You didn’t even have to hate Washington or the Redskins to hate Snyder.
For Baltimore football fans, he was just what the doctor ordered.
Now, even the Modells could learn to hate the Redskins, too!
And did they ever!
Snyder denied the Ravens access to extra team tickets prior to the game on Oct. 15 and did everything he could do to make the 40-mile trip as difficult as possible. At the last minute he denied the Ravens’ front office extra bus passes that would allow their team employees, led in the front bus by Art Modell, access to the parking lot of the stadium.
Even with all of the recent history between Snyder and David Modell, and the percolating bad blood, nothing would top the treatment of Ravens owner Art Modell that Sunday in Landover.
David Modell had tried for days to settle the bus pass dispute, and finally, on the Thursday prior to the game, Art Modell was forced to get personally involved, calling Snyder, who apologized and agreed that parking should not be an issue.
8
On Sunday, however, the parking attendants not only denied Modell’s bus entry at first, but then after prodding from the Baltimore police staff, forced the contingent to park in the rear lot of the facility, nearly a mile from the entrance.
Modell, now 75 years of age and slowing down a bit physically, and his wife Pat, had to call down to the Ravens’ locker room to have an equipment golf cart dispatched to the outer auxiliary lot to ride them up to the stadium.
So much for respecting a man who helped build the NFL 40 years earlier.
For the Ravens’ fans, the 13 years of shoving Washington football down Baltimore fans’ throats, via mandatory televised games 16 weeks per year, would pale in comparison to their treatment before game time.
A local radio “personality” from Washington was given a live microphone just 10 minutes prior to game time to “inspire” the crowd, work them up a little before kickoff.
Instead of the usual pre-game music and recorded messages, this fellow took to the time-honored tradition of “Let’s hear it for Team X.”
First it was the Redskins. Then the Ravens. Then the Redskins. Then the Ravens.
8There were easily 8,000 Ravens fans inside the stadium before kickoff, so the noise was noticeable and substantial with the added enticement.
Finally, after a few rounds, this “talented radio personality” screamed into the microphone, “Redskins fans, we’ve now proven what we already knew – the Ravens fans SUCK!”
I have attended a variety of different sporting events in a variety of different places. I’ve seen soccer games in London, cricket in Jamaica, bull fights in Madrid, baseball in Venezuela as well as just about every sporting event you could possibly imagine in America. I’ve seen high school events, college, professional, minor-league, sandlot – you name it – and I have never seen or heard anything as bush league or embarrassing as that effort in Landover.
It was yet another reflection on the management and management style of Sir Daniel Snyder.
But it didn’t end there.
Every time the Ravens offense reached a key third-down opportunity, the PA would get cranked up with music and the announcer would scream into the microphone, “Redskins’ fans, it’s THIRD DOWN!”
For an indoor soccer game, it might have been an acceptable environment. For the NFL, it was an absolute disgrace.
8On the field, the game was tight all afternoon. There were plenty of those “third down” situations. The Ravens punted seven times in the game and were stymied by the stingy Redskins’ defense.
The Ravens had several chances to finally find the end zone, including a wonderful play-action setup when Jermaine Lewis broke free from single coverage on future Hall of Famer Darrell Green, who crossed his legs and fell down 15 yards from the line of scrimmage. Lewis was as wide open as any player in the history of the game. Banks, struggling mightily at this point and entering his third game without taking the team to the promised land, threw the ball on a perfect spiral 40 yards down the field and 10 yards out of bounds.
It was that kind of day.
The Ravens’ best chance for finally hitting pay dirt came in the waning moments of the first half with the score tied, 3-3. With just under three minutes before halftime, linebacker Jamie Sharper hit Redskins running back Stephen Davis with a thud and the ball rolled out to cornerback Chris McAlister, who picked it up at the Redskins’ 42-yard line.
The Ravens’ offense rallied and Banks had the team on the 12-yard line with 15 seconds remaining. Even if they kicked a field goal here, at least they’d have the lead at the half.
On the next play, the Ravens received a gift from the football gods, a pass interference play that set them up with first-and-goal from the 1.
Banks dropped back to pass – very much like the effort in Miami four weeks earlier – and tried to force the ball into the middle to Shannon Sharpe. Instead, he was throwing directly into double coverage and hit Redskins’ linebacker Kevin Mitchell between the numbers.
8“That play was designed to go to Femi (Ayanbadejo) on the side,” Billick would say months later. “The ball should have never been thrown where it was. He was trying to make a play, to force it. But a guy who is progressing doesn’t make that mistake down there.”
In the second half, a somber Ravens unit played to a surprisingly somber crowd. For a sold out crowd of 83,253 – the largest crowd the Ravens would ever play before – it was awfully quiet.
Only one play would get the burgundy and gold faithful excited, a 33-yard run off the left edge by Davis early in the fourth quarter. After pulling the sweep to the side, Rod Woodson moved into the flat to square up and make the tackle. Davis used his right arm to shed the future Hall of Famer, kept plowing his legs and eventually went unabated for the long touchdown run down the sideline.
The Ravens never recovered. Banks couldn’t get the team to move the chains. And even the defense, despite allowing just 246 total yards on the day, couldn’t get a key defensive stop down the stretch to reclaim the ball. The Ravens lost to the Redskins, 10-3.
“I know it was extremely disappointing to the fans, but I felt like we played well,” Billick said. “They got one more play than we did.”
