BALTIMORE _ Before his promotion this month to Ravens general manager, Eric DeCosta had spent more than two decades in Baltimore. He'd worked with coach John Harbaugh since 2008. They'd won together and lost together, seen draft picks and free-agent acquisitions thrive and fail.
But as Harbaugh's future with the franchise grew even more shrouded in doubt this past season with the team struggling and Ozzie Newsome's tenure as GM nearing its end, reports from CBS Sports and The Baltimore Sun cast doubt on the health of relationship.
DeCosta said at his introductory news conference Wednesday that when word about the reported rift reached him, he considered it an attempt at "subterfuge." It was a rare moment of tension during a media session otherwise radiating optimism and nostalgia.
"I would see that, and I would read it, and all I would think to myself is, 'We have enemies out there who are trying to create divisions and cracks and fissures and things like that,' " DeCosta said. "I get it. It's what we do around draft time. I stand up here at draft time and tell you guys things, and sometimes I have an agenda. So I get it."
On Friday and again on Wednesday, two of the Ravens' most important figures stood up and told reporters that everything was copacetic. Harbaugh last week said he expected a "very seamless" transition from Newsome to DeCosta and expressed excitement over the dawn of a new era. DeCosta said Harbaugh "is the only coach I want to work with."
The two are "neighbors" at the team facility, DeCosta said, and separated by only the length of a football field back home; he joked that they live about 100 yards from each other in their neighborhood. With Harbaugh recently signing a contract extension through 2022 and the team set to rebuild its offense around quarterback Lamar Jackson, the fruits of their partnership will be evident before long. So will any strains on it. The mere suggestion of a schism was enough to irk DeCosta.
"It did upset me a little bit, I think, because it just wasn't true, and it was a personal thing," DeCosta said. "It wasn't work-related; it wasn't a game or something that would affect the outcome of a game or strategy. It was personal, and it was simply not true."
