Billick Makes His Move and Goes to Baltimore

Owner Art Modell took the offensive Tuesday in his bid to get to the Super Bowl for the first time, signing Brian Billick to a six-year contract reportedly worth $9 million as coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

Billick, the architect of the Minnesota Vikings’ record-setting offense this season, was hired less than 24 hours after becoming the fourth person to interview for the job.

“It was worth the wait,” said Modell, who bought the Cleveland Browns in 1961 and moved the franchise to Baltimore in 1995.

Billick, 44, takes over a team that went 6-10 last season and 16-31-1 in three years under Ted Marchibroda, who was fired Dec. 28.

The agreement took place one day after the Cleveland Browns eliminated Billick from their list of prospective head coaches.

Billick has been the Vikings’ offensive coordinator the past five years. Minnesota scored an NFL-record 556 points during the regular season and amassed a team-record 6,264 yards.

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Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, back for a third tour with the San Francisco 49ers, will be introduced as the new general manager at a news conference today, club sources said.

Walsh, 67, spent 10 years with the 49ers as coach, leading them to three Super Bowl victories in the 1980s, and also spent 1996 with the club as a consultant.

Walsh will replace Dwight Clark, who resigned as San Francisco’s general manager in late November to join former team president Carmen Policy in assembling the Cleveland expansion franchise.

John McVay, who came out of retirement to become acting general manager and added acting president after Larry Thrailkill’s departure, is expected to remain with the club through next season to help Walsh.

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Oakland Raider defensive coordinator Willie Shaw interviewed for the Cleveland Browns’ head coaching position, one day after Billick was surprisingly dropped as a candidate.

That leaves Shaw, Atlanta offensive line coach Art Shell and Jacksonville offensive coordinator Chris Palmer as the only coaches who have formally met with Policy.

As for Billick, Policy said, “We felt the fit wasn’t right, the chemistry wasn’t right.”

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Longtime coach Dick Coury, 69, retired as an assistant with the St. Louis Rams, but will remain with the team as a scout. Coury, who began his coaching career in 1951, guided Santa Ana Mater Dei to a 96-9-3 record and three Southern Section championships from 1958-66. He served as an assistant coach at USC from 1967-69, then directed Cal State Fullerton’s first two football teams to records of 7-4-1 in 1970 and 6-4 in ’71. He was an assistant for many other NFL teams. . . . The AFC championship game between the New York Jets and Denver Broncos produced a preliminary rating of 26.6 with a 48 share for CBS Sports, the network said. The rating is a 6% increase over NBC’s rating for last year’s AFC title game between Denver and Pittsburgh. That game did a 25 rating and 54. A Fox Sports spokesman said that network’s ratings for the NFC championship game would not be available until Thursday.

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The Job Market

NFL teams that have changed coaches or are looking to hire one since the end of the 1998 regular season:

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TEAM OLD NEW Baltimore Ted Marchibroda Brian Billick Carolina Dom Capers George Seifert Chicago Dave Wannstedt TBA Cleveland None TBA Green Bay Mike Holmgren Ray Rhodes Kansas City Marty Schottenheimer TBA Philadelphia Ray Rhodes Andy Reid San Diego June Jones Mike Riley Seattle Dennis Erickson Mike Holmgren

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