Former Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin was one of 173 modern-era players nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame last month. Next month, he’ll find out if he made the cut for a second straight year to be one of 25 semifinalists, this time for the Class of 2024.

But Boldin, whose 14-year NFL career included three seasons and a Super Bowl title in Baltimore, insists he doesn’t think about whether he’ll one day have a bust in Canton, Ohio.

“My dad always taught me if you have to tell somebody how good you were, you probably weren’t very good,” he told The Baltimore Sun last week at the Courtyard by Marriott Baltimore Downtown/McHenry Row hotel, where he was on hand to promote Marriott’s Ultimate Baltimore Ravens Fan Room. “For me, I don’t try to state a case. I let my play speak for itself.”

While that play and his toughness were enough to earn three Pro Bowl selections and a championship, whether his career was Hall of Fame worthy will be the subject of debate among the selection committee.

Boldin’s 13,779 career receiving yards rank 14th all-time and are more than Hall of Famers Andre Reed, Steve Largent, Art Monk and Charlie Joiner. His 1,076 catches are ninth in league history.

He was also the fastest player to reach 400 receptions (67 games), 500 receptions (80 games) and 600 receptions (98 games). He set the NFL rookie record with 101 catches and was the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2003.

Yet there are other factors that will likely keep him out, at least for now.

Only three times did Boldin — who spent his first seven seasons in the league with the Arizona Cardinals and also had stints with the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions — finish in the top 10 in catches and receiving yards in an NFL season. He never led the league in either category, nor was he an All-Pro. Boldin also wasn’t dominant for any length of time, topping 100 catches in two of his first three years but recording fewer than 70 receptions six times.

Still, it’s unlikely the Ravens would have won the Super Bowl during the 2012 season without him.

While Boldin had 65 catches for a team-high 921 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season, his biggest impact came in the playoffs. In four postseason games, he had 22 catches for 380 yards and four touchdowns, two of which came against the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. In the Super Bowl win over the 49ers, he led the Ravens with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

That 34-31 victory is also why Boldin looks back on his brief time in Baltimore so fondly.

“I look at it as mission accomplished,” he said. “I was brought here to help bring a Super Bowl to the city and was able to do that.

“Although I was only here three years, it felt a lot longer than that because I connected with the community right away, the fan base was great, the organization was second to none. I still keep in touch, not with just players but with people in the facility.”

As for this year’s team, now 5-2 after a blowout victory over the Lions, Boldin thinks they’re still finding their way.

“I don’t think they’ve played their best football yet, especially offensively,” he said. “They’re still trying to find that identity. That happens. You get a new offensive coordinator in, sometimes it takes him a little time to fill out the pieces that he has.

“Switching over to a new coordinator, him trying to make his presence felt here, figuring out the weapons that he has and how to use them, who’s best at what positions and what they can do best, that’s still a process right now. They have the weapons. They’ll figure it out.”

Whether Boldin has enough to make it to the Hall of Fame, time will tell.

“It would mean a lot,” Boldin said of the possibility of being enshrined. “You’re talking about being one of the best to ever do it. If you get that call there’s probably no greater call.

“But it doesn’t cross my mind, not until somebody brings it up. I reached every goal I wanted to in football. For me, the ultimate goal was winning the Super Bowl. If I’m inducted, that’s icing on the cake.”

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Mukhtar Ibrahim, a Somali immigrant who moved to Minnesota at age 17 and later reported for Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune, will step down from his leadership roles at the Sahan Journal, the online news journal he launched to widespread acclaim less than five years ago.

Ibrahim, in a written announcement from Sahan, attributed the decision to exit the nonprofit news organization in part to the recent birth of his fourth child. He said that Sahan, which operates without a paywall or subscription requirement, had achieved strong financial stability and a healthy organizational culture.

Mukhtar Ibrahim (Courtesy photo)

“My family situation has changed since founding Sahan in 2019,” wrote Ibrahim, 35, a former Bush Foundation fellow who has served as the digital news journal’s founder, publisher, chief executive officer and chief fundraiser.

“I have four young kids, and I’ve been presenting on nonprofit journalism in other places across the country,” said Ibrahim in a phone interview on Sunday evening. “We’re one of the largest newsrooms in Minnesota. I never imagined it would get to this level. We’re winning news awards in contests open to larger organizations. And the organization will do even better with someone who doesn’t have so many outside obligations.”

