Pro Bowl

Four Ravens players have dropped out of the Pro Bowl, making the annual all-star affair less attractive to those Ravens fans who wish they had better plans Sunday afternoon. (Quarterback Joe Flacco withdrew from the annual MSP Polar Bear Plunge, too, but give the guy a break: He's a newlywed and his wife is pregnant). But besides passing up an opportunity to go to Hawaii, I can't say I blame Ray Rice, Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata for exercising their right to miss the game, whether their reasons are injury-related or personal.

Being in Baltimore apparently has its privileges for Loyola. Not only did the Greyhounds have to make just a 34-mile trip from their campus to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis for Saturday's NCAA tournament quarterfinal against Denver, but they also got a visit from Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. In a video posted by the school, the 13-time Pro Bowler and two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year spoke to the players before Wednesday's practice and encouraged them to play with passion and cooperation.

The Ravens, who enter Sunday's regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals as the No. 2 seed in the AFC, could be well-represented next month in the Pro Bowl with seven players being selected Tuesday for the game, including six as starters. But count linebacker Terrell Suggs among the Ravens who have no desire to be in Honolulu on Jan. 29. “To be clear, I have no intentions of playing in the Pro Bowl,” said Suggs. “I plan on being in practice with my teammates that week, getting ready for the Super Bowl.” Suggs did say that he was “excited and honored” but he made it clear that cold Indianapolis - and not sunny Hawaii - is the desired destination for the Ravens, who nonetheless garnered the second-most Pro Bowl selections in team history.

As you know, the Ravens hold the 29th pick in next week's NFL draft. Being the only NFL team that has made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, they have grown accustomed to drafting at the tail end of the first round. They have entered the draft with the No. 26, 25, 26 and 29 picks the past four years, respectively. The Ravens almost always hit on their first-rounders, even late ones. But what can they expect at pick No. 29? Looking backward at the past 10 drafts from 2011 to 2002 (which, not-so-coincidentally, was the first season the league had 32 teams and therefore 32 first-round picks)

The Ravens' contingent at Sunday's Pro Bowl game in Honolulu, Hawaii keeps shrinking by the day. Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and safety Ed Reed have become the latest Ravens to pull out of the game, leaving them with four representatives instead of the original number of eight. Ngata has been hampered by a thigh injury that didn't force him to miss any games, but team officials believed that it significantly affected his performance down the stretch. Reed dealt with shoulder/neck issues much of the season and then hurt his ankle in the Ravens' divisional playoff victory over the Houston Texans.

Despite multiple attempts to get Vonta Leach a touchdown during the 2011 season, the Ravens fullback always came up short of the end zone. On Sunday night during the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Leach got another chance to score. This time he made the most of his opportunity. With 11:45 left in the fourth quarter, Leach got the handoff from Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton at the 1 and busted through the line for a touchdown. Leach's score, followed by Sebastian Janikowski's extra point, gave the AFC a 45-35 lead.

The Ravens' Jonathan Ogden, Todd Heap and Peter Boulware were selected to the Pro Bowl. Rosters, [Page 4d]

And then there were six.The Ravens, who had five players selected last month to play in this year's Pro Bowl, learned yesterday that a sixth player, outside linebacker Peter Boulware, will be joining his Baltimore teammates in Honolulu.Boulware, a second-year player out of Florida State who joined the Ravens as a top draft pick in 1997 and earned honors as a first alternate to the Feb. 7 Pro Bowl, was named a "need player" by AFC coach Bill Parcells.The "need player" is selected from the first alternates at defensive end, inside linebacker or outside linebacker.

Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis has withdrawn from the AFC Pro Bowl team because of a hand injury and will be replaced by teammate Bart Scott. Scott and his family were expected to fly from Baltimore to the Super Bowl in Miami today, and then to Honolulu for the Pro Bowl after Sunday's game. Lewis was a first alternate but was chosen to replace injured Denver Broncos linebacker Al Wilson last week. But Lewis reportedly hurt his hand in the team's playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts, and Scott will replace him. The Ravens had prepared a news release about Scott but were still awaiting official word from the NFL last night.

Proudly wearing his AFC North championship cap, linebacker Ray Lewis insisted that he wasn't bitter about being snubbed for the Pro Bowl. Speaking for the first time since he was named an alternate Tuesday, Lewis expressed regret that teammates Trevor Pryce and Bart Scott did not make the team before openly questioning the voting of players around the NFL. "I never played this game for Pro Bowls," Lewis said yesterday. "Is it sad the way it goes down? Of course. I was around when the voting was right.

