Alternative Names for the Ravens

[bacchys]

We also had Baltimore Rams t-shirts when they flirted with us. They almost came here until St Louis went ahead and built them a dome. They were the first team that said you will be hearing from us immediately after the expansion teams were awarded.

Local 7-11s had Baltimore Rams coffee mugs made-lol.

Given the rivalry between the Colts and the Rams in the Unitas days, that would have been kind of ironic...

[alien bird]

We also had Baltimore Rams t-shirts when they flirted with us.

There was a guy in the city who printed Baltimore Cardinals t-shirts and got a cease and desist letter from the NFL. The NFL claimed it was copyright infringement, which was ridiculous - there was no Baltimore Cardinals and the logo was a stock one from a catalog. It shows just how far the NFL will go to protect the product, strong-arming the little guy. My friends bought a bunch, slapped numbers on the back, and wore them as our summer league softball jerseys as a small protest.

[Mista T]

It shows just how far the NFL will go to protect the product, strong-arming the little guy. My friends bought a bunch, slapped numbers on the back, and wore them as our summer league softball jerseys as a small protest.

NFL Properties attorneys even went so far as to attack tee-shirt vendors in New Orleans for selling Fluer de lis and "Who Dat" tees. The Fleur de Lis in Louisiana goes back to at least the 1700s, and there's nothing that the team did to initiate "Who Dat".

Fortunately for the NFL, last I heard they quietly dropped the 1984-type trademark oppression after the cheating scandal and the negativism towards Goodell.

[Rochardrik]

Excellent info here in this thread, much of which I did not know!... But of all the names I've seen here, either on the original list of names considered or the suggestions provided as alternatives., I think they got it right, all things considered. I love the purple and black.. The CaCaw, the obvious tie to E A Poe.. it all just seems too right! I wish they could use the original "copyright infringed logo", though!

[Shas]

LOL - Yea, we used to.

This will make you sick - especially the last paragraph.


http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/fea...a-company-town

Crap, yep. 2000 people worked at Sparrows Point. I drive by everyday on the way to work and wonder what will become of it. I suspect the Port of Baltimore will try to take it over. But here's betting it will be 2030 before it becomes a working terminal. I have to believe that the environmental problems will dwarf the issues with chromium in the inner harbor. But it would make sense to eventually move the Dundalk/Seagirt activities out to the Point where there is a lot more room for ships to move around and no Key Bridge to navigate.

[AirFlacco]

That 2,000 employees is the current number. Beth Steel was sold and the retirees lost their pension benefits or some of it especially the health part. My mom only gets a big $77 pr mo for my dad working there for 45 years. She lost her insurance.

I worked down the point during the 60s in it's golden era. It was closer to 60,000 wokers there. Guys in the unions were buying boats as tax write-offs. I was making $10 pr hr as a kid working my way thru college. I worked double shifts making over $1,000 pr week which was a lot of money then. My college tuition was under $800 pr yr. I bought a brand new Mustang, took a class trip to Europe and continued working there after graduation til I was laid off. I started my first job with about $10,000 in the bank. That was money for the U of B law school. My first job was with the Federal Court and after working in court every day I knew I couldn't be a lawyer so I spent the money on a new Corvette-lol.

It was funny though, my dad complained in the 60s about all the German steel coming in and they started shutting blast furnances down then. He headed up the Construction Dept and said if there's a war we can't get the blast furnances geared up in time if Russia attacks. I said, dad, if there's a war those blast furnances will be the first to blow with us with them. I want to go up with the initial blast. You don't want to f*ck around with a nuclear fall out like Japan did and the bomb back then was like a fire cracker to what they have now.

[Shas]

The Cleveland lawsuit had squat-all to do with Modell giving up the name. He wanted to keep the team the Browns- name, colours, history, etc.- but polling commissioned by him and the Maryland Stadium Authority showed fans here in Baltimore hated the idea. We wanted a new team, but we didn't want to do what Irsay and Indianapolis had done to us.

