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'Time for a change': Ravens fire Billick

2001 Super Bowl-winning coach axed one season after 13-3 record

Image: BillickAP
Brian Billick was fired Monday as coach of the Ravens.

“In order to be successful you have to take chances, and in order to take chances you have to listen to your heart. You have to go with your gut,” the owner said. “It doesn’t mean that you don’t fear being wrong, because I do fear being wrong. I could be three coaches past Brian Billick nine years from now trying to solve this puzzle.”

Billick was the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings before coming to Baltimore. He was deemed to be an offensive genius when he got to the Ravens, but the team became known for its staunch defense and never had an attack that was remotely as productive as that of the Vikings in the late 1990s.

“I’m not saying I agree with it,” kicker Matt Stover said of Billick’s dismissal, “but sometimes things have to change.”

Billick, 53, was hired as Baltimore’s second head coach in January 1999, succeeding Ted Marchibroda. In Billick’s first season, the Ravens reached .500 (8-8) for the first time. Then he led Baltimore to a 12-4 record and a berth in the Super Bowl, where the Ravens beat the New York Giants 34-7.

But after he failed to build on last year’s 13-3 record, Billick wasn’t afforded the opportunity to bounce back from a season in which the Ravens went from Oct. 14 to the end of December without a win.

“For all we went through as a team, I think coach Billick stood in there. And for all the verbal lashings from the fans and the media, he stood in there and took it,” wide receiver Derrick Mason said. “That says a lot for the man, for his character. Yes, it was shocking, but the organization had to make a decision, and they felt in was the best decision for this team to move forward.”

But was it the right decision? Bisciotti couldn’t say for sure.

“How much blame you put on different people, and how much you hold yourself responsible is new to me,” he said. “I hope that over time that Baltimore views me as (good) an owner as Brian Billick was a head football coach.

“I’ve got some catching up to do to the man that I asked to step down today. The jury’s out on me. Brian’s already got his Super Bowl.”

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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