FanHouse Derrick Martin

In the fall of 2007, Brian Brohm was near the top of the college football world. Since then, not much has gone right.

His Louisville Cardinals flopped badly that season, missing out on the postseason. Expected to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, Brohm fell to the Green Bay Packers deep in the second. Seventh-round pick Matt Flynn beat him out for the job backing up Aaron Rodgers in 2008. Now, before his second season could begin, Brohm is looking for work.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

It was improbable. The Baltimore Ravens made another playoff run in 2008 based on a defense that used the art of suffocation (oh, and Ed Reed) and an offense that improved dramatically over the previous years. John Harbaugh was impressive as coach, putting a rookie quarterback out to toss the ball around and sticking with him through thick (17-29, 248 yards, 2 TDs in Week 9) and thin (11-28, 115 yards, 2 INTs in Week 15).

Now the team has to figure out what to do about a superstar in Ray Lewis, and how they should handle other important positional players (hello Mr. Stover) in order to return to (and move past) the AFC Championship game without their defensive coordinator.

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Derrick Martin was arrested over the weekend for marijuana possession. Since Martin isn't a big name, that's the kind of story that usually gets reported and then forgotten.

But Martin lied about it, and the Baltimore Sun showed absolutely no skepticism at all about that lie, so here we are, still talking about it.

To review: As soon as Martin claimed that he hadn't been arrested, the Baltimore Sun put up a headline reading, "Ravens' Martin Mistakenly Linked to Drug Arrest: Initial media reports implicated cornerback for Cleveland airport stop, but clarification revealed man had same name, birth date."

Hell of a coincidence, huh? Two guys with the exact same name and exact same birth date, both listing addresses in Owings Mills, Maryland, the city where the Ravens' headquarters are located.

Now the Sun has finally caught on that no, it wasn't another guy named Derrick Martin who was born on the same day as the Derrick Martin who plays for the Ravens and lives in the city where the Ravens are based. It was the Ravens' Derrick Martin who was arrested. Glad we've cleared that up.

Yesterday's news that Ravens cornerback Derrick Martin got arrested in the Cleveland airport for marijuana possession didn't raise much of an eyebrow. Sadly, we're all to accustomed to NFL players running afoul of the law and TSA agents finding weed in a travel bag is all too believably routine to elicit surprise. Martin denying it was him, though, is a new twist.

The Baltimore Sun apparently believes Martin's story, since they are running a story about the case under the headline "Ravens Martin mistakenly linked to drug arrest." A click on the link, however, finds an AP story which merely says that a man with the same name and date of birth as Martin was arrested in the Cleveland airport.

A Ravens spokesman, Kevin Byrne, says that Martin denies the incident ever happened. According to the Carroll County Times, the Derrick Martin who was arrested listed his hometown as Owings Mills, Maryland. Raven watchers know that's where the team's headquarters are located, which makes it a pretty plausible address for a player on the team.

That all adds up to one helluva coincidence. There are eight Derrick Martins living in Maryland listed on Whitepages.com, though none of those men live in Owings Mills. If Martin is telling the truth, great, but if he isn't he may be making things much worse for himself. The marijuana charge carries a $100 fine as penalty but the NFL frowns upon players trying to cover up arrests.

(H/T PFT)

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Derrick Martin was cited for drug possession at Cleveland Hopkins Airport Saturday, WKYC in Cleveland is reporting.

According to a police spokesman, TSA screeners discovered Martin with three bags of marijuana. It is not clear exactly what crime he's accused of or how much marijuana he had on him.

Martin was the Ravens' sixth-round draft pick out of Wyoming in 2006. He played eight games as a rookie and all 16 in 2007, including three starts at cornerback.

Via PFT.