When Lacie DeCosta (Lacie Litz at the time) was a student at Randolph-Macon College, her father called to tell her he had a secret to share with her. As her father’s “secret-keeper”, she was all ears.
“The Cleveland Browns are coming to Baltimore,” said George Litz.
Mr. Litz owned the company that supplied the brick that built both Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. During his time working with them, Litz had become close with the Modells, the owners of the Ravens.
To say Lacie was excited would be an understatement. Sports and Baltimore – that’s what she was all about.
At the time, she was in the midst of a successful collegiate lacrosse career, which would ultimately end with her being named a South Regional All-American during her senior season. During that season, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets made it all the way to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference semifinals, where they were eliminated by the Roanoke Maroons.
During her senior year of college in 1997, Lacie came home for Christmas and attended the final football game played at Memorial Stadium. While she was on the sidelines, a young area scout for the Ravens saw her.
During a party after the game, Lacie was sitting with Art Modell. She was looking for a job and was working up the courage to ask him if there were any openings with the Ravens.
While Lacie was with Modell, she looked across the room. There was someone looking in her family’s direction. It was that same scout who had earlier noticed her at the game.
Lacie couldn’t figure out just who the scout was looking at. She went to the bar. After she came back her sister told her that she figured it out.
“He was looking at you,” she said to Lacie.
Just as Lacie was trying to muster her own courage to ask for a job, this scout was steeling himself to approach someone who intimidated him. While said scout couldn’t quite convince himself to say hello that night, Lacie knew that she would see him again.
She was right. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that scout’s name: yes, Eric DeCosta.
After the 1998 regular season started, DeCosta asked someone in Lacie’s department (she did ultimately land employment with the Ravens) if Lacie was dating anyone. She was not.
After the Ravens defeated the Oakland Raiders 13-10, the two went out on their first date. The rest, as they say, is history. The pair started dating and wound up engaged in April of 2000.
Twenty-two years and three children later, the DeCosta family is still in Baltimore. Eric was the first hire that Cleveland Browns general manager Ozzie Newsome made for the move to Baltimore. In the sports world, it’s very rare for anyone to stay in one place as long as DeCosta has.
“The organization has really taken care of him and our family,” Lacie recently told me. “There was never a question that he wanted to go anywhere else. We’ve stayed here for that very reason”
The word “family” gets thrown around a lot when describing sports organizations, but Lacie feels that when it comes to the Ravens, it rings true.
“We’ve been lucky and fortunate to be a part of an organization that was built off an incredible family, the Modells, and then passed on to Steve and Renee Bisciotti. We just feel very blessed every day to be a part of it.”
With her daughter Jane now at Penn State, Lacie still spends her mornings taking sons Michael and Jackson to school (although Eric does like to take them once or twice during the week).
The DeCostas do not live a normal life. It’s the life of a family of a public figure, and this public figure is the GM of an NFL team. Lacie hears what fans have to say on social media, as do her children. The good, the bad, and, unfortunately, the ugly.
Following the Ravens loss to the New York Giants in Week 6, Jackson didn’t want to go to school the next day. After receiving a spirited pep talk from his mother, the youngster indeed attended.
“This is our life, and as hard as it is we just have to deal with it,” said Lacie to her son. “We are going to win again and everybody’s going to be happy and excited.”
Lacie recalled a piece of wisdom Ravens executive Pat Moriarty had bestowed upon her years prior.
“You can’t get too high with the wins, and you can’t get too low with the losses.”
While the Ravens were struggling with close losses to Miami, Buffalo and New York, the toxicity on social media seemed to be at an all-time high. Lacie has to deal with those things as they come her way.
“Usually after a loss,” she says, “I shut Twitter off. Even if it’s not directed at me, it’s still there. I can still see it.”
Although it is easy for fans to forget, seeing the Ravens lose is hard for Lacie as well. No matter what happens in her husband’s career as a football executive, Baltimore is her city.
“Just like everybody else, I’m still a fan. I grew up in Baltimore. Even if Eric and I move on from this team, I will still always be a Ravens fan. The Ravens and Orioles are my teams, and they always will be.”
Lacie DeCosta is proud of her ties to the city of Baltimore, and no matter where her life takes her, she always will be.
“I hope the city knows that I will always be there for them. That’s important to me. I know every city has its challenges. I hope we represent the city well. I’m proud to be from Baltimore. I’m proud that my children are from Baltimore, and we will continue to be here for Baltimore.”
