Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle
Haloti Ngata signed a five-year extension, General Manager Ozzie Newsome said today in an e-mailed release.

Ngata, 27, is now under contract through the 2015 National
Football League season. Financial details weren’t disclosed.
ESPN reported that the deal was worth $61 million, citing an
unidentified person familiar with the negotiations.

The two-time Pro Bowl selection has 338 tackles, 12 sacks
and three interceptions in his six-year career, spent entirely
with the Ravens. Since his arrival in 2006, Baltimore has
allowed 32 rushing touchdowns, an NFL low, and 84.4 yards
rushing per game, third lowest in the league, according to the
release.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Eben Novy-Williams in New York at
enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at
msillup@bloomberg.net

There may be no nastier rivalry than the one shared by the Pittsburgh
Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, two teams whose already physical approaches
are only intensified when they face one another.

As long as Ben Roethlisberger’s(notes) been available, though, it’s been rather
one-sided.

A wild comeback on their way to Super Bowl XLV was the seventh straight time
the Steelers have beaten Baltimore with Roethlisberger under center, a streak
certainly on the minds of both teams heading into Sunday afternoon’s season
opener at M&T Bank Stadium.

Smash-mouth defense and stellar running games have defined Pittsburgh and
Baltimore for years, but it’s been a quarterback who’s made the difference in a
rivalry that Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis(notes) sums up as “get hit or be hit.”

Both finished 12-4 in 2010 after winning on their opponents’ home field in
the regular season, though Roethlisberger – serving a league-mandated four-game
suspension – missed a 17-14 loss in Week 4.

He was back to engineer a 13-10 win at Baltimore in Week 13 that propelled
the Steelers to the AFC North title, then was at his best in the teams’
divisional playoff meeting at Heinz Field. With Pittsburgh down 21-7 at
halftime, Roethlisberger threw two second-half touchdown passes, then set up the
winning score with a 58-yard strike to Antonio Brown(notes), enabling Rashard
Mendenhall(notes) to score with 1:33 left to cap a 31-24 victory.

“He may not be (Tom) Brady or all those other guys, but when I see him in
the huddle I know we’ve got a chance to win,” said Steelers receiver Hines Ward(notes),
who added the Ravens would be “ticked about this (loss) for a long time.”

“He’s a proven winner. And history shows he’s a proven winner against
Baltimore.”

Roethlisberger has thrown 12 touchdown passes and just three interceptions -
posting a 93.9 passer rating – during his personal seven-game winning streak
against the Ravens, twice helping Pittsburgh knock them out of the playoffs
since 2008.

Not that he relishes facing one of the league’s most ferocious defenses.

“I hate going to Baltimore, I hate playing there, and I hate playing them in
general just because they are good,” Roethlisberger told the Steelers’ official
website. “That’s not a knock on them; it’s giving them a lot of credit because
they are such a good football team. … This is almost like its own season when
we play those guys.”

Joe Flacco(notes), who’s been under center for six of those losses, has thrown five
TDs, seven interceptions and had a 59.2 QB rating.

It’s those two in January, though, that have stuck with Ravens linebacker
Terrell Suggs(notes), one of the more active participants of trash talk in a series
full of them.

“They spoiled our Super Bowl dreams for two out of three years,” Suggs said.
“We have to switch that, you know? … I’m tired of having a sick feeling in my
stomach for a whole year. Game one. Let’s go.”

Roethlisberger was considerably less impressive in the Steelers’ 31-25 loss
to the Packers in the Super Bowl, throwing two interceptions – including one
that was returned to put Pittsburgh in a 14-0 hole.

But after making it to the NFL’s biggest stage for the third time in six
seasons, the Steelers largely sat out the league’s frenzied but brief offseason.
A flirtation with Plaxico Burress(notes) didn’t pan out, and Pittsburgh eventually
settled for Jerricho Cotchery(notes) to be its fifth receiver.

Its biggest move was to re-sign cornerback Ike Taylor(notes), who will play Sunday
despite breaking his left thumb in the team’s preseason opener.

“Tell me where to go, give me a time, pick a place and I will be there,”
Taylor said of facing the Ravens.

Taylor, Troy Polamalu(notes) and the rest of Pittsburgh’s secondary will find
another speedy target to cover. Baltimore traded a fourth-round pick to Buffalo
for Lee Evans(notes), hoping the veteran can provide a downfield threat to complement
Anquan Boldin(notes).

Evans is hardly the only new face, however. The Ravens brought in 20 new
players, with fullback Vonta Leach(notes) and veteran offensive linemen Bryant McKinnie(notes)
and Andre Gurode(notes) among those expected to give Flacco and running back Ray Rice(notes)
some help.

Gone are Willis McGehee, Todd Heap(notes), Derrick Mason(notes) and nose tackle Kelly
Gregg(notes).

Lewis isn’t sure which team’s approach – the Steelers’ stay-put mentality or
the Ravens’ flurry of changes – will pay off Sunday.

“You can look at it for them and say, ‘keeping their core together is an
advantage for them,’” Lewis told the Ravens’ official website. “And then you can
come on the flip side for us and say, ‘the different changes we did make, we
didn’t make changes to get worse, we made changes to get better.’”

Eight of the last nine meetings have been within a touchdown, with five of
those being decided by a field goal.

The Steelers haven’t lost on opening week since 2002, the league’s longest
active streak. Baltimore has won its past three openers.

Tandon Doss is a rookie wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, was a finalist for Indiana’s Mr. Football Award his senior year of high school, and is Batman.

Yes, Batman. Or at least a very close facsimile.

Before the Ravens’ 34-31 win over the Washington Redskins on Thursday night, Doss broke up a knife fight at a Five Guys burger joint in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Like any good action hero, he deflected praise.

