Ravens Spirit: Keeping the Faith

Well, it’s been a tough stretch for the Ravens, especially for me because I’ve been around the team for so long. I think the injuries are really playing a key factor, so it makes it so frustrating. But, the cheerleaders are always going to be behind the guys, and hopefully we can get it together for this weekend.

So, I hope everyone is excited to be back home this weekend for Monday Night Football. It’s going to a lot of fun. We’re probably going to be introduced as a team again, and although I do love the individual intros, at this point in the season, there is nothing like seeing team unity. The players are presenting themselves as a unified bunch, and maybe that shows that they are thinking as one. They’re going to need to do that so we can start winning some games. I really do think it’s a good thing to come out as a group, even though the individuals do get the fans pumped up.

The change to go to team introductions started back in the Cincinnati game. We thought they were going to be introducing the defense, with Ray’s dance and all that. Apparently, the team made the decision to come out all together in the locker room, and we weren’t told, so there we were, standing in our lines waiting for more players to come out of the tunnel, and I looked around and thought, “Hey, there’s Ray. There’s Ed. What’s going on?” It was pretty funny.

After the Cincinnati game, we had that crazy Browns game that went into overtime. As we started to get closer and closer to end of the game, I was going around to all the rookies on our squad and telling them to be prepared to stay a little later. This one was going into overtime. Of course, I didn’t ever think it would go to overtime in such a way as it did.

I was set up on the side of the field where Cleveland was kicking that last-second field goal, and I’ll be honest with you, I saw it go through. I guess it was because I had more of a side angle and the officials were right underneath the goal posts, but I thought it was good. When they signaled that it was no-good, I was shocked. We were cheering, and the fans were going crazy. Coach Billick even went to go shake the other coach’s hand. We even went back into the locker room, but I looked over as we went back through the tunnel, and they were still talking about it. I couldn’t even imagine what they could be talking about when the clock had 0:00 on it. We were all pretty confused.

But, you know the rest. That was one of the toughest moments of my career, and we’ve had some difficult times before.

We had a Ravens cheerleader Thanksgiving before that Cleveland game, which was kind of a potluck dinner. We have some food already prepared, and we all bring in a dish as well. It’s great because we get to pig out before the game. We had all sorts of food, like turkey, stuffing, potatoes… You name it. It was really fun to celebrate with the people you love so much.

This week, with the big Monday night game, we’re going be really on our toes. I know the Patriots are really good, but hopefully our boys will be able to bring them back down to earth. I love Monday Night Football, because the fans really get hyped up for those games. On a personal note, I’m really looking forward to my end zone routine, which we’ll do on Dec. 9 for the Colts game. We’re going to be in our Santa suits and everything, so that will be a lot of fun. We’ve all been working hard on that this week, and I’ll give you an update before the game on what to expect.

Thanks again for reading the blog and I’ll be back soon.

Go Ravens!

- Leslie A.