PART 2: The Ghost of Baltimore Football Present
The fact that the Baltimore Ravens have lost some fans this year is indisputable.
It’s also a fact that after 22 years of consistent sellouts and mostly competitive football – unprecedented in the modern post-expansion NFL world – the Ravens have certainly been the best thing about Baltimore to come along during my adulthood.
By any measurement of its 32 teams and their successes on and off the field, any student of the National Football League considers the Baltimore Ravens a “model” franchise.
And I make no excuses or hide from this transparent fact – other than my parents, son and wife (and her miracle donor) to coming along in my 49 years on earth, the Baltimore Ravens have been the best thing to ever happen to my life. Professionally. Socially. Spiritually. Whatever I’ve ever been able to do, see, accomplish, contribute, build or have the ability to make a small positive difference in the world of local sports and media and charity has come because that purple football team came to Baltimore.
I have respected that opportunity and have worked tirelessly to make it a big part of my life and business and legacy.
So, I have no shame in admitting that Art Modell changed my life when that team miraculously landed here in October 1995. Everything good that has happened during my journey on life’s highway since that fateful day can be pinned back to Baltimore having an NFL team. The gratitude I have for having the privilege to be a vested fan with a voice and a major investment in a local AM radio station, thriving web and social media outlet and the ability to feed my family moving forward relies on local sports thriving and blossoming in my hometown. I own a sports media company here. My business partner is the former head coach of the only first Super Bowl title there will ever be in Baltimore on behalf of the Living Classrooms Foundation. I own a company in Towson, Maryland. I live in downtown Baltimore.
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I pay taxes here.
I care a lot.
The Baltimore Ravens have been much more than a football team for many people here since their arrival and their incredible arc of success on the field and in the community.
The Ravens have consistently been the one common ground – a centerpiece for everyone with pride in our community to rally around and support unilaterally in a world that seems in a constant attempt to divide us.
On its best day and at its actualized pinnacle, sports universally brings people together and can be a shining example for society in regard to fairness, hard work, sacrifice, competition, strategy and perseverance. We’ve all heard and used those axioms and realize that sports teaches teamwork and teamwork builds strong
