By
The Associated Press
OWINGS MILLS, Md. - The Baltimore Ravens shudder to think about it. They can't imagine what would have happened.
Ray Lewis could have missed this season, and then where would they have been? Probably not in the Super Bowl.
"Rather than being here right now,'' Ravens cornerback Duane Starks said, ''Ray could have been sitting in a jail cell.''
Instead, Lewis and his teammates spent yesterday afternoon answering questions about the Ravens' improbable run to the NFL title game against the New York Giants on Jan. 28 in Tampa.
Baltimore almost certainly would not have gotten this far without their star middle linebacker, the heart and soul of the stingiest defense in NFL history over a 16-game season.
Less than a year ago, Lewis was charged in the stabbing deaths of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub after a Super Bowl party. The trial was well under way when Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of justice in exchange for his testimony against two co-defendants, who were acquitted.
Long before then, Starks and the Ravens were confident Lewis would be exonerated.
"I knew that he was innocent from the jump. Ray and I hang out all the time, and when there's trouble around, we get away,'' Starks said. ''What they said happened, it wasn't possible for Ray to be there. I never gave it a second thought."
The justice system fulfilled the Ravens' confidence in their star player, and the rest is history. NFL history, that is.
Led by Lewis, Baltimore this season set records for fewest points (165) and yards rushing (970) allowed over a 16-game season.
Lewis and the Ravens put the trial behind them almost as soon as it ended.
"We have a deep appreciation for the loss of life. Ray takes that seriously, and we take it seriously,'' coach Brian Billick said at the Ravens' training facility. ''We have a deep loyalty and appreciation for Ray Lewis that has been borne out.''
As Billick has repeated many times, he said he wants to talk about football not Lewis' case and how it has affected his team this season.
"It's about each other now, nothing that I went through,'' Lewis said after the Ravens beat the Raiders in the AFC championship game. "I move on."
But Lewis and the Ravens probably will hear plenty about the topic in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, especially on media day.
Lewis has answered all those types of questions since July, and over the next two weeks he probably won't field a query that hasn't been asked before.
The Ravens, and Lewis in particular, would prefer to focus on the fact that he was the NFL defensive player of the year, was selected for the Pro Bowl for the fourth time and led the team in tackles.
"I've been blessed,'' he said yesterday.
The Super Bowl will be a homecoming of sorts for Lewis, who grew up 20 minutes from Tampa, in Lakeland, Fla. On a national stage, he can forge a new identity for himself.
"The Super Bowl can make a guy like Ray one of the all-time best ever to play the game,'' Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe said. ''It will take a great guy and make him Hall of Fame. That's what a game like this can do for your career.''
A murder trial can ruin a career, but Lewis appears to have avoided that fate.
"I don't even think about what happened last year, as far as Ray is concerned,'' defensive end Rob Burnett said. "All I'm thinking about is what he's done for us this season and the type of player, and leader, he has become. The other stuff is so far in the past, we don't even talk about it. It's over and done with."
Giants didn't become team of destiny until two weeks after the guarantee
The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -Michael Strahan knows exactly when the New York Giants become a team of destiny, and it wasn't when Jim Fassel issued his playoff guarantee on Nov. 22.
It came a little less than two weeks later, when they beat the Washington Redskins 9-7 on the road.
With the Giants starting preparations for a Super Bowl game against Baltimore in two weeks, the victory in Washington might seem to be just one of a dozen during the regular season. But the importance of that game cannot be measured by a single W.
Everything changed on Dec. 3 for the Giants, who had missed the playoffs the past two seasons.
They stopped seeing themselves as a mediocre team that couldn't beat anyone good. Not only did they win, they won under immense pressure, because a victory by the Redskins might have dropped New York into third place in the NFC East.
Instead, the Giants won and moved into first place in the division when the Philadelphia Eagles lost to Tennessee on a last-second field goal.
"We started pulling together at that point,'' Strahan said. ''We beat the Cardinals in Arizona the week before (after the guarantee). We played a great game, but we felt the ultimate test for us was the Redskins in Washington.
"Had we lost that game on that last-second field goal, that would have set us back a couple of years. It would have been devastating."
They came close to losing, but Eddie Murray's 49-yard field goal attempt fell short in the final minute.
"We won and we found out if we stay together and play together we got a chance to win," Strahan said. "We've done that. The bigger the game, the more we come together."
That's been obvious in the playoffs. New York, which has won seven straight games, has not been challenged in beating Philadelphia 20-10 last week and crushing the Minnesota Vikings 41-0 in the NFC championship on Sunday.
Fassel, who spent nearly two hours in bed Sunday night thinking about the Super Bowl, said the thought of an NFL title was never on his mind when he guaranteed that the Giants would make the playoffs for the first time since 1997.
He felt if the team won a couple of games and picked up a little momentum, it was capable of winning the division.
"If we won our division I felt we had as good a chance as anyone,'' Fassel said. ''I felt that way because I believed in the character of this football team. They were doing everything we asked of them and anything was possible."
Now the Giants are a game away, and they don't expect the Super Bowl to be anything like their game with the Vikings.
The Ravens allowed an NFL-record low 165 points in the regular season and 16 in three postseason games.
"It's certainly not going to be the kind of game we had yesterday,'' said quarterback Kerry Collins, who completed 28 of 39 passes for 381 yards and five touchdowns against the Vikings. ''They will be the best defense we've faced all year."
The Giants came into Sunday's game planning to pass to set up the run. Collins expects a more a conservative, risk-free, grind-it-out approach against the Ravens.
"Heck, a field goal can win it,'' Strahan said. ''This is that type of game. Baltimore is that type of defense. Heck, they score a touchdown and it's tough. Yesterday, you saw after Shannon Sharpe caught the touchdown the game was over. That defense is unbelievable.''
Almost as unbelievable as the Giants being in the Super Bowl.
"Thirty-one teams come into the season saying they want to go to the Super Bowl,'' Collins said. ''To be one of the two standing is pretty amazing. You dream it and you think it, but you realize what has to happen for you to get there.
"You realize it takes a lot of togetherness, a lot of team work and a lot of chemistry. We had all three this year."
The Giants also had a big win over Washington that gave them the momentum.
