Remembering a “Legend”

Over the years the Ravens have had some players, oftentimes unknowns, who have performed at star levels during the preseason. Adrian Hamilton, Kapron Lewis-Moore, Victor Ochi, Trace McSorley, Jaleel Scott and Bobby Rainey to name a few. Another was Stoney Case arguably the patron saint of such players.

If you were around in the summer of 1999, you remember. Brian Billick had just arrived from Minnesota with his Denny Green pedigree and his record-setting offense, and the quarterback competition that summer was supposed to be a formality. Scott Mitchell was the veteran with the fat contract history. Stoney Case was the camp arm — a former third-round pick of the Cardinals (80th overall in 1995, out of New Mexico) who had thrown all of 57 regular season passes in four years in the desert.

And then the preseason happened.

Case ran around, made plays with his legs, threw with a gunslinger’s disregard for consequence, and the fans ate it up. Maybe they were so starved for any sports positivity after the underachieving Orioles hovered around the .500 mark, eventually winning just 78 games. But despite the summer heroics, Mitchell, who disgraced the No. 19 in Baltimore, got the nod from Billick anyway, and then kept the job for all of two weeks. During the third quarter of their Week 2 loss to the Steelers, Billick signaled to the bullpen for Case.

Case rallied the team and pulled even with Pittsburgh at the 1:22 mark of the fourth with the game knotted at 20. The Steelers managed to connect on a late field goal as time expired to give the visitors the 23-20 dub. But Billick had seen enough. The kid from Odessa Permian, the program made famous by Friday Night Lights, who quarterbacked Mojo to an undefeated 16-0 state title season in 1989 — was named the new starting quarterback for Week 3.

Billick, with his usual cocksure swagger, announced the switch praising Case’s athleticism, size, live arm. and the spark he provided in relief.

“Stoney has given us a lift every time he has played.”

Billick laid out his expectations plainly — make plays, be efficient, protect the football — and added that if he expected any less, he wouldn’t have made the move at all. That’s not lukewarm coach-speak. That’s a head coach planting a flag.

The Actual Football Part

Now the reality check, when the newly formed bromance meets the box score. Unfortunately, the box score won.

Per Pro Football Reference, Case’s 1999 season in Baltimore: 10 games, 4 starts, a 2-2 record. He completed 77 of 170 passes — that’s 45.3% — for 988 yards, 3 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, good for a 50.3 passer rating. To his credit, the legs were real: 36 carries, 141 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns, which led the team’s quarterbacks in dignity if nothing else. He’s even credited with a fourth-quarter comeback and a game-winning drive that year.

The highs were genuinely fun. Case won his first start against Cleveland — the game that delivered Billick his first victory as Ravens head coach — and followed it up a week later with a 54-yard touchdown strike to beat Atlanta in overtime. Two starts, two wins. For about ten days, the Stoney Case Era felt like a real thing.

Then came the trip to Kansas City on national television, an ugly night that included touchdown passes thrown to the wrong team. The Stoney Case era ended in a resounding thud. Case was benched, Tony Banks took over, and Baltimore’s quarterback carousel kept on turning like a song by The Byrds.

The headlines could have read, “Case Closed!”

After Baltimore

Case signed with the Detroit Lions in 2000 and, in true Stoney fashion, quietly put up his most efficient NFL season when nobody was watching: 5 games, 1 start (a win, naturally — he finished his career 3-3 as a starter), 61.5% completions, 503 passing yards, and 117 rushing yards on a 7.3 per-carry clip, per PFR. It was his last NFL action.

His career NFL line, all from Pro Football Reference: 20 games, 6 starts, 163-of-318 (51.3%) for 1,826 yards, 4 touchdown passes against 15 interceptions, a 53.3 rating — plus 270 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns. The arm was lively but directionally akin to Nuke LaLoosh.

But Case wasn’t done playing. Years after his NFL door closed, he resurfaced in the Arena Football League — with the Tampa Bay Storm (2004-05), the San Jose SaberCats (2006), and the Storm again (2007-08) — slinging it indoors into his mid-30s. The man liked ball and you have to put some respect on that!

Where Is He Now?

Today, Case is back in Texas, where the whole story began. Now 54, he lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and works as a private quarterback coach, training young QBs — kids, teenagers, the occasional grown-up chasing the dream — on mechanics, footwork, and all the fundamentals. The reviews from parents are glowing. Somewhere out there, an 8-year-old in Southlake is learning his drops from a guy who once won consecutive starts for the Baltimore Ravens and quarterbacked the most famous high school program in America.

There are worse legacies.

The Takeaway

Billick’s faith in Case became a running punchline in this town for years. In a 2003 Sun column arguing against handing the job to rookie Kyle Boller, Mike Preston ran down the coach’s quarterback misses — Mitchell, Case, Banks, Grbac, Blake — and passed along a league official’s crack that if Billick had to pick between Johnny Unitas and Stoney Case, he “would have taken Stoney Case.” Brutal. Tongue-in-cheek, I guess. I hope.

In the end, Stoney Case started four games for the Ravens and won half of them. He was never going to be the answer, but for one August, and for two glorious September Sundays, he was an answer — and in 1999 Baltimore, that was enough to make you a cult hero.

Case closed. But not forgotten.

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All NFL statistics courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com. Quotes courtesy of the Baltimore Sun (September 21, 1999 and August 28, 2003).

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