ESPN shows highlights of PI, uses last SF play of SB

[goldenelite28]

I'm not disagreeing, but the first two you mentioned had nothing to do with PI calls/non-calls, which is what ESPN chose for their little montage subject.

Ok but how can they show a clip of the Steeler game when nobody thought that was PI.
Brown literally never touched him and Gruden was screaming for PI.

How about they show the lack of PI against Jacoby in Pittsburgh. Oh wait, the Ravens get all the calls.

[Mac in Va]

IIRC, Gruden could barely choke out an "I don't know" on the shot to Flacco's knee.

And it seemed clear that the clips were shown to highlight how the Ravens have gotten away with PI's, even though at least two of the plays were clearly not PI. I'd like to listen to that part of the broadcast again to make sure it wasn't just my purple hearing aid.

Your purple hearing aid is working just fine. 1:49 left in the third quarter Tirico launches into a Ravens/PI call montage that begins with the SB from last year, Gruden follows up with last Week's P.I. call against Pitta and ends with the "non P.I." call on Chykie Brown. It seems to me Gruden's narrative was about how missing these calls affects games and the reigning SB champs seemed to be a convenient whipping boy. What's more telling is that the low hit to Flacco should have been called but Gruden and Tiricio (when reviewing the play at about 8:09 left in the fourth quarter) seem to be suggesting that Shipley blocked him into Flacco. Watching it in slow motion you can clearly see he dodges Shipley's block and powers into Flacco's left knee. Neither suggested it should be a penalty but in Tirico's words "its hard to cipher from that..."

I've grown accustomed to all of the Ravens bias because in the end, regardless of what Tirico and Gruden suggest, Stafford's three ints and Megatron's three drops did the Lions in more than the missed PI call.

[Real Fan Dan]

Grudens tirade annoyed me also, only because he included all Ravens examples of getting favorable calls and he crossed over to a previous season to do it. Yes the Ravens have benefitted a couple times this year and last, but historically we've been on the short end of the stick much more than we have benefitted.

Still the OP's viewpoint was based on ESPN's presentation, not the refs calls themselves, and he is right. I could be wrong but I've never seen such a one sided media presentation based on favorable bad calls before during a game. They almost always mix up their examples using both teams playing or with other teams in recently played games. Certainly teams like NE and Pitt have been favored by numerous questionable calls in the past and could have merited a media presentation like this had the broadcasting crew that covered them at the time been so biased, but i don't remember any thing like that happening.

Imho this kind of thing happens entirely too much on ESPN.

[Hammerhead]

I'd agree with this, but the way it was presented made it seem like it was JUST the Ravens benefitting. Clearly, there have been a TON of horrid PI calls around the NFL, can't they show the one NE vs Browns one? Or some other team?

It seemed to be done to highlight how many gifts the Ravens get on PIs, not showing how poorly refs have called PI across the NFL.

If they wanted to be fair, they would have followed the Levy helmet to Flacco knee non-call with a montage of Lions dirty plays. Funny. I missed that montage last night. Did you all see it?

[esporter113]

When you combine this with the fact that ESPN clearly had penciled in the Lions for a win last night (see their NFC North standings graphic) you start to get the picture.

I don't think the league "hates" the Ravens. I just think that with Ray gone, we're not sexy anymore. Flacco is kind of dull and doesn't put up huge stats. We don't have an exciting young guy like RGIII/Luck/Wilson/Kaep. We don't have Megatron. We don't have a brilliant enigma of a coach. We don't have a huge fanbase. I think, subtly, they'd prefer not to give us the limelight for that reason.

[RavenScallywag]

If they wanted to be fair, they would have followed the Levy helmet to Flacco knee non-call with a montage of Lions dirty plays. Funny. I missed that montage last night. Did you all see it?

Except I wouldn't classify that as a dirty play, I think Levy fell to the ground and contacted the leg.

To me, was not intentional, but the rule doesn't account for intent. If he hits the QB below the knee in the pocket, it's a penalty all the same. Suggs got it with the brush to Brady's knee a few years back.

[veritas]

Seems they forgot that Crabtree never complained on that play in the SB, either at the time or afterwards. It was BS to show that as some example of a missed call.

[Igotstoknow]

Get used to it guys. We are being portrayed as the team America loves to hate and as pretenders. I don't know how anyone could watch that game and not see that. The bias was endless with a special shout out to Chucky. He wasn't just biased. He was unprofessional.

Pre game I honestly was wondering why we were bothering to play it. How about him bringing on the ex ref to highlight the no PI call on Webb and extracting the it should have been PI admission from him? His pre game assessment of how our crappy o line was going to get killed by the by the big, bad Det defensive front. Almost no mention of how Det gives away games. That only got attention after they lost as a way of diminishing what the Ravens had accomplished.

Glossing over the hit to Joe's knee, but showing that stupid montage of calls and no calls benefiting the Ravens. I honestly think Gruden saw the game going a certain way and was pissed when it didn't, not necessarily because he hates the Ravens, but because he hates to be wrong.

