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Billick Fired In Baltimore
31st December, 2007 - 2:17 pm
ESPN - Less than a year after signing him to a contract extension through 2010, the Baltimore Ravens on Monday fired coach Brian Billick.

The dismissal of Billick was confirmed to ESPN's Chris Mortensen by owner Steve Bisciotti and to ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli by an assistant coach and a front office official.

Billick, 53, compiled an 85-67 record in nine seasons. The Ravens, who won the AFC North championship in 2006, struggled to a 5-11 mark this season, a year that included a nine-game losing streak.

In his second season with the franchise, Billick led the Ravens to the Super Bowl XXXV title in 2000, but never got the club back to the title game.

I always thought Billick was a pretty good coach. Oh well. Always have to blame the coach for everything I guess.

promote Rex Ryan? wonder who they are looking for as a replacement

Great start for my year

This is a bit of a surprise. I always thought Billick was a little overrated, it will be interesting to see who the replacement is because this team could be a playoff team with a few tweaks.

Maybe they'll try to jumpstart the offense and snag Mike Martz.

I'll wait til Icness says something.

He "lost the team," whatever that means. They pretty much had to fire him.

Billick is pretty damn overrated but, then again, he really didn't have that much to work with this season.

He wont be sitting long. He's a great coach... They had alot of injuries this year. They just had a bad year in general. Maybe his job would have been saved if the GM could get him an offense! 8 or 9 in the box against Mcgahee... Thats not hard to stop... HE will be hired before next season somewhere...

I heard our good friend Rex Ryan might be going to Atlanta to head coach.

i could see him taking a year off to work on ESPN.

real men go to CBS

Good. I personally don't like the man.

This is an obvious scapegoat move for a terrible 9-game losing streak. IMO that team was a potential playoff team this year and then wow... what I want to know is whether this is a signal of a rebuild. If so, can you say Ray Lewis on the Panthers/Eagles/Patriots/Colts/Cowboys/any team with an already solid defence?

Living in DC, I have to hear him every week during his press conference. They could lose by 30, but somehow he manages to put a positive spin on it and the local media eats it up. It's clear the owner saw through his B.S.

about time. hes had a ton of time to turn things around since the superbowl season. and to this point, theyve flatlined.

BrewersGM wrote:He wont be sitting long. He's a great coach... They had alot of injuries this year. They just had a bad year in general. Maybe his job would have been saved if the GM could get him an offense! 8 or 9 in the box against Mcgahee... Thats not hard to stop... HE will be hired before next season somewhere...

This guy was sopposed to be an offensive genius. He was the OC of that Vikings team. He got that great defense, and that team was never known for being offensive orienated. He is overrated, imo. I have never liked him.

I've got to say I am a bit surprised by his firing. I thought he bought himself another year by beating a Pittsburhg team that was trying to win in Week 17 and with all the injuries, but I can see why ownership made the move.

I love Brian Billick. Some of y'all know that already, but I think he's a great football mind and the kind of coach that players like to play for. And even I will admit he did a poor job this season, between iffy play calling, poor game prep, and not shaking up a team in denial about its status.

I don't think he "lost" the team; I think he sold them (and they eagerly bought it) that they could save everything by beating the Patriots, and when that didn't happen (and in the manner they lost) both he and the team were done for the season. They didn't quit on him as much as they resigned themselves to defeat--you could see it in the body language of guys like Bart Scott and Kelly Gregg and Mark Clayton. Billick certainly didn't do much to help in that regard and I think that's probably a big reason why Biscotti fired him.

From my preseason forecast on the Ravens...
Worst case: Last year almost every question regarding the Ravens was answered positively. If more goes wrong than right in terms of health, level of play of new starters, emergence of young impact vets, kicking and special teams, and running back, the Ravens are primed for a big fall. The potential is certainly there for many things to go wrong, and this is a crew that hasn

Regarding his future and the Ravens new coach:

I have heard nothing on either front and probably won't hear much until y'all hear it too. My somewhat educated guesses:

I think Billick will be in the NFL next season as a head coach. If the pretty pervasive rumors about Romeo Crennel to Miami are indeed true, then I could see Billick headed to Cleveland without hesitation. He was a huge Derek Anderson fan (Ozzie Newsome cut him over Billick's objection) and they've got an outstanding OL, which is the key to everything he tries to do offensively. Billick will not do a Martz or Haslett and go back to being a coordinator before his next head coaching gig. The Rams make some sense too. Wild Card: if Andy Reid retires, Philly makes a whole lot of sense. And I know the Eagles are going to rustle the nest, it's just to what degree.

For the Ravens:
The usual suspects will all get paraded into Owings Mills, but I think it will be one of two people--Marty Schottenheimer or Bill Cowher. If they decide to go for fresh meat, Ron Rivera will certainly get a long look.

Rafael122 wrote:Living in DC, I have to hear him every week during his press conference. They could lose by 30, but somehow he manages to put a positive spin on it and the local media eats it up. It's clear the owner saw through his B.S.

I work at CSN & everyone at the station hates his answers. You can't rail on the man on your network if you want to continue to be given access to the team. CSN learned their lesson last year when someone went on air & blasted Gibbs saying "RETIRE THE GAME HAS PASSED YOU BY OLD MAN" (paraphrasing but it was in the same vein).

VinnyTheMick wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I work at CSN & everyone at the station hates his answers. You can't rail on the man on your network if you want to continue to be given access to the team. CSN learned their lesson last year when someone went on air & blasted Gibbs saying "RETIRE THE GAME HAS PASSED YOU BY OLD MAN" (paraphrasing but it was in the same vein).

LOL. MASN does a piss poor job covering the team too.