When you win the Super Bowl there’s a natural swagger that goes along with it. It’s the walk, the body language of a champion.
Years, sometimes full careers are spent trying to capture The Lombardi. It drives players and coaches. It inspires them to arrive at work a little earlier, stay a little longer, lift a little more with the hope that it all pays dividends.
When it finally does and the confetti in your team’s colors rains down from above symbolizing the crowning achievement it can be a little intoxicating – even for fans.
Imagine what it must feel like for the players.
For them a championship has a bit of collateral damage. Winning a championship, particularly without the benefit of a first round bye, makes for a long season. For the Ravens it required 3 consecutive road games, two of which were played in brutally cold conditions.
Afterwards there are the parades and the demands on the time of champions. There are banquets, interviews and autograph signings – all of which take away from the offseason rest and conditioning programs for the following season.
Free agents are more likely to leave and cash in on their success with the understanding that careers can be one hit away from ending. You really can’t blame them for wanting to take care of their families.
In the end you have a champion that is wearier than their opponents, equipped with a depleted roster forced to play a first place schedule with every single opponent looking to beat them down particularly in their towns, all because you wear new Super Bowl bling and arrive with the banners and the pageantry of a World Champion.
All of this puts a champion at a competitive disadvantage and it’s why a NFL champion hasn’t won a playoff game since 2007. The challenges for John Harbaugh & Co. were made even steeper by the departures of long-time leaders Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
The Ravens might make the playoffs this season – they might not. But either way, as fans of the team you must admit that it’s been an exciting 6-year run. In an era driven by the salary cap with more teams adept at managing it, none have been to 3 conference championships and none have won a playoff game during each of the past five campaigns like the Ravens have since 2008.
Yes they have plenty of warts and yes they’ve made many mistakes in 2013. But even if the Ravens are ousted on Sunday, there’s still plenty of reason to be thankful for the purple and black.
Until a team wins in the Meadowlands on February 2, 2014, Baltimore remains the reigning champ and during the past 6 seasons, each and every one of their 96 regular season games have been meaningful. How many teams can say that?
So despite the odds, win or lose on Sunday we should celebrate the accomplishments of our team and have confidence that they can and will fix what is broken and begin another 96-game run.
And to that end, we hope you can join us at Two Rivers in Pasadena on Sunday. It’s a great venue with great fans celebrating a great six seasons.
Keep the spirit of The Season alive, in more ways than one.
If we’re going to go down, let’s go down like champions — TOGETHER!
Let’s “play” like a Raven!
Details of Sunday’s Ravens Viewing Party HERE!