Cleveland's lawsuit was a loser from jump street given the precedents established by the Raiders' move to L.A. and the Irsay move to Indianapolis. If a lawsuit could have done it, the Colts name, etc. would have stayed in Baltimore.

I think you have it mostly right, but you also may be making it a little more black and white than the grayish truths surrounding the move.

Art was broke. Really broke. He couldn't afford to enter into a protracted lawsuit. He famously couldn't even field a practice squad in 1996.

Browns fans love to throw out the notion that legal action caused Modell to leave behind the brand name and team history, but while there were dozens of suits, most with little chance of stopping Modell, he still would have had to spend his money to answer them.

The most legitimate suit was about breaking the lease, a 25-year-old lease to run Municipal stadium which he still had four years left on when he bolted. He made a bad deal for himself when he agreed to pay the city to lease the stadium and collect revenue from concerts and the Indians. The Stadium was a strain on the city when he did them a favor (while thinking he could make some money) and they did they deal in 1973 ... but when it became a strain on Art 20 years later, they mocked him for being a bad businessman.

They screwed him when they moved the baseball team to Jacobs in 1994, and had a chance to save the Browns franchise by letting him out of his bad deal with the city. They didn't, he left, and they cried foul as if they were about to build him a stadium, which was crap.

They probably could have forced him to compensate the city for the broken lease, but that would have never stopped the move. So, the lawsuit forced a negotiation that essentially led to him bartering... giving the Browns trademarks that he owned back to the city instead of coming up with the cash to settle the broken lease.

While it's 100% true Baltimore fans said they didn't want the Browns name, it was a convenient story for Art to claim he was obliging the fans of Baltimore rather than admit Cleveland had him over a barrel, financially. He had them over a bigger barrel, but they did have some leverage and was in no position to argue.

[Purpleguy]

Let's get a couple things strait. Edgar Allen Poe did not grow up in Baltimore. He did grow dead here, after passing out on Thames Street from getting loaded at The Horse You Came In On Saloon. Poe did live here for a bit, but he also lived in Philadelphia. He grew up in Virginia. Poe's claim to fame was that he was the first American writer that was actually able to earn a living from writing. Most Americans still only read English authors, like Dickens.

Jim Speros was a DC carpet-bagging asshole that took advantage of a city that was starved for football. I highly doubt he offered the Stallion name and logo for free. The guy didn't even pay the city for painting the seats in Memorial Stadium for his rotten CFL product. He tried to block the Browns from coming here, claiming he had first rights to Memorial Stadium. I am so glad that I never spent a dime on that flea circus they called football.

[AirFlacco]

There was a guy in the city who printed Baltimore Cardinals t-shirts and got a cease and desist letter from the NFL. The NFL claimed it was copyright infringement, which was ridiculous - there was no Baltimore Cardinals and the logo was a stock one from a catalog. It shows just how far the NFL will go to protect the product, strong-arming the little guy. My friends bought a bunch, slapped numbers on the back, and wore them as our summer league softball jerseys as a small protest.

Yea, I remember. The NFL stopped them real fast just like they made Tony change the name of this site. He can't even use the logo here and talk about the little guy, they even met with the Ravens Nests about using their name and logos. They didn't make them stop because they knew all the clubs were raising millions of dollars for charities and giving it away in the Ravens name but they let it be known they were guilty of copy right infringement. This was brought up at a Ravens Nest 1 meeting years ago.


Screw em.

[AirFlacco]

Let's get a couple things strait. Edgar Allen Poe did not grow up in Baltimore. He did grow dead here, after passing out on Thames Street from getting loaded at The Horse You Came In On Saloon. Poe did live here for a bit, but he also lived in Philadelphia. He grew up in Virginia. Poe's claim to fame was that he was the first American writer that was actually able to earn a living from writing. Most Americans still only read English authors, like Dickens.

Jim Speros was a DC carpet-bagging asshole that took advantage of a city that was starved for football. I highly doubt he offered the Stallion name and logo for free. The guy didn't even pay the city for painting the seats in Memorial Stadium for his rotten CFL product. He tried to block the Browns from coming here, claiming he had first rights to Memorial Stadium. I am so glad that I never spent a dime on that flea circus they called football.

Poe did spend his formative years here. He was born in Boston. Both parents were actors and he dad abandoned Poe and his mother when he was a baby. So his mom brought him down here and dropped him off at his grand mother's and took off. He was also raised here by an aunt until she died when he was a teen or pre-teen.

Then he moved to Richmond, VA and lived with a rich uncle down there and went to the U of VA when it was only 1 yr old.

They still have his room roped off now as a museum but they don't like to mention that he actually dropped out because of money probs and gambling debts.

He wrote his famous poems in New York's public library. So Boston, Bmore, Richmond and NY all lay claim to Poe.

He was basically passing thru here but was partying and drinking at a bar somewhere near Pratt Street downtown when he passed out drunk face down in the gutter. It rained on him and he died.

[AirFlacco]

Poe's grand father was a famous Baltimorean who ran out the Torries (not Torrey Smith-lol) British sympathizers during the Revolutionary War. That came to the attention of George Washington who made him a Major in charge of procurring weapons and equipped Lafayette's troops. And even at 70, Poe contributed $70,000 to fighting the British during the War of 1812 and fought in the Battle of North Point. He was affectionately called "General Poe" by Baltimoreans.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-...ncoe&id=I31243


Benjamin Franklin made a deal with King Louie of France to send weapons here after Franklin physically and literally f*cked his way into the King's court. A young ambassador from an up-start nation that's not even a nation yet just doesn't walk his way up to the King and say hey man, I need some AK 47s, tanks, Stealth Bombers and what not.

Old Ben was the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise of his day and everyone woman in Europe wanted to f*ck him and many did. The one he wanted to screw the most was married and faithful but the King relied on her husband so he got him in to see the King.

The King sent the weapons and Poe's grand father picked them up here and got them to the Battle of Saratoga just in time. The newly found fire power stunned the British and was a turning point of the war.

So we can thank Poe's grand father and Ben Franklin's ability as a world class f*cker that saved the country.

Poe had more than strong ties here and spent a lot of time here growing up as a youngster.

[AirFlacco]

The Cleveland lawsuit had squat-all to do with Modell giving up the name. He wanted to keep the team the Browns- name, colours, history, etc.- but polling commissioned by him and the Maryland Stadium Authority showed fans here in Baltimore hated the idea. We wanted a new team, but we didn't want to do what Irsay and Indianapolis had done to us.

Cleveland's lawsuit was a loser from jump street given the precedents established by the Raiders' move to L.A. and the Irsay move to Indianapolis. If a lawsuit could have done it, the Colts name, etc. would have stayed in Baltimore.

I clearly remember Art's first day here standing the on the lot where his new play pen would be built saying "they're the Browns and I'm the GM." That was in response to reporters questions if he was going to change the name and who was going to be the GM. Ozzie wasn't even in the picture yet as GM. He came over with ARt but was just working in the front office.

It was after that after Cleveland shook off its cobb webbs that they sued ARt. Yea, he could have won the case in court but neither side had the money to tie it up in court and Art was cash strapped long before he left Cleve, so to save time and money he gave them then name.

That was also after Tags intervened and promised to loan Cleve the money to build a new stadium and he promised them a new team within 3 years. In fact, he approached Moag one last time and said, hey man, can you just wait 3 more years and I promise that you will have your franchise. Let Cleveland keept its team.

Moag just looked at him like he was crazy and walked away. Imagine the gall. After all the shit Tags laid on us he had the nerve to ask us to wait 3 more years for a team and what assurance did Moag have then? Nobody trusted Tags and I mean nobody.

So the NFL got everyone out of court and Cleve got a team and its name, colors and history and a brand new stadium to boot which they couldn't afford after building a new base ball stadium and Rock and Roll Center and they still bitch.

Tags also said this is the first and last time the NFL will ever help anyone with a new stadium and was but the court case was everything in ARt returning the name to Cleveland.