Happy Memorial Day weekend, Flock Nation. It’s been a long, trying week for many of us, so hopefully your holiday weekend is filled with quality time with those you love.
It pains me to do this, but I’d like to call attention to something good the New York Yankees did before launching into my usual Out to Lunch fare. Click on their Twitter account, and you’ll see that they shared information about the gun violence epidemic in America rather than live-tweeting last night’s game as usual, as did their opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays.
The intersection of sports and public policy has always been fraught with controversy, but it’s encouraging to see teams attempt to use their platform for good. The Miami Heat even took time out of an NBA Conference Finals games to honor the Uvalde victims and encourage their fans to call their state representatives.
A moment of silence. pic.twitter.com/8Ycn1uqN0i
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) May 26, 2022
Sports are sacred in America, so taking time away from them to highlight this issue is a good way to avoid normalizing it. Because this is not, and should not be, normal.
Moving back to our Ravens news of the day, Lamar Jackson fired back at critics who are singling him out for missing OTAs in his usual honest style.
Lamar wants to be Lamar Chris. This part of OTAs is Voluntary my Guy I will be there, just not on your watch it’s probably other QBs not attending Voluntary OTAs either but since it’s Lamar it’s a huge deal. Find something else to talk about🙄 https://t.co/2Nx2b767bb
— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) May 27, 2022
Good for Lamar! As much as I’d love to see him at OTAs, there’s no reason for the Mike Florios and Chris Simms of the world to single him out over every other NFL player.
The Ravens are probably taking solace in the returns of several injured players, including star defenders Marlon Humphrey and Odafe Oweh.
Some very good news, that was overshadowed by Lamar Jackson debate, were the injured players who returned to OTAs:
• Marlon Humphrey (chest)
• Odafe Oweh (shoulder)
• Justice Hill (Achilles)
• Daelin Hayes (ankle)
• Nick Boyle (knee)
• Ja’Wuan James (Achilles)📸@Ravens pic.twitter.com/JpRbwyYDRE
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) May 27, 2022
Baltimore also signed quarterback Brett Hundley, likely as an extra arm in camp.
We have signed QB Brett Hundley.
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 26, 2022
Anthony Levine Sr. is already impressed with rookie cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis, so the Ravens may have found yet another gem out of Alabama.
"I've never been around somebody, that young, that mature. I wrote down, 'This young man is amazing.'" @ALevine41 @JayArmourDavis impressed the Ravens' scouting department from the beginning.
Watch full episode: https://t.co/yDrn0t9nAs pic.twitter.com/mo2NXapbT1
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 26, 2022
And finally, I want to address a recent social media conversation about the 2012 Ravens being a ‘fluke’ Super Bowl team.
going off regular season performance the flukiest super bowl run was the 2021 bengals and flukiest super bowl winner was either the 2012 ravens or 2011 giants https://t.co/ttK7nFePiP pic.twitter.com/c0vYMFAH5c
— Tej Seth (@tejfbanalytics) May 27, 2022
Sure, there’s no denying that their regular season performance was not that of a Super Bowl-caliber team, but that’s forgetting some key absences.
We should point out that the ravens were missing ray lewis, terrell suggs and ed reed for a decent chunk of the regular season which made them look worse than they actually were.
— Steven Ruiz (@theStevenRuiz) May 27, 2022
The Ravens were also a dropped TD and missed FG away from making the Super Bowl the previous year with largely the same team. Two years after their Super Bowl, they were back in contention, nearly knocking off the Patriots in the playoffs, who would later win the Super Bowl.
What it really comes down to is that Joe Flacco was a different beast in the playoffs late in his career. That’s the fluke; getting elite QB production in the playoffs out of a guy who was just a regular Joe during the regular season. But the fact that he did it in 2011, 2012 and 2014 playoffs, including 21 TDs, 3 INTs and more than 250 passing yards per game, indicate that January Joe could always be counted on in the postseason.
