Neuheisel rejuvenates career with Ravens
OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The sound of a football hitting the crossbar echoed throughout the Baltimore Ravens’ indoor practice facility late on a December morning, signaling a winner in a prepractice throwing contest.
Surrounded by a group of four players at the 20-yard line, the champion wore a black and purple jacket and a black Ravens cap that concealed most of his wavy blond hair. With a wide grin, quarterbacks coach Rick Neuheisel basked in his victory, one of many reasons he is smiling these days.
Neuheisel, formerly a star in the college coaching ranks, has found contentment in tutoring Steve McNair, whose career rebirth has coincided with Neuheisel’s. While he awaits another head coaching opportunity, Neuheisel is happy to contribute to a playoff team in a role for which he would have been overqualified before his fall from the top earlier this decade.
“I’m glad it has turned out the way it has,” Neuheisel said recently. “I had to go through the other stuff before tasting this to realize that football is, from a macro scale, the same. Whether you’re coaching Pop Warner kids or you’re coaching in the NFL, when there’s a connection amongst the team, when the chemistry feels right and when you can put the pieces together and everybody kind of knows their role and enjoys their role, then it works.”
When McNair, 33, joined the Ravens in June looking for a fresh start after an acrimonious departure from the Tennessee Titans, he met Neuheisel, 45, whose rejuvenation had begun more than a year earlier. But unlike McNair, who came to Baltimore seeking to prolong his prolific career, Neuheisel arrived hoping to heal his wounded reputation and return to coaching at a high level.
On Jan. 1, 2001, Neuheisel coached the University of Washington to a victory over Purdue in the Rose Bowl, and the Huskies finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country. But 2 1/2 years later, he was fired for his involvement in an NCAA men’s basketball tournament pool and for allegedly lying to NCAA investigators.
Neuheisel filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the NCAA and university, and in March 2005 he received a $4.5 million settlement after it was revealed that the university’s compliance office had sent out a memo that permitted the type of pool in which Neuheisel participated.
“In this business, perception is so important, and you have very little chance to affect your perception when you’re not out there,” Neuheisel said. “Ultimately, I got some measure of vindication, but … you’re never going to get it all back.”
About two months prior to the settlement, Neuheisel was hired as Ravens quarterbacks coach – a step on the coaching ladder normally reserved for up-and-comers, not Rose Bowl winners. Still, the former UCLA quarterback embraced the opportunity.
“We are both trying to start over and we’re both trying to do a great job,” McNair said. “We are trying to teach each other and put ourselves in a position where the team is successful.”