Just returned from the annual “State of the Ravens” address presided over by the majority owner himself, Steve Bisciotti… For those who may not know, Bisciotti is in the top 400 wealthiest Americans club, according to Forbes magazine, and presumably worth well over a billion dollars. Not bad for a 47-year-old who grew up locally and started his own company at the age of 23.
He founded Aerotek with a $3,500 grubstake to provide outsourcing of engineers to the aerospace industry. He now owns the majority stake in job outsourcer Allegis Group, the nation’s third-largest staffing firm, which places accounting, medical, construction, and call-center workers. After completing a $600 million purchase of the Ravens from Art Modell, he now holds 99% of the Ravens after serving 4 years as minority owner.
Steve Bisciotti, flanked by GM Ozzie Newsome and President Dick Cass (L) and head coach John Harbaugh (R) in Thursday’s “State of the Ravens” press conference at “The Castle” in Owings Mills, MD…
Maybe it’s just my hero-worship gene kicking in, but to me Bisciotti looks like a classic movie gangster…you know, the good-guy kind of gangster who always helped the orphanage with donations and supplies in between big-time heists…
Tough guy with a heart…and it turns out, a sense of humor.
In the press conference on Thursday, Bisciotti (or “Shots” as his buddies call him) had us rolling in the aisles when he produced his “fan opinion research list” of the Top 11 things he learned he needs to do based upon the blog comments of fans he read on a recent flight from the owners’ meetings in Atlanta:
Here’s his list:
- Re-sign [Haloti] Ngata, [Marc] Bulger, [Josh] Wilson, [Sam] Koch, [Billy] Cundiff, [Jameel] McClain, [Marshal] Yanda, [Chris] Carr and T.J. [Houshmandzadeh]
- Change the offense
- Sign or draft a big left tackle and fast wide receivers
- Add a big shutdown corner and a dominant edge rusher
- Get faster players
- Get smarter players
- Get more veterans, but get younger
- Fire Ozzie [Newsome], Cam [Cameron], [Greg] Mattison and [Joe] Flacco
- Don’t be a tool, Bisciotti, or ‘Bis-cot-ee,’ as they said
- Get a deal done with the union
- And finally, don’t be a meddlesome owner.
“I promise you we’ll get as many of those things done in the offseason as we can,” Bisciotti said to the laughter of the assembled media.
You have to admire a guy like Bisciotti who can poke fun at himself and his team at a time when the hangover from losing in the Divisionals yet again to Pittsburgh is only beginning to wear off in Crabtown. I love his admission that he reads fan comments and that blogs like this one actually hold some importance to him.
Some fans may consider Bisciotti’s attempt at Letterman-like humor a bit glib during the wake of a pretty good season that ended on a sour note of defeat and criticism. But frankly, some Baltimore fans’ expectations of a Super Bowl every year is just unrealistic. Even Ravens players spoke about their “Super Bowl or bust” mentality before the season began, and brought it up again in the playoffs. Bisciotti spoke to how those expectations play into fan frustration.
“The further you go in this thing, the harder the fall,” he said. “I totally get it. I’m a fan too of a bunch of different sports and I know what it feels like. But you don’t hope to underperform so you lower people’s expectations. It’s not a good recipe for success.”
“I just want the fans to know that, though we don’t give you 100 percent result, we do give you 100 percent effort. I’m proud of these guys.”
That’s about as straight a shot as any fan base can expect from any owner in the NFL. “Shots” speaks to the fans of Baltimore and the Ravens in a challenging and intimate way, quite unlike another prominent owner in another sport in Baltimore who barely speaks at all to his public.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
