Like every other sports take artist in this business, I can’t actually see the future.
I didn’t know the Ravens were going to win 11 straight games this season and lock up the No. 1 seed in the AFC before Christmas. I didn’t know Lamar Jackson was going to be such a runaway choice for MVP that you’d need to take out a small business loan just to be able to make any money betting on him.
And like all other sports take artists, I have no idea how the next six weeks will play out, either.
Which is why I’ve been so confused by one particular take I’ve heard from a few Ravens fans. The take goes something along the lines of “anything short of a Super Bowl win would be a disappointment.”
In context, there’s some logic, of course. The Ravens are the best team in the NFL by a noticeable margin. They’ve managed to stay healthier than can be reasonably expected from a team throughout the course of 15 NFL games (as long as the status of Mark Ingram remains tenable). Injuries to Tavon Young, Tony Jefferson, DeShon Elliott, Matt Skura and Pernell McPhee have stung, but are nothing like losing a starting quarterback, left tackle, No. 1 cornerback or top pass rusher for the season. The Ravens have avoided those, leaving themselves in tremendous shape heading into January.
Needing only three more wins to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at this point, it is by no means unreasonable to set the threshold of expectation for “Festivus Maximus.”
To wit, the better defense of the argument is actually that this might prove to be the Ravens’ BEST chance to win it all. That seems unlikely, of course. With Lamar Jackson still being younger than the player the Bengals are going to select with the first pick of next year’s NFL Draft, we have every right to believe this team is primed for a lengthy run at the top of the league. Jackson’s skill set combined with a roster featuring ELEVEN other Pro Bowl players suggests the Ravens should be the team to beat in the AFC North for the foreseeable future.
But we know that things don’t always work out the way they appear they should on paper. This isn’t a lazy “the league is going to catch up to Jackson” take. This is an “all sorts of insane things happen in the NFL” take that reminds you most teams don’t remain this fortunate injury-wise for the long haul, things happen away from the field that we can never see coming and players sometimes appear to be very good in one season and can’t match that level even a single season later.
I expect the Ravens to be a Super Bowl contender year in and year out. But it is not a birthright. There is a chance that something could go wrong at some point, and if they don’t win the Super Bowl this season, they may have squandered their best opportunity.
But I still can’t get on board with “anything short of a Super Bowl win is a disappointment.” It’s a take that fails to grasp the gravity of how dramatically things have changed for this franchise in recent seasons. For the Ravens, consistently mediocre since winning Super Bowl XLVII, this season is already a wild success no matter how it ends. That, of course, doesn’t suggest it wouldn’t be painful to lose. Any loss in the AFC playoffs would occur in Baltimore, and a loss to the Patriots would be a particularly bitter pill to swallow. But it wouldn’t erase the significance of what has occurred this year.
And it wouldn’t erase the joy that has been brought to our city thanks to what has occurred. It won’t erase how families and friends will bond this holiday season over their love of this team and this magical quarterback. It won’t erase the memories that will be made as those families and friends gather together either at the stadium or in front of a television to watch playoff games.
The goal is Miami glory in early February, and there is real reason to believe it could happen. But much like I’m not worried about Odell Beckham Jr. doing someone else’s celebration or Patriots fans trying to deflect from their own organization’s lengthy history of rule-bending or whatever anyone else is doing, I’m not worried about how the season is going to end at this point.
Instead, I’m just going to continue to enjoy this amazing experience that has galvanized our entire community and be grateful for it.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox