The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its home games at M&T Bank Stadium and is headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland.[7]
The Baltimore Ravens were established in 1996 after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced plans in 1995 to relocate the franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore.[8] As part of a settlement between the league and the city of Cleveland, Modell was required to leave the Browns' history, team colors, and records in Cleveland for a replacement team and replacement personnel that would resume play in 1999. In return, he was allowed to take his own personnel and team to Baltimore, where such personnel would then form an expansion team. The team is now owned by Steve Bisciotti and valued at $2.98 billion, making the Ravens the 33rd-most valuable sports franchise in the world.[9]
The Ravens have been one of the more successful franchises since their inception, compiling a regular season record of 243–190–1 (.561), the third-highest among active franchises.[10] They are also tied for the fourth-highest playoff winning percentage at 16–12 (.571).[10] The team has qualified for the NFL playoffs 14 times since 2000 with two Super Bowl titles (Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLVII), two AFC Championship titles (2000 and 2012), four AFC Championship game appearances (2000, 2008, 2011 and 2012) and six AFC North division titles (2003, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2018, and 2019). They are one of two teams to be undefeated in multiple Super Bowl appearances, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Ravens organization was led by general manager Ozzie Newsome from 1996 until his retirement following the 2018 season, and has had three head coaches: Ted Marchibroda, Brian Billick, and since 2008, John Harbaugh. Starting with a record-breaking defensive performance in their 2000 season, the Ravens have established a reputation for strong defensive play throughout team history. Former players such as middle linebacker Ray Lewis, safety Ed Reed, and offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The name "Ravens" was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven.[3][11] Chosen in a fan contest that drew 33,288 voters, the allusion honors Poe who spent the early part of his career in Baltimore and is buried there.[12] As The Baltimore Sun reported at the time, fans also "liked the tie-in with the other birds in town, the Orioles, and found it easy to visualize a tough, menacing black bird".[13] Edgar Allan Poe also had distant relatives who played football for the Princeton Tigers in the 1880s through the early 1900s. These brothers were famous players in the early days of American football.
Before the football team, there was the Baltimore Ravens wheelchair basketball team — the original Baltimore Ravens.[14] In 1972, the Ravens wheelchair basketball team was founded by Ralph Smith, long-term resident of Baltimore, second Vice President of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) and Member of the NWBA Hall of Fame.[15] The name "Ravens" was inspired by Bob Ardinger, a member of the Ravens wheelchair basketball team. In the 1990s, the naming rights were later sold to the football team when they came to the city and the wheelchair basketball team became known as the Maryland Ravens, Inc.
After the controversial relocation of the Colts to Indianapolis, several attempts were made to bring an NFL team back to Baltimore. In 1993, ahead of the 1995 league expansion, the city was considered a favorite, behind only St. Louis, to be granted one of two new franchises.[16] League officials and team owners feared litigation due to conflicts between rival bidding groups if St. Louis was awarded a franchise. In October Charlotte, North Carolina was the first city chosen. Several weeks later, Baltimore's bid for a franchise—dubbed the Baltimore Bombers, in honor of the locally produced Martin B-26 Marauder bomber—had three ownership groups in place[16] and a state financial package which included a proposed $200 million, rent-free stadium and permission to charge up to $80 million in personal seat license fees.[17][18] Baltimore, however, was unexpectedly passed over in favor of Jacksonville, Florida, despite Jacksonville's minor TV market status and that the city had withdrawn from contention in the summer, only to return with then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's urging.[16] Although league officials denied that any city had been favored, it was reported that Tagliabue and his longtime friend Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke had lobbied against Baltimore due to its proximity to Washington, D.C.,[16][18][19] and that Tagliabue had used the initial committee voting system to prevent the entire league ownership from voting on Baltimore's bid.[20] This led to public outrage and The Baltimore Sun describing Tagliabue as having an "Anybody But Baltimore" policy.[20] Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer said afterward that Tagliabue had led him on, praising Baltimore and the proposed owners while working behind-the-scenes to oppose Baltimore's bid.[20]
By May 1994, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos had gathered a new group of investors, including author Tom Clancy, to bid on teams whose owners had expressed interest in relocating.[21] Angelos found a potential partner in Georgia Frontiere, who was open to moving the Los Angeles Rams to Baltimore. Jack Kent Cooke opposed the move, intending to build the Redskins' new stadium in Laurel, Maryland, close enough to Baltimore to cool outside interest in bringing in a new franchise.[22] This led to heated arguments between Cooke and Angelos, who accused Cooke of being a "carpetbagger."[21] The league eventually persuaded Rams team president John Shaw to relocate to St. Louis instead, leading to a league-wide rumor that Tagliabue was again steering interest away from Baltimore, a claim which Tagliabue denied.[23] In response to anger in Baltimore, including Governor Schaefer's threat to announce over the loudspeakers Tagliabue's exact location in Camden Yards any time he attended a Baltimore Orioles game,[24] Tagliabue remarked of Baltimore's financial package: "Maybe (Baltimore) can open another museum with that money."[18] Following this, Angelos made an unsuccessful $200 million bid to bring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Baltimore.[25]
Having failed to obtain a franchise via the expansion, the city, despite having "misgivings,"[18] turned to the possibility of obtaining the Cleveland Browns, whose owner Art Modell was financially struggling and at odds with the city of Cleveland over needed improvements to the team's stadium.
Enticed by Baltimore's available funds for a first-class stadium and a promised yearly operating subsidy of $25 million, Modell announced on November 6, 1995, his intention to relocate the team from Cleveland to Baltimore the following year. The resulting controversy ended when representatives of Cleveland and the NFL reached a settlement on February 8, 1996. Tagliabue promised the city of Cleveland that an NFL team would be located in Cleveland, either through relocation or expansion, "no later than 1999".[26] Additionally, the agreement stipulated that the Browns' name, colors, uniform design and franchise records would remain in Cleveland. The franchise history includes Browns club records and connections with Pro Football Hall of Fame players. Modell's Baltimore team, while retaining all current player contracts, would, for purposes of team history, appear as an expansion team, a new franchise.[27] Not all players, staff or front office would make the move to Baltimore, however.
After relocation, Modell hired Ted Marchibroda as the head coach for his new team in Baltimore. Marchibroda was already well known because of his work as head coach of the Baltimore Colts during the 1970s and the Indianapolis Colts during the early 1990s. Ozzie Newsome, the Browns' tight end for many seasons, joined Modell in Baltimore as director of football operations. He was later promoted to vice-president/general manager.
The home stadium for the Ravens first two seasons was Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, previously home to the Baltimore Colts, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Canadian Football League’s Baltimore Stallions. The Ravens moved to their own new stadium, now known as M&T Bank Stadium, next to Camden Yards in 1998.