The entire tone of the broadcast was that we were an ugly team who was lucky to be where we are. We don't pass the eye test in their opinions. Results don't matter, aesthetics do. How about talking more about the Ravens grit and resilience as the defending SB champs overcoming one obstacle after another this season to be in this position? If we sat there and watched a broadcast depicting another team the way they portrayed the Ravens, we'd all be saying, see, they're not any good, they're lucky and have the refs in their pocket.

You could practically see the sneer on Steve Young's face as he was forced to comment. I honestly think he feels the Ravens are a joke, all smoke and mirrors. Then Dilfer was chiming in with the same crap. Only Ray, who has mystified us with some of his comments, stood up for his old team. His purple pride did show through and he provided some valuable perspective on how the Ravens are built and how they approach achieving their goals.

It was funny. Once Ray stood up for them, Dilfer started to change course. It's like he has this man crush on Young because Young was what he wasn't, a HOF QB. But he's afraid of Ray, his fierce ex teammate whom he doesn't want to piss off. Generally, I thought Tirico was pretty neutral, but he should be, he's the play by play guy. He's not paid for his opinions and insights.

So after all of this I've reached the following conclusion, screw them all. Say whatever you want. Dismiss this team till the cows come home. They are our team and we know what they are and what they are made of. All of this noise just makes me love them more.

[BcRaven]

When you combine this with the fact that ESPN clearly had penciled in the Lions for a win last night (see their NFC North standings graphic) you start to get the picture.

If the Lions had won, then they'd be 8 - 6, and tied with Chicago for 1st place in NFCN. It would give the network more "justification" for flexing the Bears/Eagles game in next Sunday night.

I don't think the league "hates" the Ravens. I just think that with Ray gone, we're not sexy anymore. Flacco is kind of dull and doesn't put up huge stats. We don't have an exciting young guy like RGIII/Luck/Wilson/Kaep. We don't have Megatron. We don't have a brilliant enigma of a coach. We don't have a huge fanbase. I think, subtly, they'd prefer not to give us the limelight for that reason.

I'd have to agree. It must embarrass the league that such an obscure team, like the Baltimore Ravens, are so successful. I think the NFL would rather have us being like the Jaguars or Rams... Bc

[ravenjoe]

Was anyone else irate about this ? After we got away with Webby's arm bar in the endzone, the olde ESPN production team went on a Ravens getting away with breaks onslaught...Super Bowl, Chykie in the Pitt game, PI called on Greenway last week. I am not the 'league hates the Ravens' type of guy but that really pissed me off.

Then a DET DB makes a 'great play' in Gruden's eyes with his arm all of our WR's back.

(Gruden was, over all, very complimentary of the Ravens last night)

I too was incensed!! Put another way, had this been the Steelers with the 'questionable' calls, Gruden et.al. would not have touched it with a ten-foot pole....Guaranteed!

[ravenjoe]

Get used to it guys. We are being portrayed as the team America loves to hate and as pretenders. I don't know how anyone could watch that game and not see that. The bias was endless with a special shout out to Chucky. He wasn't just biased. He was unprofessional.

Pre game I honestly was wondering why we were bothering to play it. How about him bringing on the ex ref to highlight the no PI call on Webb and extracting the it should have been PI admission from him? His pre game assessment of how our crappy o line was going to get killed by the by the big, bad Det defensive front. Almost no mention of how Det gives away games. That only got attention after they lost as a way of diminishing what the Ravens had accomplished.

Glossing over the hit to Joe's knee, but showing that stupid montage of calls and no calls benefiting the Ravens. I honestly think Gruden saw the game going a certain way and was pissed when it didn't, not necessarily because he hates the Ravens, but because he hates to be wrong.

The entire tone of the broadcast was that we were an ugly team who was lucky to be where we are. We don't pass the eye test in their opinions. Results don't matter, aesthetics do. How about talking more about the Ravens grit and resilience as the defending SB champs overcoming one obstacle after another this season to be in this position? If we sat there and watched a broadcast depicting another team the way they portrayed the Ravens, we'd all be saying, see, they're not any good, they're lucky and have the refs in their pocket.

You could practically see the sneer on Steve Young's face as he was forced to comment. I honestly think he feels the Ravens are a joke, all smoke and mirrors. Then Dilfer was chiming in with the same crap. Only Ray, who has mystified us with some of his comments, stood up for his old team. His purple pride did show through and he provided some valuable perspective on how the Ravens are built and how they approach achieving their goals.

It was funny. Once Ray stood up for them, Dilfer started to change course. It's like he has this man crush on Young because Young was what he wasn't, a HOF QB. But he's afraid of Ray, his fierce ex teammate whom he doesn't want to piss off. Generally, I thought Tirico was pretty neutral, but he should be, he's the play by play guy. He's not paid for his opinions and insights.

So after all of this I've reached the following conclusion, screw them all. Say whatever you want. Dismiss this team till the cows come home. They are our team and we know what they are and what they are made of. All of this noise just makes me love them more.

THIS!!! Well-stated!

[moose10101]

When you combine this with the fact that ESPN clearly had penciled in the Lions for a win last night (see their NFC North standings graphic) you start to get the picture.

That was pretty damning; I'd forgotten about the bogus "standings". It must have taken them close to an hour to fix it.

Face it, nobody in the entertainment business is going to like a team that wins with defense and six field goals. Chucky and Steve Young can both eat s$$t and die.