In early January 2000, I was driving to College Park for a huge college basketball game between Maryland and Duke, but the local sports airwaves were buzzing about the Ravens.
Even though the Terps and Blue Devils were playing in an ACC battle with national repercussions, they were overshadowed by the Ravens, who didn’t even make the playoffs.
In his first year as the head coach, Brain Billick had led Baltimore to an 8-8 record, the first non-losing season in franchise history.
The Ravens won four of their final five games and only a 20-3 loss in the regular-season finale kept them from finishing above .