For eight consecutive seasons the defending Super Bowl champion has hosted the NFL season opener on a special night. The ninth straight version is now in jeopardy.
The 2013 season is slated to begin on Thursday, Sept. 5 and the Baltimore Ravens have earned the honor to host a to-be-determined opponent that evening as part of the final celebration of their Super Bowl XLVII triumph. However, the Baltimore Orioles have a home game that evening and aren’t so quick to give up that spot on the schedule.
The Orioles have been asked to move their game to the afternoon and the NFL and the Ravens are willing to start their game later than usual, but as of the moment the Orioles aren’t satisfied with the arrangement.
Ironic, isn’t it, that the NFL’s eight-season streak of Super Bowl champions opening at home might be ended by a baseball team that’s famous for one. It was the Orioles’ Hall of Famer Cal Ripken who set the all-time games played streak at 2,632 – besting the previously thought unbreakable mark of 2,130 games set by New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig.
Want more irony? Remember Ripken's uniform number?
Last season’s NFL opener between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys was moved from Thursday night to Wednesday night to accommodate President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Moving the game to Wednesday this year is not an option as either the Ravens and/or the NFL don’t want to play on Rosh Hashanah.
Among the possibilities include the Ravens opening on the road. That would mean that the banner and final Super Bowl victory celebration would have to wait until Week 2 at the earliest. A decade ago this wasn’t such a big deal, but now that we’ve gotten used to it hopefully the Ravens can make a pitch strong enough to the Orioles that they’ll consider it a home run to move their game to earlier in the day on Sept. 5.
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