Part 2: Ed Reed, Harbaugh Finally Mended Fences After Turbulent Times
There were times when former Ravens safety Ed Reed did not want to be in Baltimore.
Reed admitted that he had sometimes clashed with coach John Harbaugh.
“Yeah, I mean, literally, iron sharpening iron," Reed said on the Great Dane Nation podcast with Hall-of-Fame kicker Morten Andersen that appears on Vegas Insider. "That was something that, you know, he (John Harbaugh) harped on spiritually ... so we knew where he was coming from. Especially with those actions that we were seeing, you know, and how things are transpiring. I think as a head coach, you got to be a little off an asshole, because you got to implement your stuff, and you know, you got to stick to it. But you have to be able to adjust.”
“So as men, because like I said, how I see the league, how I saw the league, especially as you get older in your career, you start to understand it's truly a partnership with the players and the coaches.”
Reed started all 16 games and finished with nine interceptions in Harbaugh's first year at the helm. The following year Reed was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade Team for the 2000s.
In 2010, Reed was limited to 10 games after undergoing offseason hip surgery. He then began to ponder his future in Baltimore.
“There were times when I didn't want to be in Baltimore," Reed said “I just had surgery. And I'm thinking about what I went through, through my surgery to get back to the field. And I'm watching certain stuff, you know, I truly sat in the ice tub, three days after surgery to help myself heal. I get out of the ice tub, my body's shaking, like an earthquake is in my body. Like I couldn't stop shaking. And I'm thinking about those nights that I spent in Vail by myself in Colorado after I had surgery, given myself treatment, so I could get back.
“I had two hip surgeries, and I came back to certain things around the facility. I was like; 'Nah, man, like we are grown men, and they are about to treat us like kids'. Like dictating, like Fidel around his men. 'Nah, oh, no, that's not what we're doing. That's not what we're doing.'”
However, winning cures all ills.
Reed bounced back from his injury and helped lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl title after the 2012 season. He started in all 16 games and finished with 58 combined tackles (45 solo), 16 pass deflections, four interceptions, and a touchdown.
“We had to iron it out, so that we can win a championship and, and it's crazy, because through all that we went through, Coach and I were the last two on the bus to leave the Superdome after the Superbowl," Reed said. "Like we went through all that for those years that he was there ... he and I were on the bus with his daughter, leaving the Super Bowl. And I looked over, he looked at me, it's like; 'we did it.' And I'm like, 'it worked, it worked coach.' You know, so through all that, that we talked about, we came together, and then they got rid of me.”
Part 1: Former Ravens Safety, Hall-of-Famer Ed Reed Dishes on State of Ravens
