original PSL owners who have not been replaced.
I see and feel it every Sunday with a completely different cast of humans in the Section 513 seats now around me every week and two years worth of empty seats everywhere in the stadium.
Showing up for kickoff is no longer mandatory – and that sucks!
The few of us left from the beginning really feel that lack of momentum and the militarization of the home games has become wholly overdone for my tastes. It’s a paid ad and I know this is what American sports has become in a cash grab for government money to fly the flag every quarter and rightfully spotlight military people with standing ovations. (So much for “sticking to sports” and it was the National Anthem in London that emptied out M&T Bank Stadium to begin with so I find that a fascinating juxtaposition as a conversation subject in a world where ESPN and Deadspin have banned political conversation in a free society.) But, either way, flying airman over the stadium in fast moving objects isn’t the same as what Ray Lewis brought here for 17 years or what I saw a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and hometown hero do on a ledge in Seattle.
I’m guessing this Sunday will be a little different with the pageantry of Brady and Belichick and those terrible black uniforms that everyone seems to love.
You better hope you don’t need Ray Lewis dancing this Sunday night to inspire the crowd but you’d sure wish he would because nothing gave the guys in the purple gear on the south sidelines a bigger tangible advantage than when our crowd caused more quarterback communication confusion and timeouts than any inhospitable den in the NFL.
(Um. Wouldn’t that be the definition of the “12th man”?)
That pre-game energy and homefield advantage all changed after The Knee in London.
The Ravens can PR it any way they like but the home game experience has suffered as much as the productivity on the field after Ray Lewis stopped dancing. New scoreboards, new club level niceties and escalators I hope to never use are all installed and functioning but the “heart” of the fans needs to be borne from 68,000 Real Fan Dans and Chain Gangs and Captain DeeFenses.
I see how much these new stadium attendees love Lamar. Or John Harbaugh. Or Justin Tucker. Or whatever new player they’re going to need to latch onto in the future if the Ravens are ever going to be an automatic sellout and “the place to be” on a Sunday.
I also see (and hear) how little many of them really know about football.
The ones who wear me out are the ones who yell when Lamar Jackson is under center. If you are one of those people, please spare me any the rest of your thoughts about football for the afternoon. No offense, but it’s why I don’t take phone calls for a living anymore. I did that back in 1996 – educating a fan base the first time around. When the Ravens feel compelled to put “QUIET: OFFENSE AT WORK!” signs on the scoreboard, that’s not something we should be doing or bragging about in a “football” town.
When Brian Billick came out with the trophy, it was weird for me to acknowledge that a lot of people weren’t in their seats to witness it. And then at halftime with the largest group of Ravens alums gathered, the whole Billick Ring of Honor ceremony felt almost absurdly rushed and Ozzie Newsome had (literally) no words and there didn’t appear to be time for them anyway.
That’s a shame. They should be doing the Ring of Honor before the game and getting people into their seats early or some other way that didn’t look and feel like it was less significant than it is for any of the future honorees.
For if the Ravens are going to sell purple football enthusiasm and significance to the next generation, getting them into the spirit of how much fun the other two were is a great way to engage EVERY crowd, EVERY week now that interest is tepid to go the games except when Tom Brady is in town and the team is 5-2 and in first place.
I had people in my section that literally knew nothing about Brian Billick and the 1996-1998 era of less than “Ravens football” we played around here until he rolled up his sleeves and changed the franchise forever.
And I started to write about Coach Billick as my partner and lifer friend and my thoughts and I never fully got it all out before he walked onto the field that day and it kind of took my breath away seeing how much it energized the place.
I’d like to see that again – every week.
We have the trophies. We have the alumni. We have passionate folks gathered before a football game and the Billick moment was truly electrifying. Ask anyone who was there!
It shouldn’t be the last time for that kind of theater in Baltimore to kick off a football game.
Let the other guys on the visiting bench know that they’d better be coming into the lion’s den with a spear and yelling “where is the son of a bitch?” or it’s going to be a long day at the Purple Crab Cake on the north sidelines.
That’s the way Baltimore should do it.
That’s the way we did it before…
