Ravens get respect and plenty of national coverage this year.

There is however very good news to Ravens fans who have felt that purple and black has gotten no respect.

First off they will have the majority of their 2007 schedule broadcast in clear crisp HD starting the opener on Monday Night Football seen nationally on ESPN and locally on WJZ-TV 13. This year CBS has increased the number of HD games from three to five and all of the FOX, ESPN, NBC and NFL Network games are in HD. 

That brings us to part two of the good news the Ravens are a real honest to goodness Super Bowl contender this season and that means there will be plenty of national exposure. They will be seen three times on MNF this season. Monday November the 5^th go to
Pittsburgh
to face the Steelers and then again Monday December 3^rd they are on the road against the Patriots. The Monday games can also be seen on WJZ as well. The purple and black will have a Sunday Night Football date with the Colts December 9^th seen locally on WBAL-TV 11. Plus the games with the Chargers on November 25^th now set for 4:15pm in San Diego and the game on December 23^rd inSeattle against the Seahawks could be candidates for Sunday Night Football.

Locally the Ravens boast over 30 hours a week of scheduled coverage on local TV and radio not to mention the regular chatter on the airwaves.

WBAL/98 Rock returns as the team’s flagship station with three hour pre game shows on both stations. WBAL is for the hard core fan and 98ock mixes football with music and tailgate fun. The WBAL post game show with Steve Davis and Keith Mills returns to help fans breakdown the game. WBAL will offer extensive weeknight coverage with more Ravens programming than ever. There will be seven nights a week of talk featuring Head Coach Brian Billick, Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and a radio version of the Ravens popular “Wired,” show.

ESPN 1300AM will also offer their popular three hour pre game show and post game alternative to the WBAL show. The station also offers four weekly primetime shows featuring Ray Lewis, Bart Scott, Jonathan Ogden and Willis McGahee all taking Ravens fans questions.

MASN will expand Ravens Xtra post game show to include both home and away games this season, although they will pick that up later this month. We will give you the exact date when it is announced.

MASN will also air six nights a week of Ravens shows this season again featuring Coach Billick, Ravens Wired, and Ravens Playbook to name a few of the offerings. So there will be no lack of respect this season for the Ravens or their fans.

The season’s coolest new feature…

DirecTV is the home to the very popular Sunday Ticket NFL package and they will be expanding that service this year.

New this year will be the ability to track up to 12 players at a time which is big for fantasy football fans.

Also subscribers to Sunday Ticket will be able to follow games on broadband via their computer, so if you are on the road you can still catch the Ravens. Finally you can program the service to send you a video highlights to your cell phone no matter who your carrier is. That means if you have to make a quick run to the store and are waiting in line and the Ravens score you will have the highlight sent directly to your phone.

This might be a bit of overkill for the regular fan but Sunday Ticket is for the diehard football fan.