Are you a Ravens fan? In listening to some of the Ravens fans on sports talk radio and in the comments section and twitter on the internet I wonder just how deep that allegiance goes in this area to the Ravens. There is no doubt that fans want to see their team win, but it shows a lot about a team and their fan base when they have an unusually off year. This type of year definitely shows you who the fair-weather fans are and who actually are fans of the team.
I also wonder how being a “fan” applies to the bought and paid for media that feed us our sports talk radio, internet news and print media we call “Ravens” news or “Ravens” sports talk radio. Let’s face it, most of these local sports reporters and talk show hosts are people from various parts of the country who are offered a job in the Baltimore area and have grown up as Peyton Manning fans, Steelers fans, Atlanta fans, etc… and now, due to their occupation, are “Ravens” fans These individual’s allegiance to the Ravens is the allegiance that anyone has that is being paid to report on the local sports team when they have grown up as fans of teams in completely different parts of the country and their dedication to the Ravens runs as deep as the next job they take. These are the people Ravens fans are relying on for news and these people are telling our fans to hope the Ravens lose. That is just pathetic.
During the preseason, I was on twitter reviewing player information, tweets from reporters on anticipated performances prior to a preseason game and mostly what I got from the local media news “gurus” was what a waste of time preseason is, it’s a shame they have to waste their time watching this garbage football, the NFL should eliminate preseason basically because it was an inconvenience to them when they have better things to do but since they are paid to be reporters for the “Ravens” they have to watch this. I responded, basically, that it is a thrill to watch the Ravens at any time, even preseason to see what talent may exist that was overlooked by the experts. Many remember Victor Cruz showing up late in a Giants-Jets preseason game scoring 3 touchdowns as a scrub player and look where he is now. I tweeted at the time that it is a shame that they are in such a great position to review football and all they want to do is cry about it. Needless to say I lost some of those “fair-weather” fans as followers that day.
I listen to sports radio from the time I come to work until I go home at night and I listened for 6 straight hours before I heard a caller call in and say he was excited for the game tonight. I wish I knew his name because he cited all the reasons that I believe are reasons that we should all still be interested in Ravens football. We have one of the youngest and best tight end trios in the league. Watching Gillmore, Boyle and Maxx Williams, is always exciting especially when Gillmore has the ball in his hands and people are scattering as he plows his way through defenders. Our running backs with Buck Allen and Terrance West are two very interesting and young backs that should be looking to be a number one running back either for the Ravens or someone else next year. Forsett is older, and some impressive work over the next 6 games may make it so we don’t need to bring Forsett back. Our defense is improving as the year goes on as new additions Kendrick Lewis, Will Hill and Charisse Wright get more experience working together as was evident in last weeks game, has become more effective. Young defensive linemen Brandon Williams and Timmy Jernigan are starting to become dominant and last week they shut down the number one back in the league, Todd Gurley. That alone should excite almost any fan who really is a fan of football, but there are other reasons, Zadarius Smith is improving, Brent Urban is playing tonight for the first time after being injured for the last 2 years, etc…
For those who don’t believe me, all you have to do is look at the Carolina Panthers. They had a very bad start to last year and even though they weren’t in the run for the playoffs last year they started a winning streak that carried over to this year and now they are the remaining undefeated team in the league. Had the Panthers taken the same mentality that many “pundits”, and so-called fans in Baltimore, they would probably still be losing with a loser mentality. What they chose to do was not roll over, not quit to get a better draft pick, not deliberately make mistakes; instead they chose to get better, to improve their quality and to develop a culture of winning not losing. For those who say quit and get a better draft pick, that is a loser mentality and I can see where many who make those comments fall into that category.
And shame on those pundits and fans who were patting Ozzie on the back in the preseason and sticking a knife in that same back later in the year saying he has lost it. They are the same people who applauded Harbaugh and are now calling for his job, and these are the same people who loved Dean Pees when he was DC of a super bowl team now thinks he couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag. News Flash… The Ravens are fine, we will be back in the hunt next year and it starts right now. We certainly don’t need those losers, both media and fans, who feel that we need to fire every one, change everything and start over. That is a loser mentality for people who are losers.