In the Saturday match between History and the Colts, History had to triumph.
A wrong had to be righted; a city avenged; a team punished for its betrayal 23 years ago. But History didn?t play. The Ravens did, as linebacker Adalius Thomas said. And they lost.
Sports psychologists may be able to explain if the frenzied build-up in the news about the match psyched the team out. But what?s clear is that the team played terribly and as a result, won?t go to the Super Bowl.
While it stinks the Ravens lost, the players must not be held responsible for more than a poor performance.
Many of the players on the field were infants when the Colts fled Baltimore one night in March of 1984. The near-mythic grudge allegedly still harbored by this city does not course through any of their veins.
Neither did it motivate the many children who donned their purple jerseys and hats and dyed their hair purple to root for the team, or the many people new to the region who count themselves fans. They just wanted their home team to win.
Fans showed this by heading home or to bars post-game without incident. Some cried, some drank too much, but we know of no riots.
Obviously we wish the Ravens won. But in losing, team members did not fail History, they failed themselves and their fans. Baltimore will not suffer. It always has been a better place to live than Indianapolis and will remain so.
We expect better next year. And barring great odds, if the Ravens make it to a championship game in 2008, players will be able to challenge just another team, not the ghost of one past.
And then maybe we all can go back to treating the match as a game, instead of an opportunity to relive an identity crisis.
