Will Boston Fans Call Ray Rice a Thug If He Plays for the Pats?
Less than six weeks after the Baltimore Ravens fired Ray Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely—for knocking out his then-fiancée in an elevator—people are talking about his potential return to football. His appeal of the suspension will be heard Nov. 5–6, according to NBC News, and if he’s successful he’ll have to find a new team. And the team people keep talking about is the New England Patriots.
Which makes me wonder: If Rice comes to Foxboro, will the New England sports community keep calling him a thug?
Thugs—that’s how people describe the Ravens. The insults began during the Ravens’ run to their Super Bowl victory in 2000, even before linebacker Ray Lewis was charged with murder. It was the same with their last championship, in 2012, as it was Ray Lewis’ last season and musings on his criminal past were pretty much inevitable.
This is not just my interpretation. A Google search for “Ravens thugs’’ finds tons of links—not all of which are aimed at players with criminal records. A poster on Yahoo! Answers asked, “Do people call the Ravens thugs because most of the tam is black?’’ In the wake of the Ray Lewis incident, a CBSsports.com blogger said the team would forever be termed a bunch of “thugs’’ and “criminals.’’
So, if the Lewis events sealed the Ravens’ fate, why have the Patriots evaded such criticism in the wake of Aaron Hernandez’s murder charge? Why do teams such as Minnesota, Cincinnati and Denver have more player arrests than The Ravens or The Patriots but are never damned as thugs?
The Ravens’ brutal brand of smash-mouth football is probably a factor. They have historically won on the strength of their stout defense. Players such as Lewis and Terrell Suggs are known for their aggression and trash talking. They come from Baltimore, a city known for the grittiness of its daily life (ever seen “The Wire’’?).
And none of them are married to the most popular supermodel in the world.
The Ravens and the Patriots may play a different brand of football, but Boston and Baltimore have a lot in common. When I tended bar in a gin mill around the corner from Camden Yards, I’d insist on working when Red Sox Nation was in town. We called those days “Bostomore.’’ Fans with red hats everywhere. They had manners. They tipped well. They hated the Yankees.
Boston fans seemed like the Baltimoreans I knew as a kid. My father turned wrenches in the bellies of Baltimore tug boats for 30 years––sailors, factory workers, cops and teachers were family and friends.
Last month, something amazing happened. The Orioles looked like serious contenders for The World Series. Amazing enough, right? The real shock came when the fans with the red hats started cheering for the O’s.
The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy even suggested Red Sox fans adopt the Orioles. “Take heart, Sox fans. The Orioles are your hardball cousins,’’ Shaughnessy wrote on October 11.
“Baltimore always matters to Boston because Baltimore is the home of George Herman Ruth,’’ he wrote, wrapping up with “You know the story, and don’t we all.’’
And yet the camaraderie doesn’t seem to extend from baseball to football. The Sox fans I know and love are the same people who hurl “thug’’ comments when the Ravens are winning, or losing, or if I’m wearing a Ravens ball cap.
Et tu, Boston?
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