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Hurry up and wait Marvin Lewis is firmly focused on present -- not future
Updated: Wednesday January 24, 2001 9:55 PM
TAMPA, Fla. -- It will be there all this week like a constant companion, a veritable Goodyear blimp of expectation, hovering above and shadowing his every move. For Marvin Lewis, there is no escaping the promise of the near future. And he has his productive past and present to thank for that. Ever have one of those dreams where something you desperately crave remains tantalizingly out of reach? You can see it, but no matter what you do, you can't quite get there? Welcome to Marvin Lewis' Super Bowl week. So close and yet so far. The odds are overwhelming that Lewis, Baltimore's soft-spoken defensive coordinator, will be the next new NFL head coach hired. In a scenario almost as certain as the sunrise, Lewis' phone will ring Monday, and Buffalo and Cleveland will be on the other end of the line, hats in hand.
But for the time being, Lewis must keep that career goal at arm's length. His eyes must remain on the prize. While the football world fits him with the colors of either the Bills or Browns, Lewis smiles and reminds anyone who will listen that his immediate goal is to see purple and black triumph over red, white and blue. He insists he's not looking past the game of his life. Not even to get a jump start on the job of his dreams. "Sources say I'm in the driver's seat, but that remains to be seen once this game is done," Lewis said Wednesday. "But I'm really only concerned with us winning this game." Lewis, 42, is counting on nothing, and expecting the best. The architect of perhaps the greatest defense in modern NFL history, he has been sized up for a head coach's headset for weeks now, but the Ravens' surprising Super Bowl run has kept him in a hurry-up-and-wait mode. Herman Edwards, Marty Mornhinweg, Dom Capers, Marty Schottenheimer and Dick Vermeil all have been courted and landed already this offseason. But not Lewis. He remains at least partially a victim of his and his team's success. "[Becoming a head coach] hasn't been an obsession of mine," Lewis said. "I want to do the best job of whatever I'm doing, and because of that, that's the way I've approached this situation. So that can't get into the way until we get done with the next step here." But while Lewis has picked his words carefully, in order to not violate the NFL's rules against tampering, others haven't been so constrained. "They're not going to want to hear me say this, but if Marvin Lewis is not a head coach next year, I'm not playing," Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe said the other day. "I will boycott next season if someone does not hire Marvin Lewis." Alas, Sharpe is in no danger of a sit-down strike in 2001. Both the Bills and Browns are thought to have Lewis in the pole position on their coaching short lists, and the most likely scenario is that a good old-fashioned bidding war breaks out early next week. Money will be a factor, but it may not be as important as which team gives him more control over personnel decisions. In the eyes of some, that distinction could lean heavily toward Buffalo. "I don't want to be charge of everything, but I think the head coach has to have input," Lewis said. "I think that's important." In the meantime, Lewis' fellow Ravens believe he will be living very much in the moment as Sunday's showdown with the New York Giants approaches. "I think it'd be tempting to get distracted, but I know Marvin well enough and he's worked his butt off the last dozen years or more in coaching and he's not going to let this game slip away," Baltimore offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said. "His No. 1 priority is not to get himself a head-coaching job. His No. 1 priority is to win a Super Bowl.
"Come hell or high water on Monday, somebody's going to call him up and say we want to talk to you about a head-coaching job. He knows that, so why not have them call you with a Super Bowl title behind you?" What kind of transient, here-today, gone-tommorrow business is Lewis about to get himself into? Consider the following exchange between him and three reporters at Wednesday morning's Ravens press conference. A Cleveland reporter: "Does it concern you that the last Browns coach only lasted two seasons?" "Well, that concerns coaches in general," said Lewis, of the fired Chris Palmer . A Detroit reporter, just hours before the Lions hired Mornhinweg as its new head coach: "Does it concern you that the last Detroit coach lasted just seven games?" "Well, again you just go forward," Lewis said, this time without mentioning the deposed Gary Moeller by name. "That happens. As someone told me a long time ago, there's only two kinds of coaches. Those that have been [fired] and those that will be." Finally, a reporter from Buffalo cleared his throat and reminded Lewis that the Bills last head coach (Wade Phillips) was canned despite going to the playoffs in two of his three seasons. "Well, we're in a winning business," Lewis said. I think every coach understands that." No matter at which end of Lake Erie he winds up -- Buffalo or Cleveland -- Lewis understands how the highly pressurized head-coaching game works. But he also knows he may never be hotter and the time to strike is now. Even if his dual dreams of reaching the Super Bowl and getting an NFL head-coaching job seem to be bumping up against one another, seemingly robbing him of the chance to enjoy either one on its own merits. "No, that's not the case," he said. "This is a positive situation and let's keep it like that. You've got to enjoy it. Some one told me long ago to enjoy the attention, because it comes and goes. We're getting a lot of attention, but we got here because we've worked extremely hard. That's the key." For Lewis and his Ravens both.
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