“They’re the gold standard,” Steve Bisciotti said in 2011 about the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens owner told Baltimore that his team would model themselves after their archrival’s success.
Hate ’em or love ’em, the Steelers have won more Super Bowls than any football franchise. Anyone who has ever come in contact with a yellow towel waving fan or driven along side one of their numerous displaced fans on the highway knows all about Pittsburgh’s six rings.
This season the Ravens decided to go against Baltimore football tradition — to buck the trend if you will — and close their public training camp. I’ve been complaining about it since the day the news was quietly released and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
To compensate the fans, the Ravens will hold open practices at M&T Bank Stadium, the Naval Academy and a lottery to watch the team at Stevenson University and Owings Mills. The team released information about their #ComeToCamp! campaign on their official website on Sunday.
Three winners on Facebook, two on Twitter, two RavensReps, two Mobile Alerts and two Message Boards winners will be selected.
Fans are already taking the bait. “I want to come to camp to learn from the best coaches in the nfl. It would be great to see how the ravens put a great team on the field,” one fan tweeted.
Meanwhile, the “gold standard” Pittsburgh Steelers will continue to hold the same open training camp they’ve held for the last 45 years. “The road to seven Super Bowls started here in Latrobe,” school spokesman Don Orlando told USA Today last season.
With the club “making the playoffs” the last 4 years and fans at a fever’s pitch the club believes they can do this with little recourse. And they’re right.
But, have a few losing seasons, or even seasosn where you don’t get that 5th or 6th seed, and the club will have to reach back and try to gain fans back.
This is a short-sighted, dumb PR move from a club that prides itself on being very shrewd PR wise.
a large majority of teams still hold open practices- look it up – two that come to mind – Pittsburgh and Green Bay, two of the most storied franchises in all of sports, still have open camps and oh, by the way, 8 championships between them. This move borders on paranoia.
It is a very simple game people,,,,,,,,,Harbaugh is now calling the practice shots and we know how he feels about the fans,,,,,,,,,,it sucks and so does he………..
I will miss going to McDaniels several times and stopping at the Purple Diner or Olive Garden on the way back to Baltimore County………I don’t like the direction this team is taking………….