I’m here to sing the praises of Michael Pierce.
There’s no “take” coming here. I’m not here to tell you that Michael Pierce belongs in the Ravens Ring of Honor or that the Ravens won’t be able to recover from his retirement or anything along those lines.
I’m just here to sing the praises of Michael Pierce.
The veteran defensive tackle announced his retirement from the NFL in March. His tenure was punctuated by the most excellent highlight of his career, a spectacular Week 18 interception against the Browns that humorously (but smartly) ended with a quick slide despite real estate in front of him.
According to The Baltimore Banner, Pierce became the heaviest player to record an interception since at least 2000 and did it while playing perfect coverage. It was a wonderful moment, eliciting an electric response from his teammates and garnering attention from all corners of the internet.
And Michael Pierce deserved every ounce of love that he received for the play.
There’s something about lovable, solid defensive tackles in Baltimore, isn’t there? The legacy of Tony Siragusa has continued with the likes of Kelly “Buddy Lee” Gregg, Brandon Williams and Pierce. It’s always been tough to measure these players on the field because of the position they play. Traditional statistics don’t help us measure “taking on a double team” or “clearing a lane for a middle linebacker” or “making the initial contact to slow down a running back.”
Players like Haloti Ngata and Nnamdi Madubuike have stood out for their freakish ability to finish plays in the backfield. But guys like Gregg and Pierce were more often the “dirty work” types who made life easier for those around them. And on top of what they offered on the field, they offered an affability and generally pleasant disposition that lifted up those around them.
Michael Pierce was a hell of a football player. But he is an even better person. He’s an incredible human being.
I’ve had the unique pleasure to get to know Michael during his two stints in Baltimore. Rooted in his Christian faith, Michael was the type who wanted to know about how he could be more involved with those who could use his help in the community. The team involved him in its annual coat drive at Helping Up Mission, making him more interested in what the organization did.
When he found out I held an annual event to benefit Helping Up, he asked me how he could be involved. I asked him if I could pay him for an appearance. He refused. He instead asked if he could donate even more to the charity and what else he could do to help.
Pierce was so grateful for the opportunity to return to Baltimore in 2022 after two largely lost seasons in Minnesota. A history of asthma and pneumonia led to his decision to opt out of the 2020 season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. An elbow injury cost him the majority of the 2021 season. When a torn bicep cost him the majority of the 2022 campaign, it was easy to think that perhaps his career would never be the same.
Instead he worked to retake a starting role and put together one of the best seasons of his career in 2023. In the midst of his resurgence I asked him what it meant to him to overcome the adversity of the previous seasons and he confessed he was genuinely emotional.
“It’s more than I could ever ask for,” he said.
Pierce meant it. As an undrafted free agent out of Samford, to say nothing was guaranteed in his pro career would be an understatement. He wasn’t even invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in 2016. He wasn’t even considered a priority free-agent signing after the draft and instead considered more of a training camp body. As SB Nation pointed out, he was so far off the radar that “information on him from the major scouting publications was widely unavailable.”
There were speed bumps along the way. Pierce had to improve his conditioning during his first stint with the team. He missed time due to injury. But in the end, he went from presumed training camp body to nearly a decade as impactful NFL player and meaningful community figure.
I’m lucky to have gotten to know him. The team and city were lucky to have had him. Which is why I just wanted to sing the praises of Michael Pierce.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox