Why I Hate the Baltimore Ravens

(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The first thing that I am going to do is apologize to any Ravens fans reading this article. This article may sound like my history as a football fan, which it sort of is. All of these ramblings in the introduction will be cleared up in the article, so let's get started.

It all started in the 2006 season with Super Bowl 41, that was the season I became an NFL fan. As many of you can tell by my profile picture, I am a colts' fan, not because they won the Super Bowl, the reason I picked the colts as my favorite team was because I wanted to be independent and pick my own team. My late Grandfather was a Bears fan.

The Chicago Bears were the best team at the time at 6-0, so I wanted to pick the next best team, which was of course the 6-0 Indianapolis Colts. Super Bowl 41 did help my being a fan of the Colts though.

Now you are probably thinking, "Hey, Tom, what does this all have to do with your hatred of the Baltimore Ravens?"

Well I'll tell you. When the playoffs started I didn't know that the Ravens existed because I was a new fan and didn't know many teams. During the divisional Round of the playoffs, the colts were going to be visiting the Ravens. I remember that all of the "experts" on CBS were all unanimous on picking the Ravens to beat the Colts.

They had good reason to pick that way, the Ravens were 13-3 with a great defense, while the Colts were 12-4 and were prone to be eliminated from the playoffs. I was happy at the end of that game when the Colts beat the Ravens in a defensive battle of the field goals 15-6. The next part is the tiny fuse that just started my hatred of the Ravens.

CBS was interviewing Peyton Manning at the end of the game and he said he saw some middle fingers. I know now that this is regular fan stuff, flipping off the opposing players, so I won't go in to detail about how mad I was at Baltimore's fans, but I was 13 years old and didn't know these things.

During the offseason, I watched the "America's Game" TV show on the NFL network about the 2000 Baltimore Ravens and that gave me even more reason to hate the Ravens. The man in the picture is Ray Lewis, the person that shows that if you have money, you can get away with anything, even murder.

It was hilarious that Ray Lewis was MVP of the Super Bowl and couldn't go to Disneyland because of the accusation against him, so QB Kyle Boller, the second-most-valuable-player got to go.

I think that everyone will agree with me that the Ravens won that Super Bowl on defense. it was the special teams of the Ravens that allowed the Giants' kickoff return for the only score for them. Baltimore almost had the first Super Bowl shutout.

I have since hated Ray Lewis—murderer. He should NOT be playing for the NFL because of what he did.

The 2007 season rolled around, and I had said that I hope the Ravens sucked ass during that season, which they did, finishing 5-11, missing the playoffs.  But that season, I built some respect for the Ravens. 2007 was the season where the Patriots went 16-0, but the Ravens, in my opinion, were the closest to beat the Pats in the regular season.

It was the fourth quarter, past the two minute warning, the Ravens had a 24-20 lead. It was 4th-and-6, and Tom Brady threw a pass and it was first down and the Patriots marched down the field and got a touchdown and won 27-24 becoming 12-0.

After the touchdown, one of the players, I think it was Ray Lewis but I'm not sure, threw the yellow penalty flag into the crowd after getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty right after the touchdown a total of 30 yards put on the kickoff.

I was originally a Miami Dolphins fan, and the Dolphins still had special place in my heart, so I didn't want their 1972 17-0 record to be broken. The Ravens fought hard for their win, but didn't get it.

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