The Baltimore Ravens are in training camp, but the regular season can’t come soon enough:
Injuries, back and forth over a potential backup quarterback and a surprise retirement has made for a lot of drama surrounding the Ravens. It’s been completely exhausting to follow all the chaos from the offseason and the early stages of training camp.
Injuries have rattled the Ravens before they even got started. Tavon Young and Dennis Pitta went down in OTA’s. The team subsequently, released Dennis Pitta. This was heartbreaking. Pitta came back from two hip fractures. He became an integral part of the Ravens offense.
Pitta had always been a fan favorite, so seeing him cut after a third hip injury was brutal for Baltimore. Then Kenneth Dixon was sidelined for the season. Now fans have to worry about Joe Flacco’s back, and Crockett Gillmore and Maurice Canady being out for a while.
Off the field stories:
The hottest fire to put out is the debate over Colin Kaepernick. It’s the never ending cycle of opinions that ranges from one extreme stance to another. He isn’t even on the roster and people are talking about boycotting the Ravens. He hasn’t done anything illegal and yet, he’s public enemy number one for a lot of fans. I don’t know how this situation is going to pan out, but I know one thing, I’m tired of it. There shouldn’t be this much vitriolic, flaming anger for a potential backup quarterback.
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One of the worst things about the Kaepernick situation is Twitter. Twitter kind of gets ruined for me anytime my timeline consists of one burning topic rather than a bunch of different things. People are throwing the past troubles of Ray Lewis and Ray Rice into the fire, to make their point. It isn’t fun to be a Ravens fan right now on social media. I’ve added to the fire, though that is kind of my job.
Baltimore is also front and center of the CTE conversation, as John Urschel announced his retirement earlier this week. Every time a player retires early, no matter the reason, the health ramifications of football become a huge topic. We have to have this conversation, but talking about the Ravens ground attack is certainly more fun. Urschel’s retirement took away an option for the Ravens offensive line, right as training camp got underway.
Getting back to football:
The Ravens, if you forgot, are a football team. Getting back to playing football games may be the best thing for the purple and black. Thankfully, the Ravens first preseason game is nine days away. If the Ravens can get out of their meeting with Washington without injury, we can get back to talking football. At this point, talking about problems from a football perspective is far more appealing then this off the field chaos.
I never thought I’d see the day when there would be something less fun to talk about than James Hurst starting at right tackle. I don’t know about you, but all I want to talk about is football. Give me game tape to break down, even if it is the soft core preseason stuff. Don’t you want tackles, blocks and awesome receptions more than all this other baggage?
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From the beginning I was in the camp that wanted Kaepernick to be signed. For me, it was simply a football decision. Ryan Mallet underwhelms, Kaepernick has honest talent. If they don’t sign him though, we can stop the drama; something both sides hopefully can be grateful for. I’m tired of injuries before a down has been played. I am done with bad news, just give me some football. The days can’t move fast enough.