Tales From 2000 Ravens: Tony Siragusa Gets Last Laugh on Al Davis
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the Ravens' 34-7 victory over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. To commemorate the occasion, ESPN's Jamison Hensley compiled a series of anecdotes about the 2000 Ravens, as told by the people who lived it.
Not surprisingly, one of the most compelling tales came from defensive tackle Tony Siragusa, who delivered a crushing hit on Rich Gannon in the AFC Championship Game that knocked the Raiders quarterback out of the contest early in the second quarter.
Siragusa said he had bad feelings toward the Raiders going back to 1997, when he made a free-agent visit with Owner Al Davis before eventually signing with the Ravens.
"[Raiders owner] Al Davis brings me in and first of all, he sleeps 'til noon, so you've got to meet with him in the afternoon," Siragusa said. "They bring me out there and they say, 'We're going to offer you this much money.' So, being the person that I am, I knew that the tax situation was really bad in California. I wanted to talk to my accountants because [Davis] was offering me a little bit more [than the Ravens], but it wasn't enough more.
"So I go in the next day and I say I figured it out, and he's like, 'Well, Tony, every day is a new day.' And I was like, really? He goes, 'I'm going to have to offer you $50,000 less than I offered you yesterday.' I told him to give me my plane ticket."
Fast-forward to the 2000 AFC Championship Game. Just after Gannon threw an incompletion, Siragusa belly-flopped on top of him, with all 340 pounds of "Goose" landing on top of him.
"I didn't want to hurt [Gannon], but I wanted to act like a Raider a little bit in a Ravens uniform. Just a couple cheap shots wouldn't be too bad," Siragusa said. "As I'm walking off the field — we just beat the Raiders and we're going to the Super Bowl — I see Al Davis in the tunnel. I walk up to him and I go, 'Hey Al, how you doing? Good thing you saved that $50 grand, [bleep].' I walked right by him and into the locker room."
January 30, 2021 at 01:53AM
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