With every Ravens loss comes some sort of finger pointing by fans and media alike.
Outrageous proposals of firing front office personnel and getting rid of the team’s top talent have riddled the airwaves and social media pages since the team has gotten off to their worst start in franchise history.
Before I start getting accused of drinking purple Kool-Aid, the organization has problems and they deserve criticism. When it comes to selecting and grooming wide receivers their track record is abysmal and their inconsistencies on both sides of the football leave us all banging our heads on more than one occasion.
But stop the madness.
Over the past several days, the calls for the firing of head coach John Harbaugh have reached an all-time high since his arrival in 2008. Harbs has his faults. His clock management skills have always been questionable at best and his tight-lipped handling of injuries are irritating as hell.
But he’s a proven winner.
Some will claim that he inherited a talented team, and that he rode the coattails of the great Ray Lewis and Ed Reed into Super Bowl stardom. While he did inherit a very talented team, Harbaugh has since succeeded in the absence of both Lewis and Reed.
It has become a daily occurrence for local sports talk radio callers to accuse John Harbaugh of losing the locker room. This, they say, is the major reason for the Ravens’ downfall in 2015, and they call for the Ravens to fire Harbaugh.
To those I say, the Ravens’ 6 losses this season have been decided by 30 points. That surely doesn’t sound like a team who has given up on its head coach.
Need more convincing?
Here’s what quarterback Joe Flacco said about what Harbaugh told the team recently.
“He said, ‘Listen, the smoke is going to clear eventually. When the smoke clears, what are we going to be doing?
“Are we going to be sitting there cowering on the ground with our hands over our head and everybody looking at us? Or is the smoke going to clear, and we’re standing there fighting, and everybody looking at us is like, ‘Wow!'”
Flacco’s response certainly doesn’t sound like a guy who has given up on his blue-collared coach.
“I thought it was a really good analogy and really good speech, and I think that’s how we’ve got to look at it,” Joe remarked. “You stay confident and believe in what you’re doing. Part of that is standing tall with your shoulders back and your head held high.”
While the team has had its bumps in the road this season, the nonsense has to stop when it comes to lazily pointing fingers. He isn’t without blame nor are the players and neither is the organization for overestimating the talent of the team this offseason. But firing a man who’s never had a losing record during his tenure is absurd. Good luck finding anyone who would want to coach for an organization who does that.
2015 hasn’t been pretty and that’s putting it mildly but John Harbaugh deserves to see it through.
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