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 ESPN's Sal Paolantonio examines Trent Dilfer's aerial effectiveness.
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 Trent Dilfer went to Disney World and joins ESPN's Trey Wingo from the ESPN Club in Orlando.
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Trent Dilfer talks about the view that the Ravens won despite him.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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| | Monday, January 29
Dilfer no superstar, just a Super Bowl winner
By John Clayton
ESPN.com
TAMPA, Fla. -- The camera crew assembled along the sidelines to place Trent
Dilfer's fairy tale season in perspective. Yes, he was going to Disneyland,
but no, he wasn't really the MVP of Super Bowl XXXV.
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Steve Young on Dilfer |
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Former Super Bowl MVP Steve Young assesses the play of the Ravens' Trent
Dilfer:TAMPA, Fla. -- Trent Dilfer had to stay within range of what the Ravens asked him to do:
complete a couple of big passes, don't make any big mistakes, and don't lose
the game. He did exactly that. Dilfer has always thrown a pretty good long
ball, and the Ravens put him in a position Sunday where he could put the
ball in a good spot. Admittedly, Dilfer does what the Ravens ask him to; he
doesn't screw up. He has avoided his mistakes and helped his team win.
In my years around football, I've never seen a lineman called for holding
when grabbing the running back coming out of the backfield on a screen pass.
If Jessie Armstead's interception return for a touchdown would have counted,
the ball game would have been more competitive. Dilfer threw that ball right
to Armstead, and if the TD had counted, it may have spun the whole game
around. But that was the kind of game it was.
To win it, something had to fall the right way. Things fell Dilfer's way in
Super Bowl XXXV. His is such a great story; he was run out of Tampa, and now
he is a Super Bowl champion in Tampa. I tip my hat to him.
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But who cared. Dilfer, a religious family man with a clean life,
signed the Disney contract to do the commercial symbolic of Super Bowl
success. Meaning Dilfer and Super Bowl champ in the same sentence sounds
like true fantasy.
"It's great to be mentioned with Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and
Roger Staubach, but we all know I'm not Joe Montana," Dilfer said.
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“ |
It's great to be mentioned with Terry
Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Roger Staubach, but we all know I'm not Joe Montana.
” |
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— Baltimore quarterback Trent Dilfer |
Watching Dilfer at times seemingly try to live up to the city of Tampa's six-foot
no-contact ordinance for lapdancing by not throwing the football within six feet
of receiver drove home one conclusion -- he won't be the Ravens quarterback
next season. Unless the price gets too high, the quarterback will be Brad
Johnson, whom Ravens coach Brian Billick groomed in Minnesota.
Where's that leave Dilfer? Disneyland? San Diego? Seattle? Miami?
Dilfer will be the first quarterback who earned a Super Bowl ring that won't
be invited back, as sad as that sound. So don't blame him for enjoying the
moment a little more than any other of his Ravens teammates. At least he
leaves Tampa and Baltimore with a moment in time he will never forget.
"We did something in a way that's going to change our lives,"
Dilfer said. "The last month I've meditated on a verse in the Bible.
'Everything is possible for he who believes and I really thank God that He
has developed character because of hard times."
During his one year with the Ravens, Dilfer found himself as a
quarterback. No, he isn't the quarterback that merited the sixth selection
in the draft seven years ago by the Tampa Bay Bucs. A John Elway he isn't. Dilfer's a
winner whose wins more with his brain than his arm.
"I developed a skill of being able to understand the game of
football," Dilfer said. "I understand what it takes to win."
Dilfer understands he played for a team that had one of the greatest
defenses in NFL history.
"It's not as pretty, and if I was a fan, maybe I
wouldn't like it as much as I liked watching the Rams," Dilfer said.
That's an understatement. Watching Dilfer and Giants quarterback
Kerry Collins battled in Super Bowl XXXV probably had the nation switching
over to X-Files and wishing 60 Minutes would pre-empt. In the first 34
Super Bowls, the record for punts in a game was 15. The Giants and Ravens
combined for 21.
