On September 1, 1996, I donned purple as an eight-year-old at Memorial Stadium in support of the Baltimore Ravens first regular season home game. Michael Jackson quickly became my favorite player, not just because he shared his name with the King of Pop, but because he led the NFL with 14 touchdowns that season.
My love for the Ravens continued through the Marchibroda years and that faith in the franchise finally paid off when Brian Billick’s scrappy underdogs hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in Tampa Bay after going into the lions den carrying a spear and screaming like a banshee, while also destroying the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV. That’s when things changed in Baltimore. Suddenly training camp was overwhelming full (it was open to the public in those days) and the kids in my middle school that rooted for the Cowboys started trading in their blue and silver for purple and black.
That’s what happens when teams become successful. It was frustrating as hell as a seventh grader (it’s still frustrating as hell now as a 26 year old), but it’s a necessary evil for any local team.
Since that time, the Ravens have been the belle of the ball here in Baltimore. They could do no wrong, while the bumbling Orioles across the street couldn’t even put together a winning season. Folks were disgusted with O’s ownership and stopped going to games in baseball’s most beautiful ballpark, while pointing to the model that the Ravens had instilled as the shining example of how to run a team. Even after the Orioles broke their decade and a half streak of losing seasons with a playoff berth in 2012, the Ravens followed it with a Super Bowl XLVII championship.
After the events of this past offseason and a few first three weeks of 2014, that Super Bowl victory seems like it happened around the same time as the moon landing. Oh and the Ravens? They’ve become arguably one of the most scandalous franchises in professional sports.
It’s always embarrassing to cheer for a team that leads the offseason in arrests. It’s even more embarrassing to cheer for a team that has a player charged with domestic violence and a video released by TMZ of him dragging his unconscious fiancee from at Atlantic City elevator. Over the spring and summer I felt like I had to say to people “Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I’m ashamed of their star running back’s actions.”
That line after ‘but’ seemed to grow even longer and more complicated as the Rice fiasco unfolded.
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I think it’s horrible that Janay Palmer Rice apologized for her role in what occurred in that Revel Casino Hotel elevator and ridiculous that the Ravens tweeted that quote.”
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I think Roger Goodell should have suspended Ray Rice for way more than two games.”
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but Kevin Byrne’s ‘I Like Ray Rice‘ blogpost is pretty much the opposite of how I feel about this team right now.”
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I wasn’t one of the idiots cheering him at an open practice at M&T Bank Stadium.
Then TMZ released the in-elevator video and my responses become even more complex.
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I can’t believe it took video evidence for the team to finally release Ray Rice when the police report detailed exactly what happened inside that elevator.
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that the team never saw the in-elevator video.”
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I’m not stupid enough to believe that the Roger Goodell never saw the in-elevator video.”
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I can’t believe it took the team this long to address the media about releasing Ray Rice and it’s incredibly cowardly that they ran head coach John Harbaugh out to answer the questions that Steve Bisciotti, Dick Cass and Ozzie Newsome should have answered.
“Yeah, I’m a Ravens fan, but I’m well aware that Roger Goodell’s ‘independent investigator’ Robert Mueller works at WilmerHale, a law firm that helped the NFL recently negotiate a multi-billion dollar contract with DirecTV and the same law firm that Ravens president Dick Cass was employed at for over 30 years.
The saddest part of all of my responses is that there were people who wore Rice’s jersey to Baltimore’s Thursday Night Football matchup against the Steelers in week two. There are fans blogging about the biases in ESPN’s report that Bisciotti, Cass and Newsome actively tried to prevent the inside-the-elevator video from becoming public. There are still people listening to the Ravens “PR Guru” (the title on his blog, The Byrne Identity, on BaltimoreRavens.com), say that the team has been transparent during the Rice saga.
1. I couldn’t be more embarrassed by the fans wearing Rice jerseys.
2. How many national media outlets are Ravens fans going to dispute before believing those who talked to sources inside and out of the organization? It’s almost as though some people will need TMZ to leak video of the Ravens front office watching the inside-the-elevator video to actually believe it happened.
3. How have the Ravens possibly been transparent during any of this? The team openly defended Rice, promoted fans that were cheering for him (that blogpost has mysteriously disappeared from BaltimoreRavens.com), then went silent when the second video is released. They have only ever responded when their feet have been to the fire. If that video was never released, Rice would have played on Sunday against the Browns.
Byrne added on Saturday, at a Ray Rice jersey exchange that 7,000 fans attended at M&T Bank Stadium, that the Ravens were “focused on Cleveland” and said they would respond with their “side of the story” this week. Maybe John Harbaugh and the team was focused on Cleveland, but Byrne was speaking AT A RAY RICE JERSEY EXCHANGE.
Not responding to ESPN’s Outside The Lines report on Saturday left Harbaugh high and dry (again) as he was asked after defeating the Browns in Cleveland to give an answer. That’s the second time the time has done that to their head coach, who reportedly wanted to cut Rice back in February.
Still there are fans, people that wear the same colors on Sunday that I do and cheer for the same team that I cheer for, that either don’t care or think that the national media is out to get their team or are disgusted that TMZ purchased this video in the first place. They ignore what could go down as one of the biggest scandals in the history of professional sports and email and tweet me to “stick to baseball” because they believe I clearly don’t like the Ravens. How could I if a disagreed with them so much?
And it’s because we share a passion for the same team, the team that I started rooting for when Michael Jackson was my favorite player, that I’m associated with this fan base. It’s the fan base that I have to constantly tell outsiders that I’m embarrassed to be associated with right now for so many reasons, but there’s nothing I can do to separate myself from them.
It’s a truly difficult time for me to be a Ravens fan.
Well Said!
