Ravens Super Bowl champions Brendon Ayanbadejo, Dannell Ellerbe and Ray Rice all believe the Ravens’ Super Bowl XLVII win was magical, but they also admit there was plenty of adversity to overcome in order to become champions.
The Ravens will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their second Super Bowl victory, a 34-31 win against the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans, by hosting players from the 2012 team at the team’s game against the Browns on Oct. 23. This gives Baltimore fans the chance to relive some of the greatest moments in Ravens history and see some of their favorite players.
Ayanbadejo, who played for the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears before coming to Baltimore in 2008, was a veteran presence on the 2012 Super Bowl team. Limited to a special teams role that year, Ayanbadejo revealed there were plenty of roadblocks for the Ravens, and holding everyone accountable in tough times was a must.
“I mean, really, when you look at great families and you look at dynasties, everything’s not always going to be rosy and pitch-perfect,” Ayanbadejo said on Glenn Clark Radio Oct. 19. “That’s why that particular team was so good, because we were willing to address those imperfections head-on and we were willing to have those hard conversations that it took to be great.”
However, there was another component that made the 2012 Ravens a success story.
“It was just about trust,” Ayanbadejo said. “The players wanted to be trusted, the coaching staff wanted to be trusted and we all had our best interests in hand. Whether that’s conversations, whether that’s the way that we practice or whether that’s the way we took care of people inside the facility that didn’t have anything to do with being on the football field on Sunday … you saw the final product at the end. We were the last team standing.”
The 2012 Ravens were led by future Pro Football Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. But talent was not all that made this group champions. It also took leadership, trust, accountability, grit and the ability to overcome adversity. Ayanbadejo believes this more than anyone.
“That Ravens team wasn’t the most talented football team that I played on,” said Ayanbadejo, who played for the 2006 Bears team that went 13-3 and lost Super Bowl XLI to the Colts. “But it was the team that was the most mature, that trusted each other, that worked together and found a way for some of the parts to be greater than the whole, so it ended up being the best team even though it wasn’t the most talented.”
Former Ravens running back Ray Rice noted the famous fourth-and-29 play was a huge motivator for that squad. It helped the Ravens defeat the San Diego Chargers, 16-13, to push their record to 9-2.
Rice remembers the play very well. Quarterback Joe Flacco dumped a pass off to Rice at the line of scrimmage before Rice evaded as many as eight defenders and dove for a key first down while being tackled. This play was a make-or-break moment for the 2012 Ravens.
“The one thing I remember that was monumental was the life that got sucked out of the stadium,” Rice said on GCR Oct. 19. “You could hear a pin drop. And this still doesn’t hit you because we’ve got to still play the game. [Momentum] had shifted from that moment. There was no life left in the San Diego Chargers. That moment right there was it. No first down, we’re home [and] no playoffs.”
“I feel honored to be a part of arguably one of the biggest plays in Baltimore Ravens history,” Rice added.
The Ravens lost their next three games of the season to Pittsburgh, Washington and Denver before beating the New York Giants and losing the regular-season finale to Cincinnati. The Ravens won the AFC North with a record of 10-6.
The Ravens defeated Indianapolis, Denver and New England en route to Super Bowl XLVII. Other than the double-overtime win at Denver and the Super Bowl itself, the biggest game for the 2012 Ravens was the AFC championship against the Patriots. After losing to the Patriots in the AFC championship in heartbreaking fashion the year prior, the desire for revenge was in the air.
Linebacker Dannell Ellerbe, who won his second Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in February 2018 before retiring, vividly remembers the ending of the 2011 AFC championship game.
“When I got hurt, in the locker room they already had it dressed out like we won,” Ellerbe said on GCR Oct. 20 about the game’s final minutes. “I was in there waiting for the game to end and I see all the AFC champions [banners and shirts] and all that stuff piled over in the locker room. So when we missed the field goal, I swear they took all that stuff down in like three minutes. It was like a movie.”
“All of that was in my mind going into the next year,” Ellerbe added.
The Ravens remembered all too well the pain that came with that playoff exit. They did not allow that to happen again in 2012. In fact, Ellerbe revealed he felt throughout the playoffs that the Ravens were destined to win the Super Bowl. Ellerbe said everything seemed to be lining up for them (even though he had to play through a back injury in the playoffs).
“I felt like we were going to win it,” Ellerbe said of the Ravens’ 2012 Super Bowl run. “Like it was a different type of feeling [and] I can’t explain it. I can’t even explain it. It was like a feeling that it was going to happen all throughout the playoffs. Every game I felt it. … To see certain plays and certain things play out, it was just surreal to me.”
One of the most noteworthy aspects of the Ravens’ Super Bowl run was that it marked the end of Ray Lewis’ historically great career. Lewis’ plan to retire after the 2012 season not only juiced up the fans, but also his teammates.
“Everybody knew it was going to be Ray Lewis’ last game, wherever he played,” Rice said. “That took precedence over a lot of things. We weren’t going to let anybody spoil it at our house, but the best place in the world to finish it was in New Orleans.”
From the hardship of losing four of their last five regular-season games to coming together in the playoffs to win it all, the story of the 2012 Ravens is one of overcoming adversity and coming together as a team to achieve the unthinkable.
On Oct. 23, some of those players will come back to celebrate one of the many bright spots in the Ravens’ relatively short history. There are just two members of the 2012 Ravens who still play on the team to this day, one being future Hall of Fame kicker Justin Tucker.
Ayanbadejo remembers seeing Tucker, then a rookie, for the first time in training camp and being shocked by his kicking ability. Tucker lived up to and crushed the bar set by another Ravens great, Matt Stover. Many players were apprehensive about Tucker at first since rookie kickers are not always the most reliable, but Tucker won them over quickly.
“He was up against the whole football team and he went and won that position in training camp,” Ayanbadejo said. “I knew there was something special about him. I didn’t know he was going to go on to be the greatest kicker of all time.”
Tucker will aim to help the Ravens defeat the Browns while his former teammates look on.
“I want to see how some of these old boys have aged,” Ellerbe said of the reunion. “… I can’t wait to see these guys.”
For more from Brendon Ayanbadejo, listen to the full interview here:
For more from Dannell Ellerbe, listen to the full interview here:
For more from Ray Rice, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens