Someone once gave me a picture frame that read: “Remember this moment? The memory brings a smile to my face. I recall the exact feeling. Suddenly it was magic. I wanted to capture all the fun forever in an instant. Smile when you recall this happy time. Proof that we were there. Remembrance of laughter, happiness and good times. Those were the days. Always know as the years go by, this moment will last forever.”
I looked at that picture frame recently and I thought of the person who gave it to me. We parted ways quite a while ago but those words — they still grab me as I surrender in thought to another place and time.
But as time goes on, people change, the world changes. Some embrace change and adapt accordingly. Some cling to the past. The change disrupts them and interferes with their comfort zone.
The picture that was once featured in the frame has long since been removed and replaced by a photo that is more befitting of my life today. That doesn’t mean that I can’t subscribe to the frame’s philosophy, look back and remember, smile and allow the moment to last. It’s just changed and no matter how much I might want to go back and relive the moment in the frame’s current photo or go back even further to my memories of the original photo, things are different.
Things are definitely different.
Sure, the memories still produce that magical feeling and it’s great to remember, but the only way to produce new memories and magical moments is to let go, adapt to the changing environment and move on.
I remember pictures of Super Bowl XXXV.
Talk about magical moments!
We all have wonderful recollections of that time, the season that defined the new millennium for many of us in Baltimore. Together, we all rode the perfect wave and it delivered us to the shores of champions. We all want to ride that wave again and so we think back to the 2000 season, we remember the good times. And we remember those that were part of it.
We long for that feeling again.
So we think of Trent Dilfer, Brandon Stokley, Qadry Ismail and Jamie Sharper. We go back and replay those moments in our minds and through memories captured by pictures. The laughter and happiness returns albeit fleeting. Reality sets in and we begrudgingly admit to ourselves and to each other that things have changed – the NFL has changed. It’s been five years since we were champions. So when former Ravens such as Duane Starks and Sam Adams become available, we flirt with the notion of re-creating the lightning in a bottle that was the 2000 season.
If it was only that easy.
As fans we are driven to recapture that glory – to again share in a civic pride that is arguably unparalleled here in the Land of Pleasant Living. Surely it could be that way again, right?
It could be!
However, it likely will not be in 2006.
Dust off those picture frames now and then. Hold them. Look at them and remember. Remember Starks’ interception to put the Ravens ahead 17-0 in Super Bowl XXXV – a seemingly insurmountable lead against the Ravens record setting defense. And when you snap out of it, remember that was then, this is now. That was a 26 year old Duane Starks. Today’s version will be 32 when the season begins.
But maybe, just maybe, the Ravens are set to draft the next Duane Starks and perhaps he will be with the team longer than old No. 22.
"I’ve heard Ron Wolf say this before, you can never have enough good cornerbacks. And we’ve seen our corners get hurt every year. It’s very, very unusual that your corners will play an entire season. So that is always going to be a need in my opinion on any team in this league." These are the words of the Ravens’ Director of College Scouting Eric DeCosta.
DeCosta and the Ravens are preparing for change as they ready themselves for the 2006 NFL Draft. What might the Ravens do to improve through the draft and help return the team to winning ways? “Our mindset has always been to take the best player”, says DeCosta. “And usually if you take the best player, at some point that best player becomes a need for you. We saw that with Todd Heap and Ed Reed. We try to take the best guys so that when they play, they play pretty well. And that is what we’ve done in Baltimore.”
The pressure is certainly on DeCosta and the scouting staff. The Ravens have won but one playoff game since Super Bowl XXXV and the last three drafts have produced only 3 starters from the 25 players selected and one of them happens to be the most highly criticized athlete in town. The last two drafts have produced only one starter (Mark Clayton) and the team has refrained from making a big free agent splash so far this offseason.
It’s time for the Ravens to take the best guys again and move closer to delivering another of those moments that lasts forever.
After all, I hear there’s a blue light special on picture frames down at Kmart.
