LOMBARDI'S WAY: Dear Steve

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Lombardi's Way - LOMBARDI'S WAY: Dear Steve

Another letter to Steve Bisciotti

Posted On: 12/21/07

Written By:

Tony Lombardi

Dear Steve,

We once met socially prior to you becoming the 99% owner of the Baltimore Ravens and then again this past November when I sat in on the Ravens Rap with John Gehrig and Bruce Laird at The Greene Turtle in Ocean City. I was impressed with your candor and how unpretentious you were given a man of your success and stature. I’m sure you are guarded on occasion – most men of wealth are. It must be difficult at times to gauge the sincerity of a stranger’s intentions when you interact. Many I’m sure look to profit.

You’ve certainly profited in your life driven by a vision coupled with an amazing work ethic. You now sit among the elite in terms of wealth. Not many can look in the mirror at a billionaire.

Self-made billionaires aren’t very common. Generally speaking, such people are overachievers. Sometimes for overachievers achieving the goal is actually less riveting than the pursuit – so I am told.

It is my understanding that the company we all know today as the Allegis Group had its origins in your basement. You were driven so much that I’m told you would put a suit on just to go into your basement to work – an obvious attempt to simulate a professional work environment. In some ways, it was like a football player putting on the pads and buckling up the chin strap.

Obviously it worked!

Once, while reading John Feinstein’s book Next Man Up, I was moved by your recollections of your childhood, your fond memories of your Dad despite losing him at the very young age of 8. Somehow, your Dad already knew you well. He knew that the letter he left behind to you and your siblings would make an impact and hit its intended mark. I’m sure you have it memorized but for the benefit of others your Dad wrote:

“I know how good you all are. I truthfully never met children I was ever more impressed with than you. Of course I’m terribly prejudiced and filled with love for you. As a selfish man, I hope you will remember me with love and I hope that in some way I have been important in helping form your character and outlook on life. The love and affection you have given me is beyond my ability to describe, but somehow I’m sure you’ll find out what I mean.”

Somewhere your Dad Bernie is smiling. You’ve likely accomplished more than even he could have imagined in his wildest of dreams. You are the quintessential overachiever.

How ironic is it that after reaching the pinnacle of your profession, that you now own a NFL franchise that is characterized as underachieving? Given the character your Dad described and that which you’ve developed, that can’t sit well with you. You are handsomely paying several players with Pro Bowl on their resumes. Your payroll is near the top of the league yet your team sits at the bottom of the AFC North – a team that just lost to the winless Miami Dolphins. That has to be gnawing at the fabric of your soul.

What will you do? Can you change the mindset of underachievers? Can that be accomplished with Brian Billick on the sidelines? Does his message reach his players? Can he inspire them any longer? Is the team hiding behind its injuries as a shield against the sharp blade of failure? Which is the aberration, the 2005 and 2007 seasons or 2006?

You have invested heavily in Brian Billick and the returns since you anted up are miserable. Have you experienced that before? What did you do then? Did you cut your losses or were you patient? Did the patience pay off?

Being a native of the area, you should know what makes a Baltimorean tick. We love an underdog because we can relate to them. We are all underdogs with a collective inferiority complex brought about by Philadelphia to the north, DC to the south and the Colts to Indianapolis. We don’t take kindly to the fat cats, the Peter Angelos types of the world. We’re all about the Michael McCrarys, the Artie Donovans, the Tony Siragusas, the Kelly Greggs and the Steve Bisciottis.

We gravitate to people and athletes that seem real to us.

What is happening to our football team is unreal.

Our expectations and probably yours haven’t been met. There was never a question as to whether the Ravens would make the playoffs in ‘07. The question was how far could they advance into the playoffs? Along with your staff, you seemingly made the necessary adjustments to correct the woes of 2005. Yet the woes have returned, screaming into our collective face – nose to nose.

Fans feel slighted. After swallowing some hefty ticket price increases they are now wondering what your return policy is.

