Ravens' Lamar Jackson Wouldn't Consider Career a Failure Without Super Bowl Win

Lamar Jackson doesn't need a Super Bowl to validate his NFL career. 

Appearing on The Shop (starts at 14:35 mark), the Baltimore Ravens quarterback said he wouldn't consider his career a failure if he never wins a championship. 

There is a lack of nuance in discussions about an athlete's legacy in any sport. The conversation ultimately gets boiled down to, "did you win a championship?" 

And if an athlete has won a championship, the conversation then turns to "how many titles can they win in their career?"

Richard Sherman caught flak after the Super Bowl when he went on Twitter and said he doesn't think Matthew Stafford is a Hall of Famer despite winning a title. 

Coming into the 2021 season, there wasn't a groundswell of support for Stafford as a Hall of Famer. He wasn't regarded as a quarterback who was going to elevate a team, based on the Detroit Lions' lack of success during his 12-year tenure with the franchise. 

Stafford goes to a much better situation with the Los Angeles Rams, with a fantastic head coach and a deep roster of talent on both sides of the ball. He didn't play a great game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl 56 (26-of-40, 283 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions), but his no-look pass to Cooper Kupp on the go-ahead scoring drive late in the fourth quarter essentially turned him into a made man for life. 

Jackson's MVP season in 2019 was better than any individual year in Stafford's career, but the Ravens lost their first playoff game that year to the Tennessee Titans. 

The Ravens haven't advanced beyond the AFC Divisional Round with Jackson as their starting quarterback. 

Injuries decimated Baltimore's roster during the 2021 season. Jackson missed the final four games with an ankle injury, leading to the Ravens finishing 8-9 and missing the postseason for the first time since 2017. 

The goal for any athlete in any sport, of course, is to win a championship. But there is only one team at the end of every season that is happy because winning titles is really hard. 

Jackson has already established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He's with a great organization that has proven itself capable of finding and developing talent to maximize their ability. 

Time will tell if Jackson does win a Super Bowl, but it shouldn't be a prerequisite to determine the success or failure of his career.