It’s weird that I chose a reference from a Hemingway novel for my headline on the day we celebrate the start of a new season by a team named in deference to Edgar Allen Poe, but it is apropos.
For all the energy invested in building this year’s roster and coaching staff, to long, hot hours on the practice field, to discussion after discussion over what went wrong in last year’s AFC Championship game v. Chiefs, the time is here. The bell rings. It’s time to put up or shut up for a new NFL season.
And the Ravens get the opportunity to do so on a national stage, against perhaps the most-popular team in American sports, with memories of a listless playoff flop squarely in mind.