The Fall of 2006 was a tenuous time for Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick. In just seven seasons on the job, he had seen everything from taking an unheralded young franchise to a Super Bowl, to a revolving door at quarterback, and an ownership change that would severely shake up his professional life. The team’s new owner was a self-made billionaire from unassuming beginnings named Steve Bisciotti, and it was the fact that he and the head coach of his new team were more alike than different that would make their dynamic a difficult one to navigate. Billick’s act was easy to take when the results on the field were positive; when things went the other way, the charm had a tendency to wear off a bit. Bisciotti now had an organization to run, and a lot of important choices to make – in order to find and follow the best path forward for the Ravens, he had to determine whether Brian Billick was actually a great coach, or all (straw reebok) hat and no cattle. Before he could even decide on that however, he had to suss out whether the two of them could get past some personal differences that were more prominent than ever now that they were working directly with one another. Tenuous times indeed.

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