"The word hangs strange in a professional sports locker room of today.

Sacrifice.

Seriously? A group of the most prominent wide receivers in the NFL – Derrick Mason, Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadeh – have been placed together on the Baltimore Ravens and forced to give up dozens of their precious catches for the vague promise of what? Winning a Super Bowl? And they have done this without great complaint?

"Well every once in awhile they have something to say," Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco says with a smile.

There was, after all, the game earlier this season when Mason – the team's longtime star receiver – screamed at Flacco on the sideline, but that was quickly diffused. Yes, you can tell the Ravens receivers don't love seeing their catch totals plummet, that they must wonder why an offense that was supposed to be more explosive still remains more or less conservative. They are receivers after all. Receivers always want more catches. Still they say little given the situation.

"What can I do about it?" asked T.J. Houshmandzadeh, a one-time star making do with just 30 receptions. "You can get upset about it and act like a [expletive]. You can complain about it and [expletive] up what's going on here."

He shrugged. He won't do those things.

He chose to be here, after all.

When the Seahawks released Houshmandzadeh in the days before the season began, he had a choice of teams who called. Most promised the same thing – the chance to catch 100 passes. But they weren't playoff teams. They didn't offer winning with those catches. And at 33 years old, he longed to win big.

"I came here because my chances were better here of winning a Super Bowl," he said.

Even when it meant being the No. 3 receiver on a team that doesn't throw the ball a great deal.

"When you have numbers in terms of guys there's still only one ball to go around," said running back Ray Rice, who gets the ball most, usually at the expense of the receivers.

As he spoke, outside of the Ravens locker room, Houshmandzadeh walked past."