Disclaimer: So This Episode Was Intended to Coincide with The
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Disclaimer: So this episode was intended to coincide with the presence of the Ravens at the Superbowl but seeing as the Ravens got knocked out of contention and we now have a Chiefs/49ers game this year I’m still doing the Birdcast because I don’t care about Kansas City or San Francisco (sorry). Also I am from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area so I don’t really know anyone who knows a lot about anyone but the Ravens and the Skins so yeah we’re keeping on the football theme and this is absolutely a Superbowl episode just not exactly about this one. Intro: That all being said, this show is obviously going to be about the football team currently known as the Baltimore Ravens. My guest for today is my brother, Rohan McLaughlin, lifelong fan of the Ravens and current resident of Baltimore. Now I personally don’t really have a brain for sports trivia or team rosters and all that but Rohan has always been able to keep that stuff straight and I’ve always defaulted to him when I have a sports question or in particular a Ravens question. Before we get into it (and to be honest we’ll probably come back to this a few times) I just want to talk about the perception that the Ravens have to the general public. As I am living in Pittsburgh at the moment I hear a whole lot of people talking poorly about the Ravens, calling them “thugs, criminals, cheaters” and a whole host of other racist dogwhistle terms and it often boils over into just straight up insulting the city itself. Now I’m sure my location makes this problem a bit worse given the historic rivalry between the Steelers and the Ravens but at the same time I can’t help but feel like a lot of this perception of the Ravens as being somehow a dishonest team is fairly widespread with people citing the individual players, the franchise’s history, and other controversial bits of news about the team. - Have you ever personally noticed this attitude from friends, sports articles, or just online in general or is it more of a Yinzer problem? - Do you know where this attitude primarily might have come from? The Colts: So before we had the Ravens in Baltimore we had the Colts, and before the Colts we had the Seahawks. The team was formed in 1946 as a part of the AAFC (All-America Football Conference) as the Miami Seahawks. They were a weak team with even weaker support from the community and immediately were viewed as a mistake in Miami leading to a very quick move up to Baltimore after receiving an offer from some DC-area businessmen. Upon moving, the team changed their name to reflect Baltimore’s history with the horseracing industry and the Baltimore Colts were born. A middling team still, they did better than they had in Miami and would ultimately get scooped up in the merger that occured between the AAFC and the NFL in 1950 which were at the time both struggling to stay afloat. Once we get to the NFL is when it all starts becoming a little more familiar and makes a bit more sense to me but for those who may not know - Would you mind just trying to (very briefly) explain the climate of football in the early days? It seems like there were a lot of leagues and conferences just floating around and vying for attention and it must have been exhausting living in a city and not only learning a new name for your team every few years but also the entire damn league changing. The Colts franchise in its current form would last a single season in the NFL pulling an incredible 1-11 record, promptly being dissolved by the league. However, the people of the city protested (keeping their fan club and marching band), and within two years were presented the opportunity to buy the Dallas Texans, which they did and renamed the ‘Colts’ but retaining the Texan’s Blue and White colors. The team did okay at first, but after maybe 15-20 years their performance began to slack and attendance began to dwindle. In 1984 this long string of disappointments made the league reconsider a franchise in Baltimore, and the team prepared to relocate to Indianapolis. The City of Baltimore did not take kindly to this and attempted to get the State of Maryland to repossess the franchise, giving it to someone who wouldn’t relocate*. That being said, the team did ultimately move literally under the cover of darkness on the night of March 29th, 1984. - *Did you know about this? According to Wikipedia they tried it because it worked out for the Oakland Raiders so they figured why not give it a try. The real controversy in Baltimore football comes about a decade after all this, in 1996. During the 1995 NFL season Art Modell (then owner of the Cleveland Browns) moved the franchise over to Baltimore, thus filling the vacuum left behind in the city after 1984. After some legal controversy and compromise the Browns franchise, records, and intellectual property remained in Cleveland while the team itself would move to Baltimore and be re-established as the Baltimore Ravens. One reason this may anger football fans, especially those of the Cleveland Browns was Modell’s insistence that he would not relocate, even condemning the Colts for their move to Indianapolis when that happened. The move came about once the Cleveland Indians stopped playing in the same stadium as the Browns therefore sharing revenue with the Browns which led to a huge drop in profit for Modell. He then claimed dissatisfaction with the stadium and government and moved on to Baltimore which was still clamoring for an NFL team since they lost the Colts. According to one of my coworkers this is the greatest sin the Ravens ever committed and anything the team has done since this point is just a reflection of their position as crooks and thugs. I personally don’t subscribe to this belief as I think this kind of weird franchise contract changeup is probably just a part of the professional sports world but maybe I’m wrong. - Would you say this was a particularly sneaky or untrustworthy move on behalf of the Ravens or NFL? Or is this just the way .