Wrong shoes and a Thanksgiving feast: Why the Ravens are honoring Terrell Suggs

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — While Terrell Suggs surprisingly left the Baltimore Ravens toward the end of his playing days, the defender affectionately known as “T-Sizzle” will make an emotional return to his NFL home on Sunday, when he gets inducted into the Ravens’ Ring of Honor.

Suggs had envisioned playing his entire career for the Ravens, just like his mentor Ray Lewis. But, after 16 years in Baltimore, Suggs shockingly signed with the Arizona Cardinals in March 2019.

The Ravens made a late push to keep the franchise’s all-time sacks leader, but this choice was personal for Suggs. Few knew at the time that Suggs’ decision was based on taking care of his terminally ill mother, who passed away a year later, in Arizona.

Now, Suggs becomes the 12th Ravens player to have his name on the facade of M&T Bank Stadium, the place where he made so many teammates laugh and opposing quarterbacks cringe.

“I love the fact that what they say now is you get to smell your flowers,” Suggs said. “The city really embraced me. When I’m there, they still call me ‘Sizzle.’ They still treat me like I’m on the team. I had that kind of, you’re a ‘Raven for life’ feeling. That’s priceless. It’s very humbling.”

Here are the stories behind some of Suggs’ biggest games:

Wrong shoes, first score

Let’s just say Suggs didn’t get off on the right foot in John Harbaugh’s first season in Baltimore. In 2008, Suggs arrived for the team flight to Miami in athletic shoes, not the required dress ones. So, Harbaugh wouldn’t let Suggs on the plane.

With the help of a police escort, team security frantically drove Suggs to his home to retrieve the right shoes. In the meantime, the plane was delayed for “mechanical” issues, which some have said was the handiwork of the Ravens’ director of operations, Bob Eller. By the time Suggs returned, the plane was suddenly fixed.

Suggs did everything right in Miami, where he recorded seven tackles, one sack and his first touchdown. His 44-yard score off a Chad Pennington interception led Baltimore to a 27-13 win over the Dolphins.

“It turned out great,” Harbaugh said this week.

Three sacks on Thanksgiving

Before the Harbaugh brothers faced off against each other in Super Bowl XLVII, the first “Harbaugh Bowl” was held in November 2011. Suggs led Baltimore to a 16-6 win over the San Francisco 49ers with three sacks and a forced fumble.

Suggs said there was some extra motivation to his performance.

“Ed [Reed, Ravens safety] was like, ‘We are not going to let them come and beat us on our home field, but we damn sure not going to lose the first ever Harbaugh Bowl’,” Suggs said.

By the end of the year, Suggs was honored as the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year.

‘His ass belongs to me’

In the 2011 opener, Suggs helped the Ravens to a 35-7 rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After Suggs sacked Ben Roethlisberger three times, he delivered his most memorable line: “Big Ben is a great quarterback. God can have his soul, but his ass belongs to me.”

What inspired that quote? “[The Steelers] had knocked us out of the playoffs in 2008 and 2010,” Suggs said. “I think we were just fed up. I was real emotional.”

Suggs embraced the rivalry with the Steelers unlike any other. He would wear T-shirts during Pittsburgh week like the one featuring a purple raven flipping the bird and the words “Hey Pittsburgh.”

Before the 2008 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh, Suggs wanted to play up an injury by putting a brace on his shoulder. But a public relations staff member had to stop him before he stepped in front of reporters because he was wearing the harness on the wrong shoulder.

So, why didn’t Suggs get inducted into the Ring of Honor during a game against the Steelers?

“[The Ravens] offered that,” he said. “But the last two Steelers games I went to, we lost. I ain’t going to jinx them like that.”