What was Harbaugh doing after game ended?

[leachisabeast]

I try to go to a couple road games a year. The coach always seems to do this when we win. Suggs has always joined him when I have gone to the games. I believe most of these folks come from Baltimore. I think the cheap SW and AirTran flights help, also a lot of people drive to games . A couple of years ago the Charlotte game looked like a home game. Far more Ravens fans in town, on the road, at the tailgates, and in the stands.

I think the Florida games attract a lot of folks because of the plentiful (and therefore cheap)tickets.

I always thought almost all Ravens fans have some connection to Baltimore. Seems obvious, but when you think about the fact we are a fairly young team, how we got the team, and a lot of folks thoughts on Ray (I could not believe what some of the Buffalo fans were saying about him last week . Seems even worse now that he is an announcer) we have far fewer bandwagon fans then the more established teams.

Apart from of course the British fans. I've never even been to Baltimore, I just love the team for what it stands for, plus the fan base is so great for a small market team.

[RavenScallywag]

if we lost would the same happen?

what does that have to do with anything? Probably not, because I'm sure he'd want to get his team back in the locker room to do his coach thing and get their mind set right. But if you traveled to see the Ravens and they lost, would you go down to the first row of the stadium and hang out to try to get the players to say hi to you? I'd be ready to get the hell out of there, personally.

[Mike B]

I think some of the fans may have been from the suite holders road trip plus it is South Beach. Raven fans travel, so them taking over the stadium was not a surprise. Great job to those who went. It made a difference IMO, that and Suggs putting on the Super Man cape.

[HoustonRaven]

He did the same thing here in Houston a few years ago.

[Mac in Va]

Upper deck looked half empty mid to end third quarter

I noticed at the beginning of the game that it was far from a sellout and there were an awful lot of Ravens jerseys out there. Can't imagine M&T being that empty.

[JohnBKistler]

I don't travel to root for the Ravens myself (can't afford the time & expense). But I am curious where most of those fans come from. On the TV broadcasts you can clearly hear them yell "Leach!" when Vonta catches a pass. And it doesn't seem to matter what part of the country the Ravens play.

Do they actually travel from the Baltimore area or are they local transplanted fans who buy tickets for when the Ravens are in town? I cannot imagine them being 'bandwagon' fans they picked up since Febuary.

I believe most of these folks come from Baltimore. I think the cheap SW and AirTran flights help, also a lot of people drive to games . A couple of years ago the Charlotte game looked like a home game. Far more Ravens fans in town, on the road, at the tailgates, and in the stands.

I always thought almost all Ravens fans have some connection to Baltimore. Seems obvious, but when you think about the fact we are a fairly young team, how we got the team, and a lot of folks thoughts on Ray (I could not believe what some of the Buffalo fans were saying about him last week . Seems even worse now that he is an announcer) we have far fewer bandwagon fans then the more established teams.

This and this.

It has been a pet peeve of mine for a while now. I get somewhat upset when you constantly hear about the Steeler fans, the "best traveling fans in the NFL." When in reality, many of those fans that show in in Atlanta, FedEx, Dallas etc. do not live in Pittsburgh. Many are transplants, and that is fine, if I moved to another city, I would continue to support the Ravens. The fact that we are now 40 years from Pittsburgh glory years of the 70s, I would surmise that a large portion of their fanbase has zero connection to Pittsburgh.

Again, they've earned that fanbase based on their decades of winning, but don't talk to me about them "traveling".

The Ravens have probably grown their out-of-market fanbase by about 100% in the last 2 years...but I still think that 80% of their fans live within 3 hours of Baltimore. So when they do take-over visiting stadiums, it is truly fans "traveling" from Baltimore.

/pet-peeve-rant

[HotInHere]

We definitely got the classier Harbaugh!

True, but that bar is not set very high.

[BillickFan]

True, but that bar is not set very high.

Truth! Now that's just pure comedy genius

[Raven Werewolf]

I know Harb is not a perfect coach by any stretch and he surely has his warts. But damn if he doesn't seem to really have a pulse on this city and fan base. For all the good that Billick did here sometimes he came off like he was kind of above the fans what with his 100 dollar words and sometimes dismissive attitude toward us. (although he will always be cool with me for standing up for Ray the way he did at SB35) When it comes to the fans Harb just gets it.

And its also nice to see us showing out strong on the road now too. I agree with others that I doubt they are bandwagoners..... we just don't have the players and city for that kind of thing. But to me that makes it that much better.... Ravens Nation is AUTHENTIC.

[Real Fan Dan]

A few people from Roost 610 here in Houston went to the game.

Tampa has a pretty large fan group as well. I bet a lot of them made the trip.

Way to go Roost 610!

I don't claim to know everybody of course, but I know an awful lot of Ravens Fans from the Roosts, the Nests, the OC convention, and the stadium in general from the Cheers and so forth. Everytime I travel I see these good folks left and right lol! Baltimore travels well Hon, and there are other groups of Ravens Fans in a growing number of towns now like TB, Atlanta and NYC.

I've met Coach Harbaugh and I think he's out to make every Fan feel like they're part of the team. :respect

[GirlsKickButt]

I've attempted to go to an away game every year for the last 10. I've missed a few years due to money issues, but I've been to Houston, Nashville, Jacksonville, Charlotte, DC and both Super Bowls in Tampa and New Orleans. (The SB was this year's road trip.)

My goal is to watch a Ravens game in every NFL stadium (needless to say, Oakland and Philly are last on the list).

So, from my own experience, I believe probably about 80 - 85% of the Ravens fans you see at other stadiums are from the Baltimore area. In places where there is a large fan club presence - LA, Colorado and South FL, the numbers may be closer to 70 -75%.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I was at the game yesterday. Section 426, end zone upper deck. It was my first ever Ravens game.

Our section had a good share of Ravens fans, although Dolphins fans still held a majority.

The Ravens side of the field, however? Easily 70-75% purple. The crowd came off pretty loud on D in the 4th quarter. 7 Nation Army was echoing strong walking out of the stadium.

Dolphins fans were overwhelmingly pretty cool. The only instance of "hostility" I experienced (putting it mildly) was a rather well-endowed and certainly inebriated woman wearing a Dolphins tee who insisted on saying "Go Dolphins" in a pouty type voice and pointing to her shirt whenever she walked by. My guess was she was trying to be intimidating but it came off sort of hot. I wanted to say it might have been an act of flirting but she was accompanied by her roiding boyfriend/husband so I choose not to react. Not going to pick a fight on that one.

Don't know how many of the Ravens fans were travelers vs. transplants (I'm in the latter category; hence this being my first ever Ravens game). The thing is the Florida games are always an easy excuse for fans to take a Florida vacation so I'm sure there were a lot of people coming in from Baltimore.

All in all, a good experience. Would have loved to see at least one really sweet F-Bomb from Joe, but I'll gladly take the win.