BillyCarpenter1

Sharpe declares defense of Super Bowl title official


OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- The calendar might dictate that it's only a late-April minicamp, but Baltimore's ever-loquacious tight end Shannon Sharpe was declaring the Ravens' Super Bowl title defense officially open Friday.

Sharpe and Ravens reserve offensive tackle Harry Swayne are the only two Baltimore players who have first-hand experience at winning back-to-back Super Bowl titles. Both were members of the two-time Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos in 1997-98.

"The main thing now is to start holding onto what we have," said Sharpe, before his team's first workout of a three-day minicamp. "My sole focus this offseason is to repeat, because there's been a lot of teams that have won one in a row. I think it says more about a team if you can do it again. People can make excuses for you, but if you win it back to back, they can't say anything. In those two years, you were the best team the NFL had to offer."

Sharpe took turns reveling in last January's surprising Ravens run through the playoffs, and promising a whole different set of circumstances will stand between Baltimore and repeating.

"No one really expected us at the end of the year to be holding up that trophy in Tampa, and here we are," Sharpe said. "Now we have the trophy and everybody wants what we have. We're going to get everybody's best week in and week out. We know that, and we know that what we did last year won't be good enough to get it done again this year.

" [b:3886e33eb0] We can't ask our defense to go out there and shut teams out 6-0, 3-0. The offense is going to have to pick up our end, and if the defense can just maintain -- they don't have to do anything different, just maintain -- and let us catch up with them, we'll be back in [the Super Bowl in] New Orleans." [/b:3886e33eb0]

And we all know what happened---You have now seen the BUCS future.

[Edited on 8/7/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]