“I saw somebody start fighting, and I broke it up,” Doss said, according to NFL.com. “That’s all it was to me.”

The Baltimore Sun said a police spokesman reported that two men attacked a manager at the restaurant at about 4:30 p.m., cutting his chin with a knife. Doss, aka the Dark Knight, intervened and the two attackers fled.

Afterward, Doss tweeted: “Jus had to break up a fight at five guys. Baltimore is too ratchet!!!”

Indeed, Baltimore may be “too ratchet,” but not for our fearless crime-fighter.

A few hours later, the fourth-round draft pick caught two passes, gained 28 yards, and had zero assault breakups vs. Washington.

Behind the times
In an interview with ESPN.com, Southern California coach Lane Kiffin said it was “almost impossible” for the Raiders to win with Al Davis running the organization.

Kiffin was fired as Oakland’s coach in 2008, four games into his second season. At a memorable news conference to discuss the move, Davis used an overhead projector to show reporters a letter he wrote to Kiffin that called the coach “immature” and accused him of a “destructive campaign” to hurt the Raiders.

Kiffin said the overhead projector was a fitting symbol of how the Raiders have fallen behind the rest of the NFL under Davis’ stewardship.

“You’re waiting for [Davis] to wake up and come to work at 2 o’clock in the afternoon to make decisions that the rest of the league is making at 6 o’clock in the morning,” Kiffin said.

(Left unsaid in the ESPN.com interview was how telling another line in Davis’ letter was — the one in which he said JaMarcus Russell was “a great player.”)

Back at home
The Minnesota Vikings will host the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night in their first game at Mall of America Field since a snowstorm tore a hole in the roof in December.

Of course, now that the Vikings have Donovan McNabb at quarterback, they’ll have to worry about holes being punched in the turf five feet in front of intended receivers.

News of note
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in St. Paul, Minn., issued an order on Friday that formally dismissed the antitrust lawsuit brought against the league by a group of players headlined by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. … Defensive tackle Kyle Williams agreed to a six-year contract extension with the Buffalo Bills. The deal is potentially worth $39 million, a person familiar with the contract said. … The NFL is donating $1 million to the new memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on Washington’s National Mall. … The Tennessee Titans agreed to a contract with ex-Eagles receiver Kevin Curtis.

This is a strange column to write about Ricky Williams, because there’s nothing strange about it. No massage he’s giving. No meditation class he’s leading. Nothing about a four-day hike in the Peruvian mountains to Machu Picchu.

There’s only the expected news of Ricky leaving town after signing with Baltimore, thus ending the most fascinating run by an athlete in South Florida history and concluding a good life lesson for all of us.

People change. That’s the lesson here. And it’s not just Ricky who changed over the last decade, though there’s some good symbolism that he arrived in dreadlocks, went through a homeless-beard stage and leaves town bald.

It’s also you who changed. It’s me. It’s anyone who watched his journey and came to appreciate his personality. He was a continual work in progress, always different than what you expected or anyone you met in a locker room.

Who else has led the league in rushing and retired to a tent in Australia? Who else tested positive for drugs four times and became the longest-tenured Dolphin — outlasting players, coaches, even the owner?

During his Dolphins years, Ricky taught yoga in California under the Hindu name Rudra, and studied massage in Kendall under his given name of Errick. He didn’t shave for a season. He wore white for a season.

He got married on Fort Lauderdale beach. He turned everyday conversations like this into entertainment.

Me: “How’s it going?”

Ricky: “I’m alive.”

Me: “That beats the alternative.”

Ricky: “Some people don’t think so.”

Me: “Who?”

Ricky: “Some deeply spiritual people. Death is welcome to them.”

He read books. He studied Eastern thought. He woke up one day and didn’t want to eat red meat. No good reason. Sort of like Forrest Gump just wanting to run. That one day became two days. Then a week. A month.

It’s been eight meatless years now. He once ordered five mangoes for lunch in the Dolphins’ complex, to his teammates’ great amusement. Nothing else. Just five mangoes.

But what set Ricky apart from most players with any story close to all of this was this: Teammates loved him. Coaches respected him. They didn’t always understand his personal journey. Who did? But they appreciated his talent and hard work.

Here’s a story: Bill Parcells, the original dictator, told players in his first speech that he wouldn’t tolerate any “knuckleheads.” Ricky figured that meant him. But by the next year, after watching Ricky work, Parcells dropped a yellow Post-it note near Ricky at a practice.

“2010 — $4.2 million,” it read. That was how Ricky’s contract got negotiated for what became his last season here. No agent. No bickering. Just one old pro respecting another old pro.

Is there disappointment he’s gone? There is to me. Beyond that, there’s this second-guess: Ricky averaged 4.2 yards a carry last season. The rest of the running backs averaged 3.5 yards. That’s not a difference. It’s a gulf.

Parcells once left a gas can in Ricky’s locker to ask if he had any left. We’ll see this year if he has any. And we’ll see if a hard-running team like Baltimore saw something the Dolphins didn’t.

Of course, that’s the common storyline across the league these days. Business is conducted. Names move on. Just on the Dolphins, Channing Crowder was cut after a practice, Vernon Carey took a pay cut and Ricky is gone to Baltimore.

Football was never a life to Ricky. It was a job. A career. But as he grew older, as he saw the end coming up on him, he seemed to surprise even himself by how much he enjoyed playing the game. Now, at 34, he plays in a new city.

When I talked with Ricky last spring, he was on his way to Singapore to study something spiritual. And Thailand. And then maybe Peru. He talked of that four-day hike to Machu Picchu.

“That’s something I always have wanted to do,” he said.

Now he’s off to Baltimore. It’s not Peru. But the good people there should know they’re getting the most fascinating story South Florida sports ever produced. Good one. Different. But fascinating.