Ravens, Harbaugh making names known

OWINGS MILLS, Md. - John Harbaugh knew that he wanted to be a head football coach in the National Football League. Believed he was up to the task. There were just a couple of obstacles.

One was that he had been the Eagles' special-teams coach for 9 years, a dead-end role for those with higher aspirations. The other was that, um, he had never actually been a head coach. Not in the NFL. Not anywhere.

Undeterred, as the story goes, he approached Andy Reid and laid out his concerns. Big Red agreed to make him defensive backs coach. Still not a coordinator, but a step forward. And you know what? It worked. After just 2 years, the Baltimore Ravens, taking a leap of faith, hired Harbaugh as the third head coach in franchise history.

And now he has joined the list of Reid disciples to find success after leaving the nest. Coming off a 5-11 season that ended the Brian Billick era, the Ravens will now play the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday at Heinz Field with a chance to advance to the Super Bowl . . . and just maybe match X's-and-O's with his former boss in the biggest game of the year.

Asked at the team's practice facility whether his playoff experience with the Eagles could be applied to preparing in Baltimore, he nodded.

"Certainly," he said. "Throughout your whole career - as a player, coach, whatever - you take all those things and you apply them. You just have a sense for what you want to do. Having been in four championship games [with the Eagles], that's a plus.

"We've been through it, we've seen how we've practiced, what it takes to win, what costs you games. Maybe that's something that you apply. It's not direct application, because everything is different, every year is different, every group of guys is different. But you take what you've learned and you try to apply it the best you can to the situation that presents itself."

There always has been chatter about how important postseason experience is for players.

The same could apply to coaches.

"Experience helps in any situation," Harbaugh said, standing behind a microphone and in front of a banner emblazoned with the team's logo and a corporate sponsor. "A lot of guys have been in playoff situations before, a few guys have been in championship games, [and they] understand that it is not anything other than a football game."

Many Ravens players wear shorts with the words "What's Our Name?" printed on the front. Harbaugh was reluctant to divulge too many details earlier this week, but the origin apparently came from his father, Jack, a former coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky and current associate athletic director at Marquette.

When the 46-year-old John and his younger brother Jim, who is head football coach at Stanford, were growing up, their father often told them inspirational stories about Muhammad Ali. One of the most popular tales was the one about how Ali punished Ernie Terrell for continuing to call him Cassius Clay, asking, "What's my name?" over and over as he pummeled his opponent.

Before Jack's final game on the sideline in 2002, he told that story to his Western Kentucky team, which then beat McNeese State for the Division I-AA championship. He told it again, at his son's invitation, to the Ravens in August and it quickly became a rallying cry.

That, like the fact Harbaugh has privately told players during the course of the season how proud he is to stand on the sideline with them, might sound corny. But it's effective.

"Not many people picked us to be in the situation we are now," wide receiver Derrick Mason said. "We wanted to slowly but surely make a statement. We wanted to make sure everyone understands that we are the Baltimore Ravens and each and every time you play us you're going to realize that. You're going to know who's coming to town or whose town you're coming into: And that's the Baltimore Ravens."

Harbaugh quickly won over linebacker Ray Lewis, the heart and soul of the team's defense.

"I think he's the ultimate player's coach. John is one of us," Lewis said. "During the week, on game day, all of that, he relates to his players very well. Everything that we do as an organization and as a team, it's just not done through the coaches. It's done through a lot of conversation with the players and really trying to figure each other out. Now, we trust each other so much."

Added defensive tackle Trevor Pryce: "He's unflinching. He's the same and that's one thing you appreciate about him. He's very confident, and that's a good thing. That's the one thing you want in a coach. Sometimes, coaches give you lip service. But when he talks, you believe that he believes what he's saying. It's like, 'Oh, we are going to do that. We are going to play in the AFC Championship Game.' "

Safety Ed Reed said the players quickly got over the fact that Harbaugh had never been a head coach or an NFL coordinator.

"I don't think it was so much his convincing. Coach has a job to do; we have a job to do. This is a corporate business. You have to learn to work together," he said. "When coach came into training camp he explained that. We understood that as men. We have a bunch of veterans on this team that understand that, to get that to the young guys. So, it was a push-pull thing in the beginning to understand what coach wanted, him understanding what we do, and going from there."

Where they've gone from there is to the AFC Championship Game. *