Ravens Roost 115 Westminster, MD

OPENING GAME, 2013: For the first time since 2003 the Super Bowl Champions will be opening the season on the road. The fact that it is Baltimore is not a surprise to me. I despised the NFL in the Expansion Debacle and can honestly say that I snarl at them after this move. 

First, people have been dumping on the Orioles for depriving the fans of the ability to celebrate the Super Bowl champions. There are too many moving parts in rescheduling a baseball game to single out the home team, but I do think they fumbled the PR ball. They should have come out front and said we will move mountains to recognize the SB team. Talk to MLB, the White Sox and the Union to get it done, but we are there period. Instead they sit quiet and look bad. So now they have to hope that they are in the pennant race and that the weather is playable; and that they will have a full stadium on a Ravens' game night.

 Second, my disdain for the NFL comes from a very simple fact - Ratings. Baltimore is not a big national draw by itself, so you have to find a home game that has a team with a national appeal for ratings purposes. Pittsburgh would work but that game would be better left for the end of the season. The Patriots would fit the bill but I can not believe that Kraft wants to start 0-1. Houston could be a story for the Ed Reed factor, but that is a small item. Green Bay would be good but I do not see Fox giving up that type of match-up. Nobody else really "wows" the TV ratings. And it is possible that NBC did not like the Wednesday night ratings last year when the NFL moved the Thursday game. And hiding behind the Jewish Holiday is BS. Games have been played on holidays before; it just gives the NFL the excuse to push Baltimore off the chair if the conflict is with the baseball schedule from Thursday to Monday. The Orioles have a four game series with the White Sox, then opens a series with the Yankees on Monday. Sunday is 1:30 pm, but the same tailgating/parking/traffic issues exist.

 Third, September 5 has baseball scheduled in New York, Cincinnati, Oakland and San Francisco. What if one of them had won? I fail to see the NFL refusing to go to Wednesday for the first and last teams, considering the markets and the TV hype. They could milk all of the pre-game attention for those markets, I am sure.

 So where do the Ravens play? I see the Denver game as the ratings bonanza that NBC would want and with the Greatest QB That Ever Walked on Water involved they could slobber for days. The story-line about last year's Playoff Game, the highlights from the Jacoby catch, and the whining from Denver that the Ravens stole their SB would make it very interesting. I do not see any other road game that carries the same National Interest for the NFL and NBC. Pittsburgh would be second, but the Divisional game can do better in the ratings later in the year. Detroit? Miami? Cincinnati? Chicago? Buffalo? I would like to show up in Cleveland as the SB Champions, but that is because I am mean.

 At the end of the day the fans are kicked to the curb because they do not get to open the season with the SB celebration. And the NFL does not care at all.