"DA RAVENS FAN"

As the Baltimore Ravens linebacker sat at the podium, teammate Shannon Sharpe came up behind him, wrapped his arms around Lewis' shoulders and gave an unsolicited, impassioned speech in defense of the embattled star linebacker.

``I wish you all could know this guy personally and look at him in a different light than the media has exploited him to be,'' Sharpe said. ``He admitted he made a mistake. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I said this before and I'll say it 1,000 times. If he had not been Ray Lewis, if he had not been an All-Pro player, Ray Lewis would have never, ever been implicated.''

Sharpe was just getting going. His speech took almost two uninterrupted, frenetic minutes. Lewis sat placidly the entire time.

The Ravens linebacker was present during the double murder outside an Atlanta night club after the Super Bowl last year. He was charged with murder, but ended up pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

Sharpe wishes Lewis got as much attention for being the NFL's defensive player of the year as he does for the night in Atlanta.

``That's all he asks,'' Sharpe said. ``Give him a fair statement. But we can't get any of that. They ran it over and over and over and over again about the orange coveralls on TV. The man couldn't comb his hair in shackles and leg irons. Give him the same kind of press about being defensive player of the year.''

The tight end asked reporters to ``imagine if someone was going to take your life away from you.''

Then he stepped off the podium, and began yet another round of interviews.

Lewis appeared taken aback when the monologue ended. He said he appreciated Sharpe's outspoken gesture.

``That's kind of special,'' Lewis said. ``Regardless of what you can say about Shannon Sharpe, he's going to speak from the heart. To have a guy like that around your back, it's great. There's no feeling like that.''

You would have had to grown up being taught to worship the blue and white and the horseshoe of the Baltimore Colts.

You would have had to be a native of a city that had its franchise, its sports passion, its identity ripped from its heart.

You would have had to be part of a fan base that was betrayed by the NFL, then made to grovel and jump through hoops - and then, after doing everything asked, still being told that you are old news, that you just aren't big-league enough anymore.

You would have had to have been put through the wringer and jobbed so many times by the NFL bigwigs, that ultimately you were forced to become what you despised the most just to get back into the game.

Baltimore has waited for what seemed like a lifetime for vindication. It's been nearly 17 years since her beloved Colts were spirited away on a snowy March night and dumped in Hayseedville - I mean Indianapolis.

So yesterday, when the final seconds ticked off the clock to cement the Ravens' victory, Baltimore got to blow the NFL a Super Bowl-sized raspberry.

Baltimore is gloating big-time over this.

"This is the frosting," said Stan White, who was a linebacker for the Colts from 1972 to '80 and now hosts a sports-talk radio show in Baltimore. "Baltimore was such a fanatical football town through the time I was there. Her heart was ripped out when then-owner Robert Irsay took the Colts to Indianapolis. The Ravens were a replacement, but it wasn't really the same at first.

"But now it's in there for life, like it was before. The Ravens are there for this new generation of fans and the generation that grew up without a team. Even the old Colts fans are bleeding purple blood because this team has won their hearts. And they did it the Baltimore way - with blue-collar, tough, hard, old-school football. Baltimore appreciates that."

"We had a difficult time when we first came to Baltimore," said Modell, "We had to get a new name, new colors, new training camp, new everything."

"Most important, we had to establish our own presence in Baltimore. We started to form our own in our third year. It grew during our fourth year and has culminated with this trip to the Super Bowl.

"I'll forever be grateful to the people of Maryland for having the patience to give me the chance to do what I said I would - which was to bring them an elite team."

A week ago, after the Ravens won in Tennessee to advance to the AFC Championship Game, more than 5,000 fans were waiting at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in the wee hours of the morning to welcome them home.

"It wasn't until we got home from Tennessee and saw those 5,000 people that I realized how much this team means to this town," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "There were young people, old people, kids, and you could see in their eyes the love and appreciation of the game.

"They are going to hold on to their memories of the Colts, and we want them to. But there's a whole new generation of Ravens fans now to supplement that love of the Colts."

Think about going nearly 200 consecutive NFL Sundays without having a rooting interest.Think about being told over and over that you aren't worth anything to the league.And after going through all of that, think about making it to the Super Bowl.

If you can do all of that, then you know how Baltimore feels.

"Lewis is quite simply the most dominating defensive player of this season, and he saved one of his best days ever for the biggest game of his life."

"DA RAVENS FAN"

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