Kyle Goon: Before Ethan Burke played for the Ravens, he was almost a Terps lacrosse star

John Tillman can still recite the profile of the recruit who got away: big left-handed attackman, good stick skills, better vision. He was 6 feet, 6 inches but faster and more nimble than you might expect.

The recruit was an All-American, a burgeoning lacrosse star who Tillman is convinced would have had an outstanding career at the University of Maryland.

Yes, Ethan Burke might have conquered lacrosse — if only he hadn’t chosen football, eventually carving a path to the Ravens.

“He was a guy who had everything, a guy you get excited about his potential,” Tillman said. “He probably would be playing pro lacrosse right now if he wasn’t playing on Sundays.”

Burke, a sandy-haired outside linebacker, was one of the feel-good stories of Ravens training camp, scrapping his way to a roster spot after going undrafted in April. He recorded his first sack Sunday against Tennessee, bringing Cam Ward down for a 10-yard loss just before the two-minute warning as the Titans tried to get back into the game.

It has been a return home for Burke, who was born in Pasadena, grew up cheering for the Ravens and went door to door dressed as Ray Lewis for Halloween.

But there was a split in his career, when Burke went from the sport he knew since he was 3 years old and chased football, where his stardom sprouted out of the blue. In another timeline, he might have been a multisport star, like Pat Spencer or Dante Trader. His father, Zack Burke, a former lacrosse coach at Archbishop Spalding, is obviously biased, but he believes Ethan “would have changed the face of college lacrosse.”

One thing stopped that from happening. Tillman could not, in good conscience, let him sign his letter of intent.

When the Terps were recruiting Ethan, he was a standout junior at Westlake High School in Texas, having bounced from Maryland and San Diego before settling in Austin. His height made him an outlier at attack, which typically values smaller, more agile athletes.

But Zack Burke was a former pro lacrosse player and started his son early. Ethan, a natural righty, held his stick with his left hand, emulating his dad and his uncle, who also played lacrosse.

“I think my strengths were being able to overpower people, see over the defense and read the field with my height,” Ethan said. “Just being able to be physical, be quick, just really attack the defense in many ways.”

The Terps got wind of him early and got him to commit early, too. According to Inside Lacrosse, Ethan was a four-star recruit. As a junior, he said he’d come to College Park — and that was the plan until his football recruiting started blowing up.

Tillman soon learned that Westlake, a football powerhouse, was helping Ethan’s star rise. The Chapparals went undefeated that fall, and Ethan became the defensive MVP of the district thanks to his knack for racking up sacks and reaching his long arms in passing lanes. In his senior year, he became a top-200 national football recruit coveted by blue-blood programs.

Before the NCAA House settlement that changed much about the infrastructure of college sports, men’s lacrosse programs could offer only 12.6 scholarships for 40 or more roster spots. Coaches would split scholarships between players, most of whom wound up paying most of their tuition.

Tillman knew Burke’s football career was more likely to net him a full scholarship than lacrosse. So, right before Ethan was scheduled to sign his letter of intent and lock himself into Maryland, Tillman called Zack and told him Ethan needed to hold off.

“He said, ‘I think Ethan’s gonna get a football scholarship — I promise you the deal I offer will be there any time if he decides to play lacrosse,’” Zack Burke recalled. “Coach Tillman did us a solid that day.”

Maryland could have been still in the mix if the football program had been willing to offer Ethan an opportunity to be a dual-sport athlete, but the Burkes say they never heard directly from coach Mike Locksley or his staff in the recruiting process. Instead, Ethan set his sights on Michigan, where he expected to play football and lacrosse.

Whether the Terps football team recruited him or not probably wound up being irrelevant. In December 2021, a Texas coach called Burke in the middle of English class to offer him a scholarship. Westlake High was only 6 miles down the road from the UT football stadium — Ethan committed on the spot.

“When you’re a kid and going to Westlake right outside the city, that’s every kid’s dream to play for the University of Texas,” Zack said. “He’s a homebody and didn’t really want to leave home.”

Although Ethan’s college career had ups and downs, his family went into the draft process this spring hopeful that an NFL team would pick up on his talent. Zack was aware of familiar critiques: Ethan was not big enough, not fast enough, not athletic enough. But, when he got on the field for the Longhorns, he disrupted play. The Burkes hoped that would be enough.

It almost wasn’t. Burke didn’t get an invitation to the draft combine and went undrafted.

But then his agent called to tell him Baltimore wanted him to come to camp.

Zack watched Ethan play in both Ravens home games during the preseason with friends and family from the M&T Bank Stadium seats. By his game against Minnesota, when he had a sack, a fumble and two pass breakups, Zack was sure his son would make the team: “I knew they’d be crazy to get rid of him.”

Jill Riding Burke, Ethan’s mom, felt relieved when she heard he made the Ravens roster after slipping under the radar in the draft.

“He had to go through a lot of disappointment,” she said. “He had to work his way with his grit to get to where he is now. Going through that, you maybe feel like people don’t believe in you. I just love that he proved a lot of naysayers wrong.”

Baltimore was quick to latch on to Ethan’s Maryland origins after Jill posted old pictures of her son, bright-eyed and wearing Ravens purple. But it’s intriguing to consider the other possibility if Ethan had wound up wearing red and gold for the Terps. In retrospect, Ethan said, he made the right choice.

“Football is a rare opportunity — I feel like you got to take it and run,” he said. “I love lacrosse, but I like football too.”

He was not the first recruit Tillman lost to football, and he’s unlikely to be the last. But Tillman was among those congratulating Ethan for making the Ravens roster — he never played for the Terps, but Tillman is rooting for him all the same.

“When we create these relationships, we never want to close the door,” he said. “We want good things to happen for Ethan. And they have.”