Fandom, Sports, The Baltimore Ravens, etc.

I'm a huge sports fan. My screen name on several sites reflects the inane passion I have for my teams. I've been an athlete since I was a small boy. My father was a non-professional athlete (won state titles, etc.), my mother was competitive, and I began playing a variety of sports at a very young age and continued through college. I still surf today, though not competitively, it's something that I enjoy on a spiritual level (as stupid as that sounds).

Having been an athletic competitor, there's an empathy that can heighten your emotions when watching your favorite teams and players. Sometimes you're drawn back to memories of being so exhausted after executing a great play that you wanted to puke (see: http://squishylegumes.blogspot.com) on the field, but you couldn't because you still needed to execute on the next play, so you sucked it up. So, you can relate to what these amazing specimens can do when most of us would give-up. I especially love to see a running back get those extra yards through sheer determination. Giving that extra burst of energy, which had long ago been depleted, to break an extra tackle and get that extra inch. Pachino in "Any Given Sunday": "You gotta want that inch. You gotta need that Inch!"

Anyway, I'm a huge fan. I love The Terps (where I went to college). I love The Orioles (I grew up in Baltimore). I love The Raven's (I could tell that the organization had something from the beginning. [I was actually glad when the asshole of all assholes (yeah, even "idiot"), Robert Irsay, in a cowardly manner, extracted The Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. No exaggeration. His inability to be a good owner is why his team (now his son's) has still failed to win a Super Bowl. Even with, a god among quarterbacks, Peyton Manning! The Colts' organization has failed to win an NFL Championship since Super Bowl V in 1971, and I've enjoyed every minute of it as an indictment of their pussy-assed owner. The Irsay's couldn't beat a wet paper bag. Chumps.]

What is the point of all this? It's this. Last Sunday, The Baltimore Raven's suffered what is possibly their most humiliating defeat in the Baltimore Raven's organizational history. What disturbs me most about this is the Raven's bashing that is going on right now in the press. This is a team that in the 2000 season, brought the dying City Of Baltimore it's first Super Bowl since 1971 with The Colts!

Brian Billick is the head coach that masterminded that feat. Ray Lewis was the core of a defensive arsenal that every other team in the league feared. I could go on-and-on about the current personnel that had a hand in that victorious season. This is an organization that "get's it". From the top-down, renegades who have (pretty much) consistantly defied the old-school rules of football and forged a formidable presence. One early season melt-down (the first 4 games) does not an Irsay-led-team make. There are going to be bumps in the road. You can either put your hands on the inside roof of the car and wet your pants, or you can act like, say, Brian Billick. Calmly assess the situation, and figure out how to go forward. One loss, four losses, "X" number of "away game" losses do not an "Irsay" make. I stand by "my boys". They'll get it right. Patience.

I was in a short film once (don't ask), and one of the characters remarked, "patience is a virtue". Another character quickly chimed in, "patience is a virgin". Though the double entendre' is obvious, the more benign one rings true in this case. We (sports fans) are so hell-bent on the concept that our sports teams need to establish themselves as dynasties and dominate their respective sports in the form of multiple, consecutive victories and championships, that we lose sight of the fact that in professional (and amateur) sports, the level of competition is so great, that the margin between greatness and average is measured in thousandths of a point. The Raven's played some brilliant football in their horrible loss to The Detroit Lions on Sunday. They did some wonderful things from running the ball, to Anthony Wright's improvements, to the defense holding the goal line for five downs! These are the positive things Raven's fans should be clinging to. Not the finger pointing, that is so much the "modus operandi" of little pussies in business, politics, and journalism.

Finger pointing is all about "I told you so," and pushing forward agendas, neither of which have much of a place in sports. Sports are about teams and performance. Believing. When you look at the reporters this week (or any week) that are covering a story about a "loss", they are pushing forward sentiments that have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with keeping their viewers/readership in an agitated state that will keep them coming back for more. Therefore, by my logic, they are not "sports reporters". They are merely commercials for their own columns, shows, etc. Which would suggest that they are all calculated opinion and no substance.

Let's do a big shout-out to The Baltimore Sun and reporter Rob Hiaasen. "Rob, you ignorant slut". The Sun should be ashamed, more-so than the Raven's and their un-sportsmanlike penalties during Sunday's loss, for even considering publishing his vapid article, "Ravens blew the chance to set record". To call it anything other than "me too" journalism would be ludricus. In fact, calling it journalism is insulting to the "National Enquirer". Maybe you should consider going back to writing for "Highlights For Children".

To the rest of "you finger pointers", you're either:

A. A washed-up bitter athlete
B. Some geek who finally "gets to have a voice"
C. Some bitch that always need to be "right"

Fuck off. Leave writing about sports to those that actually understand competition and what it means to be a fan, and keep your pathetic, non-empathetic, cute remarks to yourselves. Dumb-asses.