open the 1999 season against the St. Louis Rams, a city that has been starved for winning football for more than a decade will get to see if Billick can match strategies every Sunday with the Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnsons and Mike Holmgrens.

The Ravens have tentatively scheduled four preseason opponents and are close to securing Aug. 12 as the exhibition opener against the Philadelphia Eagles at Veterans Stadium.The Ravens also expect to play their second preseason contest on the road -- against the Atlanta Falcons, losers of Super Bowl XXXIII -- the following week.The Ravens will wrap up the preseason with two home games, the first against the Carolina Panthers, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 28, and the second against the New York Giants, on Sept.

Wally Richardson has spent the bulk of his young pro football career feeling like an absentee quarterback.After becoming a seventh-round draft pick of the Ravens in 1997, Richardson never took a live snap, not even in the preseason, which is regarded as the essential grooming phase for third-string passers.Richardson's next stop was the World League with the England Monarchs in the spring of 1998. Oops. He threw an interception in his first half of action, got benched and didn't see daylight until five weeks later.

The Blast yesterday announced its preseason schedule, featuring a game against the Philadelphia Kixx and a league-wide tournament the weekend of Oct. 15-17.The Blast will face the Kixx Oct. 9 at 7: 35 p.m. at the new Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J. The game will be the first sporting event at the arena.The NPSL preseason tournament will be held at the Cleveland Sportsplex, home of the NPSL defending champion Cleveland Crunch. The round-robin tournament will feature all 12 teams playing in a series of 30-minute mini-games.

The Maryland men's basketball team, which has been ranked No. 5 nationally in many publications' preseason polls, placed a league-best four players on the All-Atlantic Coast Conference preseason first and second teams.The only other school to have more than one player on both teams was Duke, which put leading vote-getters Elton Brand and Trajan Langdon on the first team.Laron Profit, a senior forward who was All-ACC third team last season, was the only Terrapin named to the first team.On the second team, Maryland was represented by center Obinna Ekezie and guards Terrell Stokes and Steve Francis, a transfer from Allegany Community College who has yet to play a Division I game.

A week into his first training camp, after hundreds of punts, Kyle Richardson's left leg felt dead. And the battle to unseat veteran Greg Montgomery was just beginning.As camp rolled on, Richardson recovered physically. As preseason games arrived, it became obvious that the upstart out of Arkansas State was not leaving this competition quietly.Yesterday, the Ravens' new punter wore an expression drained of the tension evident in his face last weekend, which he spent wondering about his immediate fate in the NFL. By the time Sunday afternoon arrived, Richardson knew his locker at the Ravens' Owings Mills complex would remain intact.

Ravens right offensive tackle Orlando Brown kept saying it was a false alarm.When he was struggling during the final two weeks of the preseason, Brown never used his ankle injury as an excuse but basically swore he was suffering from an acute case of boredom. Then he promised that it would be different in the regular season.So far, the 6-foot-7, 350-pound Brown has kept his word. He is back to his normal nasty, brawling, kicking, fighting and cheap-shoting self.Ask any opponent. Or ask the Ravens.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- It's difficult for running back Leroy Hoard to feel secure these days.As he has struggled during the preseason, the Ravens have been looking at several alternatives, including Garrison Hearst and Vaughn Hebron.Things got even more tenuous for Hoard last night.While the Ravens routed the Buffalo Bills, 37-14, in their final preseason game, Hoard continued to have problems getting in a groove.He gained just 14 yards on nine carries and wound up the preseason with just 90 yards in 41 carries.

In Charlotte, N.C., hundreds of fans got down on the dirt and spelled "NFL" with their bodies. Jacksonville, Fla., peddled more than 300,000 tickets to a series of preseason games. And Memphis, Tenn., circulated photographs of one of its boosters bungee jumping in New Zealand.All of the cities competing for an NFL team say they are the best choice because of solid, economic fundamentals. But this has not kept them from resorting to flashy -- and occasionally silly -- stunts to attract the attention of the NFL, which is scheduled this fall to pick two sites for new football teams.

NFL president to interview contenders for local teamNFL president Neil Austrian will head the contingent of league officials to Thursday's preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins at Memorial Stadium. While he's here, he'll interview the three contenders for the franchise -- Leonard "Boogie" Weinglass, Malcolm Glazer and Tom Clancy.Glazer is scheduled for Wednesday, Clancy on Thursday morning and Weinglass on Thursday afternoon.But this doesn't mean the NFL will keep to its timetable of naming two teams by "fall" 1992.