Based in coworking space in downtown St. Paul, Sahan was established to chronicle the experiences of Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Ibrahim quickly grew Sahan — which takes its name from the Somali word for “pioneer” — from a solo operation to a team of 20, including a business administrative staff of seven, with an annual budget of $2.5 million. Following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis in 2020, Sahan captured added attention from philanthropic foundations and the general public, and developed shared-content partnerships with Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune.

The COVID pandemic also offered opportunities to partner with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota on sponsored health content and delve into releasing content in multiple languages, including a newsletter aimed at a growing Midwest community of refugees from Afghanistan.

The announcement of Ibrahim’s departure, released by editorial director Chao Xiong and chief growth officer Michael Tortorello, indicated that Sahan “is poised to have an even greater impact on Minnesota’s news ecosystem” by expanding its community engagement events, “a central part of its mission to forge deep connections with its communities.” It also plans to extend its coverage and reach beyond the Twin Cities metropolitan area by “investing in new and existing platforms to meet the diverse needs of younger news audiences.”

Since launching, Sahan has secured $7.4 million from funders, and brought in nearly $2 million from advertising and individual donations. Ibrahim said he plans to stay on until Sahan’s nonprofit board, with the help of a search firm, determine his successor, and then complete his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, after which he said he hopes to use his skills in a consulting capacity and with mission-driven organizations.

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One year since Bryce Borca went missing in Eagan, his parents are opening up about their pain in a letter that includes a message to their son.

“Bryce, we love you more than life itself. We miss you in every way. We miss that smile. We miss your sweetness, your kindness and your ability to make everyone around you feel better,” they wrote.

Bryce Borca (Courtesy of the family)

Borca, who was 23 at the time, was last seen on Oct. 30, 2022. His last known location was Fort Snelling State Park at the end of Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. He was trying to walk home after a night out with friends and hasn’t been found.

“It’s been one year since we lost our sweet Bryce,” parents Troy and Carina Borca wrote in a letter posted late Sunday. “One year. Some days it feels like 10 years and other days it feels like 10 weeks.”

They thanked Eagan police, county and state authorities and search groups “that continue to help us find answers. … We pray and hope that another year will not go by without answers.”

Missing as he tried to walk home

On Oct. 30, 2022, Borca took a ride-share back to Eagan. Friends said they’d been drinking on a party bus.

The ride-share dropped off Borca and two friends in the 3200 block of Hill Ridge Drive in Eagan at 2:08 a.m., according to a search warrant affidavit previously filed by police to collect Borca’s electronic devices to search for evidence to assist in locating him.

Borca left to walk back to his residence in the 3400 block of Promenade Avenue in Eagan, which is about two miles away. At 2:34 a.m. Oct. 30, 2022, Borca spoke with friends using video FaceTime and said his phone had 2 percent battery remaining and he didn’t know where he was. The video appeared to be in a heavily wooded area.

He shared his location from his phone, which put him in a wooded area off Minnesota Highway 13, the opposite direction of his apartment. The call ended and his friends believed his phone ran out of battery power.

Searches covered over 100,000 acres of land and water in Fort Snelling Park and surrounding area, his family wrote in January. Professional search teams, canine teams, drones and water sonar equipment were used. Many tips and leads came in, including surveillance videos from the community and businesses in the area, according to Borca’s family.

Bryce’s Blessings

Troy and Carina Borca announced in August they’d started Bryce’s Blessings, a nonprofit to honor their son and support other families coping with the loss of a child.

“Losing a child is the hardest loss there is,” they wrote in Sunday’s letter. “The pain never retreats. At times it might dull for an hour or two, but the hole in our hearts will be there forever. It is our hope that someday that hole becomes less jagged.”

Some have called the foundation “putting purpose into pain,” Borca’s parents wrote, adding, “And that feels just as good as it sounds.”

So far, 1,000 people have donated to help others or participated in a golf event honoring Bryce Borca. Bryce’s Blessings is partnering with Faith’s Lodge in Wisconsin to sponsor the cost of attending a retreat next year for parents coping with the loss of a child.

“Through the darkness” of the last year, “some light has shone through,” Troy and Carina Borca wrote.

That has included meeting teachers who Borca worked with and hearing from children he spent his days with. “He taught and mentored young children who adored ‘Mr. Bryce,’” according to Bryce’s Blessings website.

Bryce Borca’s parents said they think about him before they fall asleep, when they wake up, “and every minute in between.”

“The last year has been the hardest year of our lives,” they wrote. “We are not the same people we were a year ago. … As people who are planful of our lives, this was not in the plan. But it’s clear the plan is not ours to execute on. It’s in God’s hands.”

They ended the letter with: “We love you Bryce today and forever. Until we see you again….”

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