Leonhard puts the cap on it
By Dan Kolko on November 30, 2008 3:53 PM
Great to see Leonhard get in on the action -- a guy that has filled in for the injured Dawan Landry and has done a fantastic job. The Ravens haven't lost a beat with him back there in the secondary, and his professional attitude and work ethic are a welcome addition to the team.

Clayton leads Ravens over Bengals 34-3

Ryan Fitzpatrick was shackled by the Ravens, completing 12-of-31 passes for 124 yards and an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Jim Leonhard.

Bucs, Panthers win key NFC games
Bengals starter Ryan Fitzpatrick was pulled from the game but replacement Jordan Palmer threw an interception that Jim Leonhard returned 35 yards for a touchdown. Cincinnati dropped to 1-10-1.

Burress Vent

This has been an ongoing issue for me. The Burress incident is just another example. I am truly bothered by the media, not just sports media, but they seem to be particularly bad. There is a stereotype against athletes, NFL athletes included. I get it, I'm not trying to say it doesn't exist. We live in a world of stereotypes. We do not need to live by them though. I was watching Sunday NFL Countdown this morning and as they discussed the incident they began chatting about the percentage of NFL players who carry "heat". I no longer have tivo so I can not play it back to make the quote exact, but the comment that followed came down to something like this... that if you walk up to a NFL player there is a good chance they're carrying. Well, they can hold their opinion, and hell, they may even be correct, I don't know every NFL player. But the conversation continued to imply that NFL players, in a world where the economy is suffering and times are hard, don't appreciate their jobs; they take it for granted. This bothers me not because the statement is right or wrong. It bothers me because of course the country is going to think this... of course they are. How could people think any different when this is what gets covered in the media. This is what holds front and center in the media. Not the players who spend their day off volunteering. Not the players who are active in the community. Not the players who support good causes. Not the players who take care of their families. Not the players who take a knee during a game when a player on the opposing team is hurt. Not the player who prays in the center of the field at the end of the game, win or lose. Not the player who shakes the hand of a friend on the opposing team after a game. Not those players.

Why can't this country hear the good stories in the media. Because we don't want to hear it? I DO!

Thanks Joel...

caption: Baltimore signed Jim Leonhard (36) as a free agent in the offseason. He stepped into a starting safety spot when Dawan Landry sustained a spinal cord injury in the second game of the year.

Mike Lucas: Once more, Leonhard proves he belongs
Mike Lucas — 11/26/2008 6:05 am
You could tell Jim Leonhard was sizing up the question by the way he carefully framed his answer. In making the jump from small town walk-on (from tiny Tony in northern Wisconsin) to college All-American (at the UW-Madison) to undrafted free agent (with the Buffalo Bills) to NFL starting safety (with the Baltimore Ravens), has the gritty, 5-foot-8, 186-pound Leonhard exceeded his own expectations?

By the way, the image that was used to prove a point in this article was the same play, only a few seconds later, that was also used by the Baltimore Sun. The Sun's caption read "New York running back Derrick Ward bowls over Baltimore safety Jim Leonhard. ..." Now, we can all see what really happened in this picture used by!

Hey... is that Joel in the background?...
Plug-in veterans help power Ravens defense
By Ken Murray
November 22, 2008
"Someone that athletic and that smart we felt was a good fit," Kokinis said. "He learned that defense fast. It's a lot about chemistry, a little about talent and a lot about heart, and he has that."