What a sanctimonious prig You are NOT a Ravens Fan. You are a Liberal media hack who is full of himself and is all so confident that he is not a bad guy. You only Love the stories that you sensationalize for Money. Face it this story is completely blown out of proportion by the media. Most Real Fans do not like or accept the Idea of ANY man hitting his Woman. The problem here is that You media guys have not gotten it through your thick heads that most real NFL fans as well as Raven Fans are completely tired of all of this hype and crap over what is really NOT a NATIONAL issue. When can we fans get back to Football and actually expect to open up the paper and ONLY read about football. Do NONE of you haters out there realize that instead of bringing the Ravens down this story is doing the exact opposite? This team is getting fired up by being the underdog and getting dogged all the time is not making it worse it is actually gelling the team in more of an us against them line of thought.
More Football and Less Daily Show….or More Football and Less Drama Queen. We Fans Of the NFL are sick and tired of the inane and cowardly attacking our favorite sport over the actions of one individual and focusing what should be all of our NFL stories onto this one line. STHU or STFD
Kraven? Like your kraven munchies the nights you slam your head into a big bowl of the Bolivean Marching Powder that’s cut with Ridalin…
You’re writing such incoherent shit that you might as well just piss yourself at this point.
Hoss, walking around Arundel Mills Mall drenched in Hawaiian Punch and a face full of Bolivean Marching Powder residue, telling people you’re trolling for whores tells us your rehab isn’t working.
You have your opinion. So don’t be a Ravens fan. ” one of the biggest scandals of professional sports” -Really? You could join Judge Piro who claims that ISIS is the biggest threat to he US in our history. It is plainly obvious that you have accepted the ESPN’ s version of events, that’s you call but please refrain from providing us with sanctimonious claptrap. Ray Rice was lynched by the media and now the Ravens.
Chuckie, Chuckie, Chuckie… Look Hoss, don’t you think it’s about time you got rid of the rat tail and cover up the barbed wire tattoo? And you look like a drug crazed Charlie Brown with that big, bulbous head you freaking assclown!
Tell your boyfriend to ball gag and tie you to the radiator again the next time you feel you need to let us know your thoughts.
This is such a terrible post I will now stop reading anything from this site. If you are embarrassed by the team write about someone else. Follow another team. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Hey Charles, maybe you’re right that Zach could join Judge Piro who claims that ISIS is the biggest threat to HE US in our history and yes it is plainly obvious that you can accept the ESPN version of events, that’s YOU call, but before bashing someone on here maybe you should pay more attention in english class. Just a suggestion, it will make you sound a bit more like an adult and people might take you more serious. Have a nice day!
So Rucknrun the asswipe, you’re proud of a team who spends their time away from the football field beating women and dumping bleach on women? If that’s the case then you’re no better than the rest of them scumbags on the field! I’m glad you will stop reading things on this site if you’re proud of a team that does that! Until the Ravens change their personal image, I am with Zach in saying I ALSO am embarrassed to have my hometown associated with them– Have a nice day!
Oh Kraven Moorehead, you sad sad delusional Ravens lover not willing to accept the fact that Ray Ray did wrong! “Face it this story is completely blown out of proportion by the media.” — Really? REALLY?!? You are cracking me up! How can you say that after EVERYONE and their brother saw that video now and saw the facts right there in front of them?!? Are you one of those conspiracy theory fanatics who thinks the video was used with some special effects to make it a completely different story than what was really done that night in atlantic city? Yeah I bet you also believe in life on mars and that we never landed on the moon either.
Before I go, I will end by saying thank you for humoring me, you have most definitely made my day, earthling! 🙂
The sad thing is, domestic violence is NOT a national issue. It doesn’t get anything close to the coverage that it should be getting. It’s an extremely serious issue. Anyone who has ever dealt with domestic violence, even indirectly, can testify to how tragic it is. It really should be a national issue, but sadly, it isn’t. Articles like this and the coverage that all the NFL’s DV cases are getting are needed. It’s pathetic and quite telling of society that DV hasn’t been an issue until very recently, but maybe getting DV crammed down peoples’ throats is the way to get domestic violence the “respect” (for lack of a better term) that it deserves.
There are countless issues regarding DV that must be solved, and frankly, I don’t know if the biggest one CAN be solved unless it’s from a case-to-case basis. The biggest issue is doing what is best for all parties involved. I am in no way justifying or undermining what the abuser does, but is breaking up a family really what is best for all the involved parties? Usually not. Compounding that issue is the issue that most DV victims are afraid to speak up because they don’t want their family to be broken apart.
Great article. Some things are far more important than some silly game, and domestic violence is certainly one of them. I’m embarrassed by what the Ravens and the NFL have done regarding the Rice situation. So much so that I honestly don’t know if I want to continue to support the NFL (at least until after Goodell is gone). I know that I can’t do it this year, which is why I’m selling my tickets.
My final point, to everyone who judges so much: You do you, and let other people do themselves. There is one being in this universe whose judgment matters at all, and that’s the big man in the sky.
Go cheer for another team. We won’t miss you. Trust me.
I’m afraid that ain’t gonna happen.
Funny thing is, a big part of the Ravens’ fan base thinks that if you criticize ANYTHING the team does, you are some how less a fan.
Folks, a women was beaten badly, if you’d have witnessed your neighbor hitting his wife to the degree that Rice hit Janay Palmer, you’d try to run the guy out of town, but because he’s a celebrity on the team you follow, you follow along like a sheep pleading the company line.
Make your own choices, fellas, Just because the Ravens say the earth is flat, you don’t have to blindly follow along.
I have my opinion on how this truly played out but it really doesn’t matter. I can’t believe smart people in the NFL and Ravens camp screwed this up so badly. They should have known the video was going to come out at some point, it always does. The Mueller report will be a white wash job becuase the NFL can’t let this continue much longer. Money always wins out in the end.