Why Baltimore Ravens fans hate the 'Skins

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November 25, 3:11 AM

by Ben O'Brien, D.C. Sports Examiner

 

In the purple-and-black nation, in the heart of the land of Poe and Ray Ray, Ravens fans are preparing for a showdown -- a rivalry unique to this city. It isn't necessarily a storied one or even a game the players and coaches mark on their calendars. But to some Ravens fans, when the Washington Redskins visit M&T Bank Stadium Dec. 7 it will be time for some long-awaited payback to a city and a franchise they have despised for decades.

The bottom line is Baltimore hates D.C., and it seems only natural to assume that disdain would parlay to football fandom.

Hardcore Charm City locals look down on Washington as snooty, martini-sipping yuppies whose pinkies and noses generally point in the same direction. Many Baltimoreans would rather painfully digest a bad crab cake than be lumped in with the folks who reside in the nation's capital.

"Baltimore holds many grudges," said WNST personality and longtime Baltimorean Rob Long. "We're a city with a chip on our shoulder. It's just the way it is."

In many ways, both NFL teams reflect their geographical namesakes. The Ravens are a hard-hitting, lunch-pail-toting, passionate bunch that definitely plays with that aforementioned chip. The Redskins, on the other hand, have been labeled as a group of high-profile, money-driven transients, especially during the Dan Snyder era. And the comparisons don't end there.

The Ravens play in a stadium in the heart of the city they call home and the Baltimore skyline towers over the field as a constant reminder of its charm. Washington fans drive out to Landover to take in games miles away from downtown, with the Washington Monument nowhere in sight.

But those parallels aren't exactly what drive Ravens Roosts across Maryland to band together in hatred of the Hogs. It may just go back to when the Colts left in 1984, and that chip on the collective shoulders of Baltimore fans morphed into something much more.

"I simply hated the fact that the NFL forced their team on me when the Colts left town," said Long, who grew up in West Baltimore. "I understand the thinking behind it, but it was just another log in the fire for my hatred."

For the better part of the next decade Baltimore was left in a pigskin-less void, and the NFL and the Redskins certainly didn't speed up the process of football's return. The leaders of Baltimore's attempt to secure an NFL team first publicly accused Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke of undermining the city's efforts to gain an expansion franchise in December 1993.

According to then-Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer and Maryland Stadium Authority chairman Herb Belgrad, the Redskins worked behind the scenes at the NFL's owners meetings in Chicago, at which the league's 30th franchise was awarded to Jacksonville, to keep the league from awarding Baltimore a team.

Schaefer and Belgrad said NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue also hurt Baltimore's expansion chances by telling the owners about Cooke's intention to put the Redskins in Laurel.

"The suggestion of moving the Redskins to Maryland was enough to kill Baltimore's hopes of winning a franchise during the expansion process," Schaefer said at the time.

If any Baltimore sports fan needed another reason to hate D.C., Cooke certainly handed one over on a burgundy and gold platter. So, when the Cleveland Browns announced their intention to move to Baltimore in November 1995, the city had a vehicle for its growing hatred, and it became known as the Ravens.

But as Long said, this may not be the genesis of this sordid affair; many questions remain. Why will Ravens fans save their best trash talk for the Redskins on Dec. 7?

Did the longtime rivalry between these two cities spill over into the sports arena? Or is it jealousy and pride mixed in with a little Jack Kent Cooke that drives Ravens fans to hate their fellow beltway battlers?

"I think a lot of people feel that hate because the Redskins got forced on us when the Colts left," Long said. "However, the hatred for D.C. extends well beyond that and well beyond sports, in my opinion. Baltimoreans feel like we're seen as the 'other' city in the area. D.C. is always the 'pretty sister' who has a great personality."

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