Next Sunday the Ravens will play their final game of the season, hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you know how humiliating it will be after the agony and torture of this season, to sit there while 20,000 Steelers’ fans wave their Terrible Towels? The humiliation will be worse than any Orioles game at Camden Yards invaded by Yankees’ or Red Sox’ fans because with the Orioles, we expect it.

Why?

Because we expect better from our Baltimore Ravens.

Let’s be real Steve, the Ravens are hanging by a thread. The fans know it, the media knows it, Ozzie knows it, Brian knows it, Ray knows and so do you. We’re all wondering how it happened – how such a talented collection of athletes with so much promise on paper could never deliver on the field of play. We scratch our heads wondering how a hapless team like the Dolphins led by a quarterback who ended up on the Ravens’ scrap heap could put up Marino-like numbers against our once proud defense. How could a team with such impressive resumes suffer a meltdown against the Colts here at home, terribly embarrassed by the franchise that once ripped out our hearts?

This can’t be what you bargained for – such an undisciplined team, is it? That’s not how you are built. Overachievers are abundantly disciplined.

So where do we go from here? Do you stick your head in the sand and hope that Billick has another magic wand stuck in his thesaurus? I understand the value of patience. I understand that sometimes investments take time. I also understand the concept of compounding a mistake and God knows I hope I’m wrong, but sticking with Brian Billick is doing exactly that.

Today we are in the midst of the Holiday Season – for many the most wonderful time of the year. It is the Season for giving and it is also the time to reflect upon the year that has past and the one that awaits. I hope that Brian Billick returns and does his part to restore a winning atmosphere. I also hope to be a billionaire like you but I accept that that will never happen just as you should accept that winning consistently will never again happen with Brian Billick leading the charge for the Ravens.

This isn’t 2000 anymore. This isn’t even 2002 or 2006 anymore. This is almost 2008 and if you roll the dice with Billick and that gamble fails, your suffering will be greater than the mistake you made when you awarded Billick last year with a four year extension. If you made a bad investment would you put more money into it? Of course not! So why do it now?

The best franchise in the league places the team over the individual. They foster an atmosphere that prioritizes the greatest good for the greatest number. As a whole they are stronger than the sum of their parts. As a team, the New England Patriots have achieved what a collection of under achieving fat cats can’t because the fat cats think it’s just a business and they ask, “What’s in it for me?”

When Adalius Thomas left for New England, he recognized the cultural differences of the two teams immediately – so much so that the normally politically correct AD couldn’t refrain from spouting off about the team-first mentality of the Patriots versus the me-first mentality of the Ravens.

That’s what you need to strive for and you know that. Perhaps you’ve grown too close to the players and the team and as a fan of the game and as a man who has come to know the players arguably too well, it has dulled your senses; it has challenged your objectivity and your decisions are now questionable.

In your businesses, accountability is crucial. It is also crucial in the NFL. The Ravens are not accountable for their errors. Billick fosters that culture. He enables it and as much as he talks about accountability he doesn’t practice it. Even you Steve don’t seem to be enforcing it with your head coach or your GM who remains suspiciously on the side lines through all of the turbulence brought on by this tumultuous season.

It’s time to wipe the slate clean. It’s time to stop blaming injuries for your miserable season. Injuries are a way of life in the NFL and it’s a measure of a successful organization in how they deal with injuries and other forms of adversity that separate them.

The injuries aren’t going away particularly when you consider that the age of the key players (McNair, Heap, McAlister, Pryce, Rolle, Ogden) who suffered and are suffering through those costly injuries.

In your other businesses, you’ve managed them in a way that focuses on increasing shareholder value and customer satisfaction. Keeping Brian Billick will do neither for the Baltimore Ravens.

I know it’s the season for giving so instead of embracing the thought that it isn’t festive to give Brian his walking papers, look at it as a way of giving your customers, the fans of Baltimore some hope. Brian will be fine. He’ll go on to TV for a year and another team will pick him up – a team that won’t consider his message so stale. You know, like the team you now own!

The time has come Steve…

As I write, I’m reminded again of Al Pacino’s speech in Any Given Sunday. Here’s an excerpt from it:

“You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is.

Now, whattaya gonna do?”

We’re waiting Steve…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays