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From Austin Powers to 'The Longest Yard': Reliving Ravens' epic 1996 NFL draft
This is the story of a legendary draft that put the newly minted Ravens on a historic path of success, told by those who were there.
www.espn.com
some cool quotes in there:
SAVAGE: That first rookie camp, Ray showed up to do the towel pullup. You throw two towels around the bar, grab them with your hands and do pullups. Ray asks, "What’s the record?" Lionel [Vital, scout] and Jerry [Simmons, strength and conditioning coach] looked at each other and said, "We don’t have any records. We’re a new team." Ray moves his arms back and forth and says, "Let me set the record." He jumps up there and rips out however many there were. Lionel comes upstairs and said: "This Ray Lewis is special. You talk about a leader. It’s just dripping from this guy. He’s going to take control of this team and take control of this defense.”
KOKINIS: That was the first time we all learned under Ozzie the phrase "This guy’s a football player." We’re like, "He was born to play the game." All the intangibles, the football mentality -- that's what we try to find in players now. As a young scout, we had a picture of what the pinnacle is.