History
There's a polite fiction that the Baltimore Ravens entered the NFL as a brand-new franchise in 1996. Actually, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became known as the Ravens. However, the league and the Cleveland entered into an agreement that the team name and records would remain in the city for eventual use by another NFL franchise.
So the "new" team had to find a new name. NFL properties came up with a list of more than 100 possible nicknames. That was eventually narrowed down to three and the Baltimore Sun conducted a poll of fans to select one. Of 33,288 who phoned in, 21,108 voted for Ravens.
The name came from the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Baltimore at various times and died there in 1849. So the Ravens are the only team in all of professional sports named for a poem.
The Ravens' first head coach was Ted Marchibroda, who had coached the Baltimore Colts from 1975 to 1979. They won their very first regular season game, beating the Oakland Raiders, 19-14, on Sept. 1, 1996, before a record crowd of 64,124 at Memorial Stadium.
But Marchibroda wasn't able to give them a winning season and he was replaced in 1999 by Brian Billick, who had been the Minnesota Vikings' offensive coordinator. Billick was known as a wizard of the passing game but, ironically, his teams were built primarily on defense. In 2000, the Ravens set an NFL record by allowing only 165 points in 16 regular-season games.
They kept it right up through the post season, culminating in a 34-10 win over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. In four playoff games, the Ravens gave up a total of just 23 points.
The team slipped to 10-6 and a second-place finish in 2001 but got into the playoffs as a wild card. After beating the Dolphins, 20-3, at Miami in the first round, they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-10.
The Ravens could manage only a 7-9 record in 2002, but came back to win the division again with a 10-6 mark the following year. However, they lost to the Tennessee Titans, 20-17, in the first playoff round.
For the final four years of Billick's tenure, the Ravens alternated between winning and losing seasons. They went 13-3 in 2006, but lost 15-6 to the Indianapolis Colts in a divisional playoff fame. Then they dropped to 5-11 and Billick was replaced by John Harbaugh, who had been defensive backs coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Harbaugh installed rookie Joe Flacco at quarterback and the Ravens went 11-5, winning a wildcard spot. Then they won two playoff games to advance to the AFC championship, where they were defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers. An up-and-down season in 2009 resulted in a 9-7 record and another wildcard berth. After beating the New England Patriots in the first playoff round, the Ravens were eliminated by the Indianapolis Colts.