Any concern that the Ravens' Ed Reed might follow Ricky Williams' lead and retire ended recently when the perennial Pro Bowl safety spoke with coach John Harbaugh and confirmed that he plans to return for an 11 th NFL season. That was the anticipation among Ravens' officials all along, but the mercurial 33-year-old has flirted with retirement in the past and spoke of it on several occasions during the past couple of seasons when he hampered by hip, neck and shoulder issues.

Despite multiple attempts to get Vonta Leach a touchdown during the 2011 season, the Ravens fullback always came up short of the end zone. On Sunday night during the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Leach got another chance to score. This time he made the most of his opportunity. With 11:45 left in the fourth quarter, Leach got the handoff from Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton at the 1 and busted through the line for a touchdown. Leach's score, followed by Sebastian Janikowski's extra point, gave the AFC a 45-35 lead.

Four Ravens players have dropped out of the Pro Bowl, making the annual all-star affair less attractive to those Ravens fans who wish they had better plans Sunday afternoon. (Quarterback Joe Flacco withdrew from the annual MSP Polar Bear Plunge, too, but give the guy a break: He's a newlywed and his wife is pregnant). But besides passing up an opportunity to go to Hawaii, I can't say I blame Ray Rice, Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata for exercising their right to miss the game, whether their reasons are injury-related or personal.

The Ravens' contingent at Sunday's Pro Bowl game in Honolulu, Hawaii keeps shrinking by the day. Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and safety Ed Reed have become the latest Ravens to pull out of the game, leaving them with four representatives instead of the original number of eight. Ngata has been hampered by a thigh injury that didn't force him to miss any games, but team officials believed that it significantly affected his performance down the stretch. Reed dealt with shoulder/neck issues much of the season and then hurt his ankle in the Ravens' divisional playoff victory over the Houston Texans.

When the Ravens defeated the Houston Texans, 29-14, on Oct. 16, Houston was forced to play without wide receiver Andre Johnson, who missed the game because of a strained hamstring. Ed Reed is aware that the defense dodged a bullet with Johnson's absence. “Different ballgame with Andre playing,” the eight-time Pro Bowl free safety said of Sunday's rematch in the AFC divisional round at M&T Bank Stadium. “Me and Andre played in school [at the University of Miami] together, and we won a national championship together.

The Ravens have leaned on Ray Rice this season as the running back led the NFL in total yards from scrimmage (2,068) and set a franchise record with 15 combined touchdowns. It's a trend that has been ongoing over the past two years. According to ESPN's AFC North blog , the team is 20-1 (.952) when Rice gets at least 20 touches. But the Ravens are just 5-8 (.385) when the two-time Pro Bowl selection doesn't. Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that the offense will continue to rely on Rice, who said he doesn't feel the weight of the unit on his shoulders.

WASHINGTON -- The Washington Redskins, who lead the NFL in wins, shared the lead in Pro Bowl selections yesterday and felt they led the league in at least one Pro Bowl snub -- linebacker Wilber Marshall."

The best thing that could have happened to the Ravens entering the final two weekends of the regular season happened Tuesday afternoon, on the players' day off. They found another chip to put on their collective shoulders. No team in the NFL this season uses those chips better than this one. If the Ravens needed a little extra edge for today's still-pivotal game in Pittsburgh, the Pro Bowl voters gave it to them. Of course, one might wonder why an 11-3 team fighting for playoff positioning, going up against a hated rival in a city where it hasn't won in five years, needs extra motivation.

Lacrosse Stevenson's Cantabene to enter Hall of Fame Stevenson men's lacrosse coach Paul Cantabene has been named to the Class of 2012 for the Greater Baltimore Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held Jan. 21 at The Hillendale Country Club in Phoenix, Md. Cantabene is the third member of the Stevenson athletics department to be inducted, joining former women's lacrosse coach M.C. McFadden , now an administrative coordinator, and director of physical education Dick Watts . Joining Cantabene in the Class of 2012 will be Sheehan Stanwick Burch , Courtney Martinez Connor , Lisa Dowling Costello , Betsy Givens Economou , Kathy Altemus Franz , Tim Hormes , Jeff Jackson , Robert Francis Lindsey and Jim Wilkerson . Cantabene was inducted into the Rochester, N.Y., chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2003 and was honored with the President's Medal by the university in 2010.

In his own words, Matt Birk "can only imagine" what Andre Gurode must be going through. Gurode, a five-time Pro Bowler at center between 2006 and 2010 when he was a member of the Dallas Cowboys, is preparing to possibly start at right guard for the injured Marshal Yanda when the Ravens visit the Cincinnati Bengals in the teams' regular-season finale on Sunday. Birk, the starting center since joining the team prior to the 2009 campaign, smiled when asked about the difficulty in Gurode's assignment.