Columnist Eric Wilbur Calls Ravens Organization "Most Deplorable"
Eric Wilbur is an online columnist and sports blogger for Boston.com.
Eric joined Ed and Steve to talk about his recent blog where he calls the Ravens "the most deplorable organization in professional American sports" and "the most hated team in the NFL."
You can read the article here: In Ravens and Patriots, the NFL Playoffs Just Got an Extra Ingredient: Hate
Eric started by talking about the Ravens being hated nationally and specifically "this year has really put the Ravens in the spotlight as far as the negativity is concerned with the whole Ray Rice thing. But that's just the latest shoe to drop really. You go from the Ray Lewis to Terrell Suggs and his alleged domestic abuse situation. To the fact where Steve Biciotti is making excuses and pandering to the players." He also goes on to talk about the Ravens PR mishandling the Ray Rice press conference on twitter. He says that Patriots fans and the rest of the country are rooting against the Ravens.
Eric also said that "Terrell Suggs was right on when he says the NFL doesn't want them to win because there is no way that the league wants to deal with two weeks of Super Bowl preparation with the Ravens and that whole situation coming up and Roger Goodell having to answer those questions. I think that the league probably is rooting against them... The country is behind the Patriots, which is something we normally don't see."
Steve asks Eric how many people hate the Patriots with ammo like the Spygate Scandal, Aaron Hernandez and Bob Kraft hanging out with Floyd Mayweather who has been accused of being a domestic abuser. They're not exactly the post child for nice behavior in the NFL. Eric and Steve agree it would be hard to find a poster child for that in the NFL. Eric says he did want the Patriots organization to be held more accountable for the Aaron Hernandez situation because, as paranoid as the organization is, they had to know he was a bad guy, bad news and knew he was hanging around the wrong people.
Tom Brady is a hated figure in Baltimore, mainly because he's the guy that always seems to be standing in the way of a Ravens trip through the playoffs. It seems he is one of the polarizing sports figures; either you love him or hate him. Eric says Flacco has "emerged as maybe the most dangerous quarterback on the NFL map" and that is was Brady used to be. He goes on to say that Brady "was 10-0 at one point in his career but is only 8-8 since. He hasn't performed well in a lot of playoff games." Eric also believes that Tom Brady has kept his personal life somewhat hidden from the public eye and that mystery has harbored some resentment. People know that he's married to a super model and wears Uggs but that's about it.
The Ravens have been viewed as the Patriots Achilles heel in the playoffs. The Ravens are 2-1 against the Pats in the playoffs and Eric says if not for Billy Cundiff and Lee Evans "they should be 3-0 at Gillette Stadium. That's saying something because only two teams have gone to Gillette Stadium and won in the playoff games in January. The Jets and the Ravens. The Ravens have done it twice." He goes on to talk about the Ravens and Pats personnel, how they match up and some keys to the game.