coming back because the potential of 10-6 and the playoffs. And make no mistake about it – these are the good times when you are in the NFL business of winning football games and creating civic enthusiasm.
But it’ll be another bad postcard look this week with the Cincinnati Bengals coming to town in what appears to be the final stand of Marvin Lewis, whose only career ring is purple. A guy with ties to Ravens lore and history isn’t going to recognize the emptiness of it from his glory era and seeing a team playing to get into January.
And “patriotism” is at the heart of large part of the dispute between the angry fans and the franchise and its players.
And I’m sure the Ravens will be once again saluting the military all afternoon – as they’ve been doing incessantly for the past three months and 22 years. And wrapping themselves in the same flag that their players took a knee for isn’t bringing fans back. Neither are great National Anthems with cute kids from the city.
For God’s sake, we had 30,000 vociferously and publicly booing a call to prayer here two months ago. And we once cheered when our quarterback Kyle Boller was lying on the turf in agony. And last week there were mock cheers for Breshad Perriman that angered Mike Wallace on his behalf. Buying tickets and showing up doesn’t make the fans “nice” – and in many cases it creates quite an opposite effect.
The NFL wanted the benefit of wrapping itself around America, and red, white and blue and intersecting the shield and the flag at every turn for the past 50 years. It’s “America’s Game” and the Super Bowl has become quintessential Americana for all red-blooded patriots. The logo on the 50-yard line is always those three colors.
Now, apparently the NFL is not “American” enough and for the locals and it’s all Steve Bisciotti’s fault.
8
The Ravens would say they’re going to continue to do everything they’ve always done and that starts with making the playoffs.
And you certainly do not owe the Ravens your community kindness, generosity, wallet, warmth or support – but what do they owe you?
Once again, they’ve put a winning team on the field. Even after Ozzie Newsome was fired on Twitter. And John Harbaugh was canned on Facebook. And Joe Flacco was benched on Instagram.
If you are “turned off” by the inconsistent play on offense and aren’t watching the team because they fell under .500 in October then you are what you are – a fair weather fan. And that’s fine, but let’s just have an honest, self-evaluation. If you are only going to watch the Ravens when they win, there’s a phrase for that for which no fan cares to be insulted but if the shoe fits…
Of course you should expect the team to compete and put forth its best effort. That should be baked into the cake. But, of course, if you’ve witnessed the Angelos family and the Baltimore Orioles over this same stretch of 22 years, you’d see that “trying to win a championship” and “vision and strategy” is not always the case annually in local sports ownership. And the Orioles are as tied to the Ravens as the respective parking lots. The baseball team is about to go into a dark period trying to compete in its sport.
It is a time of opportunity for the Baltimore Ravens in the coming years to remake the local purple football brand in a new way. It’s also a time to evaluate what the Modells did right to win the hearts of the people locally to begin with in 1996 when they were asking you to foot the bill for PSLs and finance their pirated version of the Cleveland Browns.
As my sports professor pal and former Baltimore Orioles executive