WASHINGTON - - DeShawn Stevenson returned to Cleveland last week and got an instant reminder that there will always be one city in the United States that reviles him. When the Washington Wizards' plane landed at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday morning, the runway marshal greeted each member of the team until he spotted the scraggly bearded Stevenson. "I hate you," Stevenson recalls the airport employee telling him, to which Stevenson responded with an equally incensed retort.

ATLANTA - -To finish the preseason perfect, the Ravens had to beat a quick turnaround and illness. More importantly, their backups had to beat the Atlanta Falcons' starters. With only two starters making a first-quarter cameo, third-string quarterback John Beck and the rest of the Ravens' junior varsity stepped up in a 20-3 win over the Falcons at a nearly empty Georgia Dome. Beck's two touchdown passes led the Ravens to their first 4-0 preseason since the 2000 Super Bowl season. "Our goal was to play like Ravens tonight," said coach John Harbaugh, whose team opens the season against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sept.

Let's start with a mini-rant on a favorite subject: preseason football. Watching the Ravens against the Washington Redskins on Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium, all I could think of was: How does the NFL get away with it? How does it get away with charging full ticket prices to games in which the starters play a few series and disappear for the rest of the night? How does it get away with mandating that season-ticket holders pony up for these meaningless games at all? This is the biggest rip-off in major sports today.

Maryland punter Travis Baltz and linebacker Alex Wujciak were among 24 players named to the 2009 Preseason All-Atlantic Coast Conference team. News media members attending the ACC Football Kickoff on Sunday and Monday participated in the voting. Baltz, a two-year starter, was a first-team All-ACC selection last season after leading the league in punting average (41.1 yards). The junior was a consensus all-conference choice in the preseason publications and a second-team preseason All-America choice by Athlon.

Why? Why should the Ravens play their starters for more than a quarter tonight and jeopardize their seasons by inviting injury? Why should the Ravens sacrifice the entire regular season just to see whether their offense can score points and churn out yards against the Falcons' backups and training camp fodder? Some of the Atlanta players won't even be in the league after Saturday. They might try to make a run at a few of the Ravens' injured starters. That's a temptation the Ravens can squash.

When he was general manager of the Green Bay Packers, Ron Wolf used to cringe when he saw the team doctor at his office door. More often than not, bad news was about to be delivered. "He might as well have been the Grim Reaper," Wolf says. "We invented the New England Journal of Sports Medicine in Green Bay." Injuries have always been a big part of football. In today's NFL, rife with roster-wrecking collisions, they have become even more important to a team's success or failure. After action today, 12 teams will have started at least two quarterbacks in the first six weeks of the season.

CINCINNATI-- --This is a great time for a coming-out party. It's Marvin Lewis against Brian Billick. It's a nationally televised game on one of the NFL's biggest stages. It's a divisional game, and those are priceless. So Willis McGahee, let's see what you've got. All of Baltimore will be watching tonight as the former Buffalo Bills running back debuts for the Ravens against the Cincinnati Bengals. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal except that McGahee recently said he saved himself through the preseason for the regular season.

Two weeks away from the Ravens' regular-season opener, Pro Bowl offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden said he can't guarantee he'll be ready to play. Ogden remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list with a toe injury, which has sidelined him through the offseason and preseason. "My goal is to get out there for Week 1," Ogden told The Sun yesterday. "It's still too soon to really say with any certainty that it's going to happen." If Ogden is unable to play in the opener at Cincinnati, the Ravens likely would go with rookie Jared Gaither, who has played well filling in for Ogden this summer.

The tuneup to the Ravens' regular season will have a familiar feel to it. In a repeat of last season's preseason schedule, the Ravens will open with two games at home before playing the final two on the road. The NFL announced yesterday that the Ravens will begin the preseason at M&T Bank Stadium against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, Aug. 13, before playing the New York Giants on Sunday, Aug. 19, at 8 p.m. in a nationally televised game on NBC. The Ravens will conclude the preseason at the Washington Redskins on Aug. 24, 25 or 26 and at the Atlanta Falcons on Friday, Aug. 31, at 7:30 p.m. The league announced last week that the Ravens would open the regular season at the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday, Sept.

Had the Washington Redskins been your typical NFL team during the preseason - some good, some bad, some ugly - there wouldn't be the lingering doubts going into tonight's regular-season opener against the Minnesota Vikings at FedEx Field. Not that the Redskins are wavering in their collective confidence, at least publicly. But after the team's first winless preseason since 1982 - the first of three Super Bowl championship seasons under Joe Gibbs - the Redskins at least want to prove that they will be the contender that many have predicted.