stadium and just how much the times and the people have changed with the fan base.
I have been a PSL holder in Section 513 since its inception in 1998. I literally filled every seat in my “Nasty Section” back in 1996 – and most of the ones in Sect. 512 and 514, too. I was allowed to pick my seat in Row 6 and about 700 other folks joined the early WNST purple army and the section rocked for two decades.
One thing about being a Personal Seat License holder all of these years – and any old-school fan would tell you this – it was like going to church or school or walking down the street you lived on at home. It was the same people every week. I knew every name. I watched every birth, every death, every divorce, every friendship, every Ray Lewis dance with the same people.
I stood at the urinal for twenty years and knew every single person’s name at halftime behind my section.
They’re mostly all gone now.
It took 20-something years but the people who tailgated, ate, sleep, breathed and showed up in their seats ready to unleash local Baltimore fury and chain gangs and DEEEE-fense chants every Sunday at the church of the purple alter are all gone.
It might’ve been The Knee in London? Maybe it’s the price of tickets or the commitment of 10 games and preseason prices? Maybe folks don’t like going downtown anymore? Maybe they’ve moved away, died off, prefer the home TV experience or just are “done” with the Baltimore Ravens in person and yet still relish the memories of watching Ray Lewis dance and ignite the sky over the Inner Harbor with an energy that had to be experienced to be understood.
8
Now Ray Lewis dances on television and our quarterback dances through linebackers.
Times change. People change. Those PSLs never said forever.
This Sunday and every Sunday moving forward are now about those new faces I saw behind me and around me and moving rapidly behind every section. I suppose they are the sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters and nieces and nephews of the folks who saw actually saw Brian Billick coach the Ravens or Jamal Lewis run the ball or Tony Siragusa throw a shoulder.
They wear Ogden and Reed throwbacks because they never saw them in person like you and I did.
They came on Sunday to see this 2019 version of the Baltimore Ravens and all they know is No. 8 doesn’t mean Cal Ripken or Trent Dilfer.
I don’t know Lamar Jackson. Maybe one day I will get to know him. I only fistbump him after victories, which is almost every week these days.
I know that everyone around him likes him. I know that every teammate sees his passion and commitment to backing up that “guarantee” to win a Super Bowl he led with in the green suit with Roger Goodell 17 months ago.
8And I watched him almost brood after his second victory of his first full season. I have only been in a locker room once after he lost a football game – and that was the playoff exit to the Chargers. He promised to get better that day, too.
And he did.
How much better can he get?
That dime that he dropped into the waiting arms of Hollywood Brown comes after just a few weeks of them working together. The brewing magic of his connection with Mark Andrews is apparent. And the play-calling of Mark Roman and the many options of this offense are still in test drive but the windows will be rolled down at noon central at the opening of The Red Sea.
Now comes Kansas City, the best team with the best young quarterback in the NFL and a house of mayhem awaiting at Arrowhead Stadium for their home opener. They are 2-0 as well.
Lamar Jackson lost this battle last season.
You think you remember that Jedi pass from Mahomes? Lamar does, too.
8We have a real football season in progress here in Baltimore. And as the Orioles try to figure out their magic number for 100-and-something losses the next two weeks – and almost foolishly allowing the Detroit Tigers to have the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft next June – the Ravens are finding a new fan base, a new energy and a new “savior” to rally around this fall.
The Ravens are going to be a handful for any team as long as No. 8 is under center.
Lamar hasn’t been perfect. He missed two potential touchdown throws on Sunday. He took a nasty hit at the sideline when he easily could’ve just dirted the ball. I’m sure there are 20 other things that Jackson saw this week that he’ll want to improve upon so that he doesn’t have that sick feeling he had when he got on the plane last time in Kansas City.
Lamar Jackson hasn’t been perfect.
But he wants to be…
