New Ravens Anthem: 'Purple Reign'
Pittsburgh has "Black and Yellow."
Now Baltimore has its own anthem inspired by the Ravens, "Purple Reign" by King Los.
The young Baltimore rapper working on Diddy's record label calls himself a "humongous" