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  1. #1
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    Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Since it's been 17 years since Art Modell announced the name "Ravens", Baltimore Sun reposted an article they wrote in 2009 that detailed the names that led up to the fan vote that gave us Ravens...

    http://articles.baltimoresun.com/200...s-norm-coleman

    Some highlights

    • The first name thrown around was "Baltimore Rhinos", even before the move was announced
    • Other names given by NFL Properties included Bombers, Steamers, Railers, and Mustangs
    • The fan vote was limited to Marauders, Americans, and Ravens
    • Ravens got 20k+ votes in the fan poll, while Marauders and Americans got 5k+ each.


    What I find funny about this is the franchise coming from Cleveland, almost being named the Steamers. Almost wish the NFL had forced them to change their name from the Browns to the Cleveland Steamers. Would've been SO very appropriate...
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    “When I think of a Baltimore Raven - we go in there, we take your lunch box, we take your sandwich, we take your juice box, we take your applesauce, and we take your spork and we break it. And we leave you with an empty lunch. That’s the Baltimore Raven way.” - Steve Smith Sr.


    Call me a Special Teams coach again. I dare you! I double dare you, MFer!





  2. #2
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Marauders and Americans were awful choices.

    We were going to be the Bombers if we got the expansion team in 93 I believe. But I'm sure that would have been changed years later as it's not PC in the post-9/11 world.





  3. #3
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Blue Crabs





  4. #4
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Rhinos is a pretty cool name for a football team.





  5. #5
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    If it hadn't been Ravens, wouldn't have minded the Baltimore Mustangs. Very close to having the Colts name, assuming Stallions was also not available.
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    .
    “When I think of a Baltimore Raven - we go in there, we take your lunch box, we take your sandwich, we take your juice box, we take your applesauce, and we take your spork and we break it. And we leave you with an empty lunch. That’s the Baltimore Raven way.” - Steve Smith Sr.


    Call me a Special Teams coach again. I dare you! I double dare you, MFer!





  6. #6

    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Quote Originally Posted by RavenScallywag View Post
    If it hadn't been Ravens, wouldn't have minded the Baltimore Mustangs. Very close to having the Colts name, assuming Stallions was also not available.
    I remember Jim Speros, CFL Stallions owner, had given the new team the the rights to the name and uniforms if they wanted it. The team declined.


    ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!





  7. #7

    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Quote Originally Posted by RavenScallywag View Post
    Since it's been 17 years since Art Modell announced the name "Ravens", Baltimore Sun reposted an article they wrote in 2009 that detailed the names that led up to the fan vote that gave us Ravens...

    http://articles.baltimoresun.com/200...s-norm-coleman

    Some highlights

    • The first name thrown around was "Baltimore Rhinos", even before the move was announced
    • Other names given by NFL Properties included Bombers, Steamers, Railers, and Mustangs
    • The fan vote was limited to Marauders, Americans, and Ravens
    • Ravens got 20k+ votes in the fan poll, while Marauders and Americans got 5k+ each.


    What I find funny about this is the franchise coming from Cleveland, almost being named the Steamers. Almost wish the NFL had forced them to change their name from the Browns to the Cleveland Steamers. Would've been SO very appropriate...
    Quote Originally Posted by GOTA View Post
    Rhinos is a pretty cool name for a football team.
    The 2009 Sun story cited is sort of a partial history. It's more interesting and complete to go back further in time to the 1993 expansion bid and look at the team names that were proposed then, and then follow that history through to the Browns move.

    There were two ownership groups that the city had presented to the league during expansion. One was led by Boogie Weinglass, who made his money as owner of the groove retail chain, Merry-Go-Round (and who was played by Mickey Rourke in the Barry Levison film, Diner). The other was Malcolm Glazer, who went on to buy the Bucs.

    Baltimorons didn't trust Glazer -- thought of him as a Florida carpet bagger, after the Irsay experience. The NFL had a big problem with Weinglass and wasn't so hot on Glazer either. Eventually they forced Baltimore to dump both prospective owners, creating a shotgun marriage with Arthur Lerner as the prospective owner. Lerner had Maryland ties (MCNB credit card empire) and was Art Modell's buddy.

    [I've forever maintained that Lerner and Modell conspired to sabotage the Baltimore expansion bid (the financially strapped Modell ran the expansion committee) so the Modell could move to Baltimore, Taglibue could help out his buddy JK Cooke in DC, and Lerner could just wait and get awarded the new Browns franchise and the NFL's stadium money... all culminating in Tags, Lerner and Modell --and that goof of a governor Parris Glendening -- jammed into Lerner's private jet at BWI to sign the contract to move the Browns.... But that's another story!]

    Anyway, Boogie wanted to name the team Bombers and even had team colors picked out (cream and dark red and navy) and a logo. He also registered Ravens because an informal poll said Ravens was the fan favorite.

    Glazer wanted Cobras.

    The NFL, which had final said, rejected the names before they rejected the men. They forced both groups to accept Rhinos as the name of the 1995 expansion team, had they won the bid.

    Of course it was Lerner who inherited the Rhinos proposition, and then sneaked out the back door after Tags announced Jacksonville over Baltimore, so the name game ended there, for the time being.

    When the Modells moved here, and eventually agreed to drop the Browns name, it was David Modell who was given the job of picking the name. He was sold on Americans (I want to say the name came from an early locomotive built at B&O's Camden Yards, but I'd have to check on that).

    But Modell pledged to go with whatever the fans voted on, and as it was five years prior, Ravens was the fan favorite.
    Last edited by Shas; 03-29-2013 at 12:38 PM.





  8. #8
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Quote Originally Posted by Shas View Post
    The 2009 Sun story cited is sort of a partial history. It's more interesting and complete to go back further in time to the 1993 expansion bid and look at the team names that were proposed then, and then follow that history through to the Browns move.
    Great recall! I had thought that I "knew it all", but you got me on the expansion race details.

    How about let's look at all the name possibilities, outside of Stars, CFLs, Colts, and Stallions, which were woulda/coulda been due to their owners flirting with Baltimore but either getting better deals or NFL pressure to not relocate here:

    • Cardinals
    • Patriots
    • Eagles
    • Redskins (a one or two year deal while their new stadium was to be built)
    • Buccaneers (Angelos came within a whisker in the Culverhouse estate sale)
    • Raiders
    • Rams
    • Bengals
    Last edited by Mista T; 03-29-2013 at 01:14 PM.
    In a 2003 BBC poll that asked Brits to name the "Greatest American Ever", Mr. T came in fourth, behind ML King (3rd), Abe Lincoln (2nd) and Homer Simpson (1st).





  9. #9
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Quote Originally Posted by BohBalmer View Post
    Blue Crabs
    That's actually not bad... Bc





  10. #10

    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Quote Originally Posted by BohBalmer View Post
    Blue Crabs
    Or just the Baltimore Blues.

    It would have been cool going from one color to another, plus what color do blue crabs turn once they've been steamed? Orange with the Old Bay being brown, the Cleveland Browns colors.


    ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!





  11. #11
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    Good post Shas! I had forgotten what a clusterf**k that whole expansion mess was.





  12. #12
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    Re: Alternative Names for the Ravens

    The Baltimore Barksdales!





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