Tom E. Curran • E-mail

FOXBORO, Mass. - John Harbaugh will never forget Aug. 7, 2008 in Gillette Stadium. Neither will Ray Rice or Joe Flacco, for that matter.

For Harbaugh, it was his first game as an NFL head coach. For Rice and Flacco, their first professional football games.

Think it doesn't leave a mark? Before I caught up with those newly-minted Ravens, I ran into Patriots corner Fernando Bryant and asked him if he remembered his first pro game.

"My first preseason game was against Kansas City," said Bryant, a first-round pick by the Jags back in 1999. "I held out so I missed the first preseason game and didn’t actually play until the second one. (Jags head coach Tom) Coughlin didn't like that too much. I picked off a pass. I don’t know who it was from, but it was to Joe Horn.

"It's special," said Bryant, a wonderfully open guy who joined the Pats on a one-year deal after being with Detroit since 2004. "Even just being with a new team. I walked out there (Thursday and looked around) and, man, it’s a special night. The NFL is a special fraternity. You realize these years you’re in it because they go by very quickly. And I’m a lot closer to the end than the beginning. You cherish these games and you enjoy the hoopla and the excitement of the season getting going. You watch these kids out there tonight, young, giving it everything in terms of effort and you say, ‘Man, I remember that.’ ”

And it extended right to Harbaugh, the Ravens 45-year-old head coach who was glowing after his Ravens 16-15 win over New England. It was a memorable hurdle cleared.

Taking a broad slap of congratulations from Ravens director of pro personnel George Kokinis outside the Ravens locker room, I said to Harbaugh, “Congratulations, 1-0.”

“That’s right 1-0, but it’s 1-0 in the preseason – does it count?” he smiled.

Absolutely, I told him.

“Either way, it was neat to see a football team flying around,” said Harbaugh. “We’ve got a bunch of competitors. I knew that about the Ravens and now to see it and all the coaches in there competing, that’s for a head coach, that’s strong."

Everybody in the league has their own mountain to climb. For Harbaugh, it’s taking over Baltimore without ever having been a head coach or an offensive or defensive coordinator at any level. For the rookie quarterback Flacco, it’s proving he was worthy of the dice roll the Ravens made in using the 18th overall pick in the draft on him despite having played at Delaware. For the rookie running back Rice, it’s proving that despite his 5-foot-8, 205-pound frame, he can hold up and be the same kind of warrior in the NFL that he was at Rutgers.

INTERACTIVE Tom Curran's training camp tour Stories and videos from most intriguing teams in '08. NBCSports.com

“This is actually my first NFL experience,” Rice said Thursday after carrying six times for 12 yards and catching four passes for 17 more. “I never played in an NFL stadium and I never played in an NFL game. It felt pretty good. I got the jitters out and got the first one out of the way. (But you do) catch yourself looking around and checking out the situation. It was like, ‘They’re the Patriots.’ You have always got to look at them and say, ‘We’re playing the Patriots.’ Whether it’s the preseason or the regular season, they are the Patriots.”

Suddenly being on the field they’ve seen so often on TV. Playing against a team that every football fans know so well. To a rookie in his first game, it’s a trip.

“Just the fact that you are about to play against NFL players (was on my mind),” said Flacco, who didn’t play until late in the game and went 0-for-3 with a sack/fumble. “That’s just cool. That’s a cool thing for me. You have to realize that you’re one of them now, and that you belong here. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell myself throughout this whole process. I belong here. This is football and I’m going to go out and do my job.”

I asked Harbaugh, do you feel like the team is “on time.” (“On time” is a vogue football expression these days meaning things are going at the right pace. Kinda like when everyone started using “stout” at the same time to describe defenses.)

“We’ve been through camp, we’ve had some situations and everybody has laid their hearts out,” said Harbaugh. “They’ve challenged themselves, we’ve challenged them and they’ve challenged us. Everybody’s opened their hearts up to one another and showed each other who they are. And I think everybody likes what they see. So from that perspective we’re on time. Now on personnel, on offense, defense and special teams? We’re going as fast and hard as we can to see how good we can be.”

Congratulating him once more on his first game, Harbaugh shook hands, smiled and said, “Now I know what it’s like to stand on the sidelines as an NFL head coach. Just like these rookies know what it’s like to be an NFL football player. All of us rookies, we’re not rookies anymore.”

MORE FROM NFL

NFL Section Front

Texans boot chances to beat rolling Titans Trash Talk: Thanksgiving games are just turkeys ‘Rogue tweeter’ hacks account of Jets’ Clowney PFT: Batch out — Steelers start to make calls PFT: Roethlisberger ‘appears well enough’ to play Rosenthal: Steelers’ playoff future slipping away PFT: Belichick says Saints are best team in football PFT: Lions coach takes issue with Mangini’s comments PFT: Bills contact Cowher, who says no ... for now PFT: Rams’ Bulger out 3-6 weeks with fractured knee NFL Section Front   Add NFL headlines to your news reader: