Today marks the 20th anniversary of Super Bowl XXXV, a game that saw Baltimore dominate the Giants en route to a 34-7 victory at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which will also be the site of Super Bowl LV a week from Sunday.
Trent Dilfer was the winning quarterback in that game, completing 12-of-25 passes for 153 yards and a single touchdown in what would prove to be his final game as a Baltimore Raven. The 48-year-old still carries resentment over that fact, admitting to “harboring a little bit of bitterness” toward the Ravens for replacing him with Elvis Grbac the following year.
“It was so poorly evaluated on their behalf,” said Dilfer, who was told by offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh he was a distant third on Baltimore’s quarterback wish list behind fellow free agents Brad Johnson and Grbac. “They knew I was hurt.”
Dilfer estimated he was somewhere between 65 and 70 percent healthy that season, battling painful shoulder and hip injuries that limited his effectiveness. “There's legendary stories of how bad I was in practice and they're all true,” Dilfer told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, admitting that “he sucked physically” throughout Baltimore’s postseason run. “I had some of the worst practices in the history of football for a quarterback. If my high school quarterback practiced like I did sometimes that year, I wouldn't play him. But I was hurt.”
Dilfer, who spent a decade covering the NFL for ESPN before landing his current job as the head football coach at Nashville’s Lipscomb Academy, wishes the Ravens had given him a fair shake and so do many of his ex-teammates. “I felt betrayed by them letting Trent go,” said Pro Bowl defensive tackle Sam Adams. “He was a great leader, he was a scrapper and he was the consummate Baltimore Raven. If it wasn't for Trent Dilfer—I don't care what we did on defense—if it wasn't for him coming in doing what he did, we would have never won a Super Bowl."
“That's one of the few things that [coach] Brian Billick did that I didn't agree with,” acknowledged Hall-of-Famer Jonathan Ogden. “Just give the guy a chance to come back and win his job.”
While Dilfer, who plans to attend the Ravens’ “virtual reunion” celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Super Bowl triumph, is “grateful” for the time he spent in Baltimore, he still can’t fathom why GM Ozzie Newsome preferred Grbac over him. “I'll take a shot at Elvis because it doesn't bother me at all,” said Dilfer, who confronted Newsome at the Ravens’ 10-year reunion, though their conversation “didn’t go very far.” “The core value of that team was mental and physical toughness, and that's who I am and that's the opposite of who Elvis is. They set their identity back light years by getting it wrong."
Grbac did not enjoy a particularly distinguished tenure with the Ravens, compiling a 71.1 quarterback rating with 15 touchdowns, 18 interceptions and a pedestrian 56.7 completion percentage in 2001. His lone season with Baltimore resulted in a second-round loss to division-rival Pittsburgh in the AFC playoffs.
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