Ravens Week: Purple Monday
If you don't have a love of the game, you're gonna think I'm a crazy woman - guaranteed. My Ravens made the playoffs. No big surprise there - we're a solid team with some bigtime players. I remember the moment over the summer when I heard that Steve McNair was coming to Baltimore...*sigh*, it was then that I knew we'd very likely get to this place in the post-season. Then, a mere month later...meeting him at the restaurant where I worked (for something like 3 days) felt like some kind of serendipitous occasion. Barring serious injuries, I never doubted the Ravens' appearance in the playoffs this season.
Now that it's here, I am beyond excited. What I *am* may not even be considered a positive emotion. Yay - my football team is doing great but why am I so anxious? So nervous? So terrrrrified? I spent the morning in the minivan, listening to talk radio. Baltimore has Ravens fever and everyone has an opinion. They've got in the bag! Oh God, they're gonna lose their asses. I can't handle hearing it all, but then I can't change the station over to plain ol' music because OHMYGOSH, someone could be talking about the Ravens and I'll miss crucial insight regarding this week's matchup. And where would I be without knowing up to the minute facts about point spread and the health of Jonathan Ogden's toe??
Have I mentioned we play THE COLTS this weekend? The headline on today's paper said something like "MOST IMPORTANT SPORTING EVENT TO EVVVERRRRR COME TO BALTIMORE". If that's not enough to make you need Prozac, well...I just can't confirm what is. I mean. The COLTS. Commercially celebrated Peyton Manning who has choked in the post season every year thus far when he's supposedly the greatest QB in the league. The COLTS. Same ones who left Baltimore back in '84 via a notorious Maytag truck. "Like thieves in the night", we've heard told time and again. They left us and took their records with them... our beloved Johnny U now appearing under Indianapolis's section in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Baltimore caught a lot of heat for the way the Ravens franchise was obtained back in 1996. Cleveland wasn't building the Browns a new stadium, their franchise was losing money and the longtime owner wanted out of the city as a result. He moved to Baltimore, leaving the Browns' colors, history, records and saga in the city of Cleveland. They were rewarded with a new team within 2 years. Baltimore started from scratch, building the Ravens. I've always felt like we were a team that induced a sneer among the NFL elite - it was particularly sweet when we won the SuperBowl in the 2000-'01 season with straight up defense, the way we had to be. That year was destiny. This year... to be determined.
All I know is I'm in deep. We just can't lose to those dastardly Colts. Some days I wonder if I'll ever really be able to detach myself from this city and this feeling. No matter how sick it all makes me. :)