Deep-snappers Jason Whittle of the Giants and John Hudson of the Ravens
had more accurate days than both quarterbacks. At least they consistently
got the ball to the punters. Collins and Dilfer combined for 37 errant
passes in 64 attempts.
Some of Dilfer's throws were several yards short of open receivers.
Other sailed over receivers' head. Normally, Dilfer is more accurate.
"He missed a half-dozen throws," offensive coordinator Matt
Cavanaugh said. "He would have had a great game if he hit them."
Some of Dilfer's misses were incredible. Giants cornerback Jason
Sehorn fell down trying to cover Patrick Johnson along the sidelines.
Johnson got 25 yards behind Sehorn and Dilfer still missed him by at least
10 yards.
|  | | While Sunday was sweet, don't expect to see Trent Dilfer in a Ravens' uniform next season.
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Johnson got behind Sehorn in the first quarter and Dilfer overthrew him by
a yard. The ball was within finger-tip reach of Johnson, but there wasn't enough air on the throw to get the completion.
"I'll give you a little inside information," Baltimore wide receiver Qadry
Ismail said. "Patrick talked to Keenan McCardell of the Jaguars a couple
days before the game, and he broke down what he felt would help as far
beating their secondary. The Giants cornerbacks wanted to come up and wanted to press us. They wanted to go man-on-man."
It appeared that giving Sehorn and Giants cornerback Dave Thomas a
double move enabled Ravens receivers to get behind them four times in the
first half. Dilfer, who completed only 12 of 25 passes for 153 yards, fired
only two perfect passes. One went to Brandon Stokely for a 38-yard
touchdown. The other, a 44-yarder to Ismail, set up a Matt Stover field goal
to give them an insurmountable 10-0 lead.
"Had he hit the other passes, it would have been more of a route
than it really was," Ismail said. "The thing I can say about Trent is that
he has so much composure. All the things he has been through and went
through has made his composure better."
The Ravens first saw that composure in a come-from-behind victory
over the Tennessee Titans. Dilfer had thrown an interception, but the next time he was on the field, he came to the huddle with a smile. Ravens offensive players believed in him enough to follow him on a game-winning 80-yard drive in the closing minutes.
Dilfer lucked out on what could have been the blunder of the game Sunday.
In the second quarter, Dilfer tried to execute a screen pass to Jamal Lewis,
but when he dropped back, there was no Lewis, who was engulfed by Giants
defensive tackle Keith Hamilton. Dilfer threw the ball anyway and Giants
linebacker Jessie Armstead returned it 43 yards for a touchdown.
Ravens coach Brian Billick prepared for a heated lecture on the
sidelines with Dilfer. Cavanaugh was prepared to remind him that, in those
cases, throw the ball away. Then came the flag and a holding call that even
the officials in the replay booth didn't see because adequate replays weren't available.
Dilfer shrugged his shoulder and didn't let it bother him just like
he didn't let six years of criticism in Tampa as a Buc bother him.
"When
there are high expectations and you don't fulfill them, you're going to get
your share of criticism," Dilfer said. "But the negative voice is always
the loudest voice, and to depict Tampa as a city that hates Trent Dilfer
isn't fair to the city. It lets those loud-mouth, negative people become the
majority, and they're not."
In the third quarter, Dilfer broke his ring finger on the left hand,
and debated with the trainer about getting X-rays. He missed only one
series and returned. Though it wasn't pretty, this was his day.
Pain? Dilfer felt none.
"I've never felt anything this good," Dilfer said. "You know, we
expected to do this, but I think the most gratifying thing is looking before
the game into the eyes of my teammates in the locker room. They looked back
and we just knew -- we knew that were the best the team in pro football."
Soon, Dilfer will say his goodbyes, but in Baltimore, he will never
be forgotten. What can't be taken away is that he's a Super Bowl
quarterback.
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