Brian Billick was unceremoniously canned by the Baltimore Ravens today, news that was first broken by Jay Glazer of FoxSports.com around 1 this afternoon. (Click here for hilarious tracking of ESPN reporting on news broken elsewhere. Lil' sneaks, they are).
Brian Billick was the subject of one of my very first article on "Browns: The Next Generation" in 1999. I had just finished running a site called "The Ravens Suckzone" for a couple of years, so I couldn't resist the temptation to turn the tale of Brian Billick stiffing Dwight Clark and running off to Baltimore into a satirical jab at the Ravens.
The Browns courtship of Billick, I wrote, was actually an elaborate set-up, designed to propel Art Modell into reflexively hiring a complete nut-job as the Ravens head coach.
After all, Billick was undoubtedly bonkers. 
There he was, having a nice conversation with Cleveland Browns executives when he suddenly says something completely nutty like "I need to talk to Art Modell".
It's like inviting someone into your home, making small talk, and then having him suddenly say "I'm hungry!" and begin devouring your houseplants, then putting the flowerpot on his head and starting to dance.
Complete lunacy. Considering to work for Art Modell, in 1999.
Hence, I reasoned, the Browns concluded that Billick was insane, and made sure that Baltimore hired him by feigning interest.
Of course, we knew that Clark and Policy actually wanted Billick, because Clark and Policy made a bunch of lousy decisions of that type. And the fact that they wanted Billick made Art Modell that much more anxious to hire him.
Such was my tale of Brian Billick.
When the BTNG started down the path to actual reporting of news, with actual journalists, who are actually credible, I occasionally rued the article.
Still, Billick provided a lot of amusement for us over the years. I remember when Q did a prediction page, with eerily accurate photoshopped versions of Billick's hairline receding as he became acclimated to working for Art Modell. It was scary, really, how close Q got to the speed at which all of Billick's hair would flee his scalp.
Of course, Billick was tailor-made for abuse. From the self-important pronouncements, to books on leadership from a guy who couldn't break from staring in a mirror long enough to recognize the existence of other humans, Billick really had every base of obnoxiousness covered.
At the same time, Billick was quite obviously a coaching fraud.
Touted as an offensive genius, Billick really did little other than look the part, and take advantage of talent at Minnesota like Randall Cunningham, Robert Smith, Randy Moss, and Cris Carter. I summarized his offensive strategy as "wing the ball as far as you can and let Moss run under it", which wasn't far from the truth.
When he went to Baltimore, his cluelessness as an offensive mind was put out there for all to see. His ability to completely miss when scouting quarterbacks - Stoney Case, Scott Mitchell, Tony Banks, Chris Redman, Kyle Boller, etc - and screw up the development of same are now the stuff of legend. The Ravens 2000 Super Bowl win is evidence only that good players can overcome bad coaching, as long as the bad coach in question doesn't do silly things like hold his team to any standards of off-field or post-play decency.
Now we get the inevitable: Billick as TV commentator. He's always been someone who talked a lot better than he could coach (or play), and now he'll find his niche. That guy will bother us via the television for the next five years or so, until a network runs out of use for him as well, and replaces him with the next washed-up head coach or player with some name recognition.
All is not lost, however. Billick's legacy lives on, with Marvin Lewis and the felonious Bengals. Lewis learned at Billick's side how much easier life is when you let talented inmates run the asylum.
Until they turn on you, which is what happened to Billick.
So, until he starts yammering at us from a TV booth, let's bid farewell to Baltimore's bald prince of boorishness. Hopefully he will feel free to take a year off. Or five.