No Respect Necessary for the Ravens
Here’s the bottom line. The Baltimore Ravens don’t need your respect, mostly because they enjoy forcing it out of you.
Why is there such a groundswell for the national media to recognize the real in Purple City? People know exactly why they don’t get any coverage or props. The Ravens have classically been a defensive-minded unit, and there’s no sexy in defense to the casual observer. Imagine ESPN trying to package a five-minute segment around just how imposing the Ravens defense is.
The average viewer is tuned into “King of Queens” before minute two.
Add that to the fact that the Ravens play in a city more known for blue collar workers, violent crime and STDs, and the media have every reason to avoid the Ravens like Norma Jeans at 2:57 a.m. Nothing good is coming out of there anyway, so why bother hanging around?
The people that need to respect the Ravens often do. Even in their worst immediately following the Super Bowl win in 2001, no team in the NFL ever looked past them as an easy victory. Shades of that respect are hanging over the team in this year’s playoffs, and plenty talking heads have begun chiming in about the Ravens being a dark horse for a Super Bowl appearance.
No one respected the New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams, or Tampa Bay Buccaneers until it was apparent that they would be around for a while as a contender. The Ravens have not had that continuity. After all, last Saturday was the team’s first playoff win since the Super Bowl run eight years ago.
Stop worrying about respect. Everybody knows that its overrated in comparison to fear anyway.
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