New to soccer? This will bring you up to speed on the Baltimore Ravens!
So, do you want to learn more about the Baltimore Ravens so that when you watch the game with your friends you know what they are talking about? You have come to the right place!
Technically, the Ravens are one of the newer teams in the NFL, having been established in 1996 when the owner of the Cleveland Browns wanted to move his team to Baltimore in 1996. There was some legal drama, and the end result was that the team moved to Baltimore but took a new name. The end result was:
– players and contracts remained in Baltimore
– although the players were the same, it was technically a “new team”
– The Browns name stuck in Cleveland, and in 1999 they drafted new players and started playing again.
So, in 1996, the Baltimore Ravens were the same players as the 1995 Cleveland Browns, just in a new city and with a new name. And in 1999, the Cleveland Browns started over with different players.
The Ravens’ name was chosen in reference to the poem “The Raven” by longtime Baltimore resident Edgar Allen Poe.
Despite being technically a new team in 1996, the Ravens had an established roster and in 2000 they won Super Bowl XXXV. Since then, they have made the playoffs 8 times and won the AFC North 3 times.
Despite a track record of success, the Ravens have also had their share of problems. For example, in the 2002 season they lost several players due to salary cap problems (the amount they could pay their players was set). Obviously shocked by the loss of certain players, they finished season 7 and 9.
The next few years were marginal, sometimes ending the season with more losses than wins until 2006 when they established a best-of-13 win-3-loss team.
If you want to be aware when the Ravens are being talked about, you also need to be aware of their great rivalries.
Perhaps the biggest rivalry (not just for the Ravens, but in the entire NFL) is between the Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two cities are only a few hours apart by road, and the physical proximity makes the rivalry more “real.” Also, both teams are considered to be aggressive and physical, so when playing against each other, the action can be intense (compare this to a game between two teams with different play styles, such as brute force versus strategic play). .
There is also a rivalry with the Indianapolis Colts, which used to be the Baltimore Colts. It’s the “old” team from Baltimore vs. the “new” Baltimore team.
As you may have guessed, there is also a rivalry with the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland fans don’t like that the Ravens moved out of Cleveland in 1996.
Soccer is exciting, but if you’re new to the game it can be a little hard to remember what happened to which team. Now that you’ve read this, hopefully you’ll have a little more knowledge about the Ravens and the football world will make a little more sense to you (and you’ll understand why Colts and Ravens fans don’t like each other! !).