Even as a Pro, Ogden Is Fired Up for the Big Game

It’s days like Sunday that make the college memories seem that much fonder for Jonathan Ogden.

If he were back at UCLA he would be gearing up for the USC game, the most intense game of the year.

Instead he spent his day toiling on the offensive line for the Baltimore Ravens, 14-13 losers of a forgettable game against the San Diego Chargers in what is becoming a forgettable season.

Ogden actually had a rare miscue, allowing Marco Coleman to power through him for a sack. But that two-yard loss in the second quarter had very little to do with the ultimate outcome.

The Ravens (3-7) had several more pressing problems, including a nonexistent running game that produced only 40 yards in 15 attempts (quarterback Jim Harbaugh’s 22 yards made him the only Raven in double figures), an offense that managed only eight first downs and mistakes that led to 14 penalties for 106 yards.

To top it off, someone took Ogden’s favorite blue shorts, the ones he wears under his pants every game, in the locker room afterward.

Does he miss UCLA? What do you think?

“I really do,” Ogden said. “I wish we had won this game. I was going to go up there and maybe talk to them. But I’m sure they’re fired up, no matter what. It’s SC week. No holds barred this week.

“We don’t have anything like that in the NFL. There’s no rival, really.”

Against the Trojans, “You see them at the parties, you see them around town, then you go out there and play ‘em,” Ogden said. “It’s kind of like The Game. Bragging rights. City championship. It’s great, man. I never lost to them.”

Chargers linebacker Junior Seau, nine years after his last season at USC, still considers those intracity games to be special: “The spirit there is unbelievable. I loved to be a part of that.”

There’s something to be said for tradition. It’s doubtful that, years from now, any of Sunday’s participants will take pride in their participation in this Ravens-Chargers game. With four minutes remaining in the second quarter the two teams had combined for 93 yards of offense--and 95 yards of penalties.

Good rivalries are getting hard to find in the NFL. Sunday marked the second meeting between the Chargers and the Ravens. In two weeks the Ravens will play the Indianapolis Colts, who used to be Baltimore’s team. The week after that they’ll play the Tennessee Oilers, who used to be in Houston and next year will be known as the Titans.

How can anybody be expected to work up a good hatred for the Tennessee Titans?

And how storied and respected is the Baltimore Raven franchise? Every helmet in the NFL is painted in a hallway near an elevator in Qualcomm Stadium except one. There’s no Raven helmet to be seen, just the plain old orange helmet of the Cleveland Browns.

When it comes to Baltimore Raven history, it pretty much begins with Ogden. After his career at UCLA that brought him numerous accolades (including the Outland Trophy awarded to the nation’s top lineman), he was the first player drafted by the franchise after it moved to Baltimore from Cleveland after the 1995 season.

He has justified the selection, earning a reputation as one of the league’s best linemen and gaining a trip to the Pro Bowl last season.

Ogden came to like the West Coast during his four years at UCLA. He stayed in an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard last summer and plans to return to Los Angeles during the coming off-season.

“I just kind of work in Baltimore,” Ogden said. “I don’t live there.”

He works nears his hometown of Washington, but says, “Even though D.C. is home, I choose not to live there.”

There’s only one problem with his adopted hometown of L.A.: no NFL team. He doesn’t miss the city or his school enough to give up his job.

“I like playing pro football; don’t get me wrong,” Ogden said. “It’s time to move on. You can’t stay [in college] forever. I kind of wish I could be at the game. I don’t want to play [in it] anymore. I kind of wish I could be there to support the guys.”

He watches UCLA games on his satellite dish at home and videotapes the ones he misses while on the road. And he doesn’t feel the Bruins need to apologize for their shaky victories over California, Stanford and Oregon State.

“Hey, Ohio State was blowing people out and then they lose,” Ogden said. “Would you rather blow people out and lose or barely win all the time? That’s the question you’ve got to ask.

“Right now I’m happy with them. I mean, the worst they’re going to do is the Rose Bowl this year, which is not bad. I’d like to see them in the Fiesta, but hey, the Rose Bowl is not bad.”

The Rose Bowl as consolation prize for the Pacific 10 champions. Looks like tradition is eroding in college football as well.

But not even the bowl championship series and its computers can take away the intensity produced by UCLA playing USC. Not even UCLA’s seven-game winning streak in the series can diminish it.

“This is the year it ends,” Seau said.

“The streak continues,” Ogden said. “I don’t know what the score will be, but it will continue.”

Trojans and Bruins, still disagreeing. In a time when the past means so little, it’s good to know one tradition isn’t going anywhere.