Words: Kyle Simpson, Ravens Corespondent
The Ravens have a tough game ahead, no doubt (they are 9 point underdogs). The Broncos are a great team and it will be a great game on Saturday. Most of the sports writers in the community have written the Ravens off as an easy loss and already talking about a Denver-New England AFC Championship. Most notably ESPN as they ran an opinion article by Ashley Fox on their website front page titled “Thanks for the Memories, Because Sunday was Your Last Win, Ray Lewis. Your Career Ends in Denver.”
The article title led to massive amounts of outrage from the Ravens fan base. Calling the article “disrespectful” and “a joke”. The rage does not stop there though; in her article, Fox says, “Baltimore would have to short circuit the MacBook [Peyton Manning] to win Saturday. Remove the hard drive, pour beer on the keyboard, take a hammer to the screen, whatever works. That is the only-the only way that the Ravens can beat the Broncos…”
Granted, as a writer, Fox is entitled to her own opinion, but there is a line where your opinion should be toned back, especially in your title on the front page. No team should be written off, even if they are nine point underdogs, the way Fox wrote it. That is just bad taste on her part and the fans have a right to be upset. As one fan on the Ravens message board put it: “As much as I hate Skip [Bayless], this crosses the line.”
It is apparent that Fox is assuming that the Ravens team that showed up three weeks ago will be showing up with no changes on either side of the ball. Which is just simply untrue. Her article was completely biased and appeared to be completely based on the betting line.
A more in-depth analysis of Saturday’s game will be posted here later this week, but the Ravens are a very different team then they were three weeks ago. Expect a good match-up, despite the nine-point underdog status.
