Titans-Ravens Part One
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
When I was a young lad of 21, the Titans finished the season 13-3. We had home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I was still back home in Nashville on Christmas break for the first playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. At the time I was a senior at GW. During my time at GW one of my roommates was Krishna. As luck would have it Krishna was from the same hometown as John Wilkes Boothe, Bel Air, Maryland. (Boothe's boyhood home is not open to the public. Once I made Krishna drive me there and we pulled into the driveway and sat there looking at the house for about ten seconds. "This isn't realy isn't very interesting," Krishna said.) As a suburban Baltimore native, I had to hear about the Ravens all season long.
As part of the third Titans-Ravens game that season (both teams were still in the same division at the time), I was very confident of victory. Some would say way too confident. So I bet Krishna that if the Ravens came into Nashville and beat the Titans I would run naked around Washington Square Park in Washington, D.C. For those of you who aren't aware Washington Square park is about six blocks from the White House, just north of the main GW campus. It's a large park with an equestrian statue of George Washington. It's impossible to run around the park faster than thirty seconds or so.
By now you know what happened in that game, the Titans lost 24-10. On a series of fluke plays that still make me angry to this day. The Ravens made just one play on offense all day--a busted coverage Trent Dilfer pass to Shannon Sharpe. Then they blocked an Al Del Greco field goal and returned it for a touchdown. (I still remember how perfect that ball bounced into the Ravens' hands. How rare is that? That a field goal gets blocked and a defensive player is able to pick it up without breaking stride?) Later, for good measure, Ray Lewis pimp-slapped Eddie George, took away the football from him, and raced into the end zone where he completed the score by doing a flip, ripping off his helmet, and sticking out his tongue. (Ray Lewis has a Kiss-like tongue-length. Maybe this helps him with the murders, I don't know.)Despite outgaining the Ravens 317 to 134 in total yards and limiting the Ravens to just 6 first downs all game while racking up 23 themselves, the final score was 24-10 Ravens and I didn't think watching your home team lose could be any more painful.
By the end of the game I wanted Al Del Greco strung up on Broadway and made to pay for his transgressions.
Then, I returned to Washington where the local D.C. media were, in typical fashion, agog over the Ravens success. (In my lifetime I have never seen a more front-running metropolitan area than Washington, D.C. Their definition of a local team is astounding. Be it the Virginia Tech Hokies, the Baltimore Ravens, the Baltimore Orioles, Virginia, William and Mary...you name it and if they win the Washington media is a slobbering mass of home-team jackals.)
Come the spring, after the Ravens had gone on to win the Super Bowl that should have been the Titans, I did a naked lap around Washington Square park. Fortunately I wasn't arrested. But all of these memories did make me extremely, extremely nervous about the game against the Ravens. By the time I sat down in my seat on Saturday, I was a jittery mass of nervous energy.
(Part 2 coming soon.) Labels: titans ravens part one claynation
Posted by Clay Travis at 9:51 AM
 
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