Keith Urban - NFL called Orioles about attendance on ThursdayThis whole fiasco continues to get more and more embarrassing for the NFL. Not only did the NFL have their PR people use the Orioles as a punching bag on Twitter Thursday night and spread their anti-O’s agenda via their NFL.com reporters, but apparently an intern at the league office called the Camden Yards press box for attendance numbers during Thursday’s game against the White Sox.

That’s deplorable.

MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko has more details on his blog.

The Orioles confirmed that an intern from the NFL office phoned the press box Thursday night and inquired about the attendance at Camden Yards. The league was miffed that the Orioles didn’t move their game and allow the Ravens to open at home – ignoring all the factors that I’ve pointed out, including how they would have needed the approval of the White Sox and the players association, and how they got back to Baltimore at 3:30 a.m. that day, so playing in the morning was out of the question, and how the MLB office confirmed that the Orioles tried to work it out and it just couldn’t happen.

I guess it’s no surprise that we saw tweets about how many more people went to watch Keith Urban perform a free concert than went to the White Sox-O’s game. The NFL had to make sure the number they released was higher than the Orioles announced attendance.

Apparently 42,500 people went to watch a country singer that I personally had zero desire to see. 42,500, huh? Camden Yards holds 45,971, so you’re telling me that nearly a stadium full of people huddled around that barge in the Inner Harbor?

Sure, I believe it! Hello, my name is Zach and I was born yesterday.

Meanwhile the Orioles continue to take the high road as the NFL drags them through the mud. They could have released a statement or passed along a note to reporters like they NFL did, but they instead chose to ignore it altogether. A tip of the cap to them.

Speaking of which, why don’t the Ravens just step up and defend their neighbors across the street? Why don’t they just put an end to this whole fiasco and say that they agreed to open on the road and decided to face Denver in week one? After all, that’s what actually happened. In doing so, the Ravens could get some good publicity by defending the Orioles and uniting the two sports franchises that the NFL seems to be trying to drive apart.

Let’s remember folks, this is the same league whose commissioner told us to build a museum after a failed attempt at an expansion franchise.