Is the NFL out to get us? Sometimes I think so, so much that I need medication.
The NFL shut out Baltimore in the cold as the Mayflower trucks rolled away with the Colts. No outcry as Cleveland enjoyed, no replacement team created without precedent. It seemed that America, the media were asleep.
Two expansion franchises were awarded to areas far less deserving than Baltimore. Go build a museum; it’s the same as an NFL team right? Maryland was hostage to Jack Kent Cooke, the former owner of the Redskins who claimed the viewing territory. I still have an axe to grind. 49ers v. Giants or Eagles v. the Bears were on and I was forced to watch old men with pig noses and dresses cheer their team as the Cardinals were devoured like a salmon under the paw of a grizzly bear in the form of the Redskins.
Cities where the Rams, Cardinals, Oilers, and Raiders relocated did not get the firestorm Baltimore received for getting Cleveland’s team. I even recall hearing some sportscaster wish us a lifetime of muddy fields and soggy hot dogs on the Ravens first game. As if the fans and players have a say in the final destination of a franchise! Don’t forget the “sad oversized Brown fan” picture that was plastered at nausea to remind us of our alleged sin for acquiring the franchise.
The 2003 draft, the Ravens wanted Byron Leftwich. Because of a “problem with the phones”, the Jaguars jumped ahead and drafted him first. There would be no compensation. The 2011 draft had the Chicago Bears not honoring a deal and another team jumped ahead of the Ravens. Luckily the team got their guy, but received zero compensation.
Help me with this. How on earth with all available technology does the NFL screw up trades? Is it Raven specific? Do the phones correlate to the team? If this is so, the Ravens’ phone must be one down the hall, outside, next to the dumpster with dogs giving it the fire hydrant treatment. The NFL jams their network, apps, fantasy football, feeds, and replays, down our throat but somehow can’t have a system in place for trades? A 9.5 billion operation!
This laziness is akin to losing the TV remote and rather than look for it, just sit on the couch and watch whatever is on.
The Ravens once traded with the 49ers for Terrell Owens. The Ravens needed receivers like Titanic needed life boats. Owens filed a grievance, not sure I could blame him with Boller as the QB. As the hearing for Owens moved with the speed of Dexter Manley’s reading level, all the free agent wide receivers signed elsewhere. To add insult to injury Owens scored against the Ravens later that 2004 season – a score that proved to be the margin of victory.
On to Ray Lewis and the tragedy in Atlanta, regardless how you felt, then or now, fans of other teams savaged him. As the Ravens stood behind him the team got labeled thuggish. The local paper hired a writer from Seattle who decided it was good idea to bash the Ravens and Ray as well. Judging by the sports reporting and opining in Baltimore since John Steadman passed on, writing is now to a method to incite rather than inform or entertain. Journalism is just a made up word so people can get a media pass and free food. Picture Morgan Freeman narrating that last line as seen in the Shawshank Redemption (0:31 mark of this video)!
Whatever your opinion of Brian Billick, he stood for Ray at the Super Bowl and afterwards the Ravens were disliked even more. Instead of appreciating the Greatest Of Them All 2000 defense, the Ravens were maligned as boring; opposed to the likes of the Rams’ greatest show on turf.
When game day comes, it is hard to forget that history. The circus begins: officials review an un-reviewable field goal to give the Browns a victory; Tom Brady can point to his knee and get a flag; Peyton Manning’s offensive line is comprised of octopi and squid that never seem to get called for a hold.
I am confident calls and calls not made have shaved several years off many a fan’s life regardless what city. As for me, I am nearly a ghost. But when naming rights for M&T Bank stadium become available, Excedrin and Preparation-H should be the front runners. Sometimes if the team is not getting it over the head from the refs, they are definitely getting it in the rear. We could knick name the stadium the “Pharmacy” instead of the “Vault”.
Seriously, someone contact Walgreens or CVS, I have a marketing idea!
It is hard not think the NFL referees are not out to get the team when Mike Carey can flag Terrell Suggs for “having malice in his heart”.
In the end, we as fans must persevere, carry on, and move to a new year. Harboring ill will to the affronts, real or imagined serves no purpose, but it is among the things that make you go “Hmmmm!”
See you at the Pharmacy!
