From todays b, the paper

So today is the morning after the end of Jonathan Ogden’s illustrious career in Baltimore. His next stop will be in Canton, Ohio, at a star-studded affair in the summer of 2013.

Before we look forward, we should take a moment and look back at a glorious era of Ravens football and a career that could never be duplicated. He was, after all, the “original” Raven. Perhaps it seems passé to honor the greats of local sports, but Jon Ogden’s name must be mentioned in any conversation about the “greatest there ever was” in Baltimore.

Coincidentally (pardon the plug), at wnst.net and AM 1570, we’re in the midst of that debate. We’re hosting the Toyota Live Web King of Baltimore Sports bracket contest this week. The entire premise of this competition is to have the people of Baltimore make their argument and ultimately decide via online voting who was the best “on-the-field” athlete we’ve ever seen in these parts.

And the competition and debate on our Web site and radio station was juicy enough already without seeing tributes to Ogden all over Baltimore over the past 48 hours. Ogden, by the way, is only the No. 2 seed in his bracket. The No. 1? A fellow named Ripken.

So, where does Ogden stand among the legends of Baltimore sports? Jim Palmer pitched 211 complete games, won three Cy Youngs and pitched on every Orioles World Series team. Johnny Unitas was the first sports star the city had and its first world champion. Eddie Murray was a consistent rock for the Orioles in the 1980’s and a Hall of Famer. Brooks Robinson was the city’s first baseball legend and inspired half the city to name children after him. Frank Robinson came from Cincinnati in 1966 and brought two championships and four World Series berths with him. And this is just scratching the surface of the many Hall of Fame legends including Art Donovan, Raymond Berry, Jim Parker, Gino Marchetti, John Mackey and Lenny Moore from the old Colts. And there’s also this guy named Ray Lewis, who will be bidding adieu to Baltimore sometime soon and some would say is the greatest middle linebacker in NFL history.

No doubt, Ogden must be strongly considered in this conversation — and you’d have a helluva case to say that he might be the best of the entire lot — but it’s a very un-sexy sell, trying to convince the general public about the value of a left tackle. He has no stats. He rarely touched the ball (although he did catch a few touchdown passes last century). And he was never one to create a stir in the city. He was a smart, quiet, efficient and relatively small personality for a man who is a freakishly large presence even amongst the biggest athletes in the NFL.
But the Ravens knew his value. Along with Lewis, he was always the highest paid player on the team and as bad as some of the results have been with quarterbacks in Baltimore over the last dozen years, it was never because of Ogden allowing a defensive end or linebacker to smear his signal caller on the blind side.

Ogden — taken with the first draft pick in franchise history and the fourth overall of the NFL Draft in 1996 — was as good as it gets, both on and off the field. He was a ferocious run blocker and so tenacious as a pass rush defender that some of the best in the business would simply quit at halftime. He was a beast in a sport of beasts. He’ll be going to the Hall of Fame soon enough.

Nestor Aparicio, owner of WNST-AM 1570, writes about sports and more. His column appears Mondays and Fridays. For more, go to wnst.net.

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