Game

I went to my 2nd ever professional football game this past Sunday. Both games I have attended took place in Baltimore, MD's M&T Bank Stadium, but about four years apart. The football stadium is right next door to Baltimore's world famous baseball stadium, Orioles Park at Camden Yards. I’ve been to one Orioles game in Camden Yards, but my plan is to go to more games starting next season. The Orioles did really well last season.

As a curious football newbie that was lucky enough to get nice seats to those two games, I can say that football games are noisy and exciting. When I’m there in person, the time passes so much more quickly than when it’s on TV. So it’s a great time. However, it can get cold during the season. This time, I learned my lesson and wore a zillion layers and used a rain poncho and blanket to keep dry/warm. I also drank $8 hot cocoa served in a keepsake Ravens cup—so much better than drinking cheap American beer. And my seat neighbors and I were "treated" to a good old-fashioned drunken brawl. Actually, what happened was a tipsy, wizened middle-aged female Ravens fan taunted and tapped a drunk, wizened middle-aged male Steelers fan who did the gentlemanly thing and responded by punching her in the face. The police kicked them out of the game, but the woman returned after about 25 minutes.

I don't know much about sports and I'm not a big sports fan, but MD is a perfect sports state for me because I love their mascots, their colors, and their team histories. The mascots are BIRDS. The football team mascot is a raven, named "Poe" after Edgar Allen Poe, who lived in Baltimore for a time, where he secretly married his 13-year-old cousin, and eventually died of unknown causes in 1849. It is possible to visit Poe's grave in downtown Baltimore, which I have done. I have the picture to prove it.

The baseball team mascot is an oriole, of which the male of the species boasts a telltale bright orange breast. The male oriole also has a pretty song. The Ravens' team color is purple and the Orioles' team color is orange, two very fun colors that are fun for fans to wear. The colors remind me of Halloween. Also, orange and purple are two of the very few words in the English language that don't rhyme with any other words. No, "murple” doesn't count as a word.

Both the football and the baseball teams were called the Browns (from boring old brown to birds, orange, and purple – what a transformation!), but they came from two different cities during two different decades. The St. Louis Browns (Missouri) became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954. The Cleveland Browns eventually became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. Focus groups and a fan voting contest decided on the Ravens’ team name. Of course, these team transitions involved a lot of intrigue and controversy, but that’s what makes their stories interesting.

And it’s another reason that the state of MD is such a rad state to live in.