After a Hall of Fame playing career, Ozzie Newsome chose to continue to test his football mettle by cutting his teeth in Bill Belichick's personnel department in the final days of the original Cleveland Browns organization. At the behest of Ozzie's boss Art Modell, this franchise was about to move to Baltimore, and the team building keys would be handed over to Newsome full-stop. As it happened, he was more than ready for the opportunity, building what would be the eventual Super Bowl XXXV champions from the dusty bones of a franchise that was torn asunder through this moving process. But living up to championship expectations is difficult, and once you set that precedent, there's no turning back. Luckily for the Ravens, it was by the time the calendar flipped to 2006 that their desperation to go back to the Super Bowl was perfectly met by a quarterback they'd be acquiring, who was equally as hungry to finally go on to win his first one: Steve McNair.
Sources in order of appearance:
- "Next Man Up" by John Feinstein
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