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Woodson holds no grudges
Baltimore Ravens safety Rod Woodson
AP Photo
Baltimore Ravens safety Rod Woodson
AP Photo
Jerry DiPaola is the Tribune-Review high school sports editor. He can be reached via e-mail.
At one time, when Woodson became a free agent after the 1996 season, Woodson believed that the Steelers didn't show him enough respect.
At one time, Woodson was angry.
Not now. The glare from that big Super Bowl ring on his hand has mellowed him.
Even if the Ravens beat the Steelers on Sunday night at Baltimore's PSINet Stadium, Woodson won't say, "I told you so."
"If I was young and stupid again, maybe so," he said Wednesday while renewing acquaintances via conference call with the western Pennsylvania media. "But I respect Dan Rooney and their organization and I respect Bill Cowher for what he's done for that city and that football team. I don't have any grudges or ill feelings."
He couldn't always say that.
The Steelers made an attempt to re-sign Woodson 18 months after reconstructive knee surgery had forced him to miss the entire 1995 season. But there wasn't enough money in their proposals to satisfy Woodson, who had played in seven Pro Bowls during his 10-year Steelers career and was coming off a season in which he recorded six interceptions.
"What I believe transpired," he said, "is I had to prove myself all over again with an organization that I spent 10 years, 10, I think, good years and wonderful years and hard-fought years with an organization that when I first got here we weren't winning a lot of football games. I felt I had to prove myself all over again, and I thought that wasn't necessary."
In light of those feelings, Woodson wasn't reluctant to leave the team that used a first-round pick to draft him in 1987. He spent the 1997 season with the San Francisco 49ers, and a year later, he joined the Ravens. A year after that, the Ravens moved him from cornerback to free safety, where he qualified for his eighth and ninth Pro Bowls the past two seasons and won a Super Bowl last January.
"Anytime you spend 10 years as a professional player in any sport in any one city, you would love to stay there," said Woodson, who is in his fifth season since the Steelers cast him aside. "But the reality is that it doesn't happen, especially in the NFL. You see it year in and year out, where players get to their 10th or 11th or 12th year and the team wants to get rid of them because they think they can upgrade with a younger guy or a different guy.
"At first, I was a little upset, just from the way it transpired, but once I looked at it in retrospect and became older and understand this league, I'm not. It's reality, and you have to live within reality."
Woodson is 36-years-old and in his 15th NFL season, but two weeks ago, he returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts, setting a league career record (10) in that department. Believe it or not, four of those have occurred in the past four seasons.
Ravens defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, who was an assistant in Pittsburgh from 1992 through 1995, has seen Woodson in the sunlight and the twilight of his career. He doesn't see much difference.
"He was once probably one of the top three or four guys in the NFL," Lewis said. "If he's a step slower now, where's that put him? In the top 10."
To Woodson, the Steelers are just another impediment - admittedly a bigger one than normal - to the Ravens' defense of their Super Bowl title. Woodson hardly knows these Steelers players. Only eight players remain from that 1996 Steelers team.
But he knows this much: The Steelers of 2001, who lead the Ravens by two games in the AFC Central title chase, remind him of the Steelers that went to the playoffs in each of Woodson's final five seasons in Pittsburgh.
"They brought back that chemistry that we had when I was there," he said. "That same attitude."
He can't say the same for the Ravens. A year after setting an NFL 16-game record for fewest points (165) and rushing yards (970) allowed, the Ravens aren't playing up to Woodson's standards.
With four games left in the season, they have given up 214 points and 14 touchdown passes. They have stretched their streak of not allowing an 100-yard rusher to 45 games, but their passing defense is ranked 16th in the league. After recording four shutouts in 2000, they have none this year and have given up 27, 21 and 27 points in the past three games. Two months ago, the Green Bay Packers hit them with 31.
"I'm disappointed in the way we've played so far," Woodson said. "We have a lot of talent in our secondary, but for some reason, we've been giving up big plays throughout the year. I know I don't take that lightly. I feel that I'm a leader in the secondary, and when we're not playing the way we're capable of playing, that really disappoints me.
"But that's something that we have four games to take care of."
Woodson blames himself for some of the inconsistencies in the secondary.
"I'd like to be making more big plays," he said. "I've had my hands on the ball a couple times and dropped a couple of them."
Woodson may be near the end of his career, but he said he doesn't know when that will be. The day after every game, he returns to the Wexford home that he has kept in northern Allegheny County all these years, spends 24 hours with wife Nikki and their five children and goes back to Baltimore the next night. It's a difficult lifestyle, but the game still means a lot to him.
Woodson was released by the Ravens in March, but he returned May 4 when he agreed to a five-year contract that calls for considerably less money than the $3 million he was due to earn. The deal is probably only good for the 2001 and 2002 seasons; he is due a substantial bonus if he returns in 2003.
"I'll retire when nobody wants me," he said. "If nobody wanted me after this year, I'd be disappointed in the fact that I can still play this game at a high level.
"But when you turn 36 and your number is high, you can become a (salary) cap casaulty. That's unfortunate in this league, but again, it's reality."
If he's still playing two years from now, Cowher won't be surprised.
"The one thing I always knew about Rod is he has his own standards," Cowher said. "Rod Woodson will do what probably shouldn't be done by anybody else."
