societies and this provides a better quality of life for any civilized people.
Well, at least that’s what my Pop taught me back in Colgate in the 1970s.
We have outlined the many ongoing issues around the NFL in Part 1 – the stadium experience, the cost of going to a game, the convenience and awesomeness of the home television experience, mobile and football on your phone, Fantasy allure and gaming for profit, gambling remotely, the injuries and CTE, and the lack of Super Bowl worthiness and victories for the Ravens in recent years. The officiating is spotty if not shoddy, the quarterback play around the league is mostly atrocious and the league doesn’t even know how to define what is a legal catch of a forward pass if you witnessed the end of the Patriots-Steelers game on Sunday. Tackling is bad, the college game doesn’t translate well to the professional game and concern for injuries and CBA bargaining have led to less practice time and ill-prepared young players. Every week a star player is being carted off with some frightening, less than humane looking injury. Oh, and the concept and delivery of Thursday Night Football is a disgrace.
And they just gave Roger Goodell $200 million to continue to figure out how to increase profits while not fixing the product on the field.
I firmly believe that part of the current disenchantment with the Baltimore Ravens locally began during the Ray Rice fiasco – half of the team’s audience is female – and the months of long, clumsy criminal fallout and the ultimate release of the brutal, indefensible left hook video in that Atlantic City glass elevator that left the organization reeling for answers and accountability. It was very clear there was a lot of misinformation and the appearance of a cover up to protect a star player from all of the embarrassment and indignity that followed in the aftermath.
To say the least, it wasn’t a good look.
Every news crew in America was camped out at John Harbaugh’s office and Ray Rice would never play football again.
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Many Ravens fans would turn in their No. 27 jerseys in a long line at the stadium at a time when the organization, owner, league and anyone associated with Rice experienced an inexplicable quiet shame and tried to P.R. the episode away. Time heals but that was a rough period for the soul of the Baltimore Ravens in the aftermath of winning a Super Bowl. I know that Steve Bisciotti took it very hard personally. He is supremely defiant about his integrity and his word and takes his “public figure” status and that role quite seriously. That day he stayed overtime on the stage with the media was not an experience he relished or would ever want to relive. It’s not why he signed up to own the Ravens but it comes with the job.
And it’s not the worst thing that a billionaire have accountability for his organization, right? The Cleveland Browns owner could be going to jail. And, Jerry Richardson is selling the Carolina Panthers so he won’t have to answer questions about his antics in Charlotte over the past 25 years.
Hey, it could be worse for a franchise, right? The New England Patriots harbored a psychotic, drug-addled, multi-murderer in their locker room and their subsequent victories and Super Bowl success on the field shielded by Tom Brady has never allowed them to pay any real “price” for the existence of Aaron Hernandez. Deflategate was a far more threatening drama than a murderer in their midst. It certainly appears as though it didn’t cost the franchise of Robert Kraft a fan, a ticket sold or a nickel in revenue.
The Kansas City Chiefs had a player commit an unspeakable suicide in the parking lot as team executives attempted to intervene.
You can find nightmares, legal issues, arrested players, domestic violence, DUIs, drugs, baby mommas and dirty pee tests all over the NFL. Hell, you can find them all over sports.
The CTE stuff and the head trauma and what it does to young men and their thoughts and emotions amidst a life where a game of extreme violence feeds their families is always under observation but it hasn’t felt like a
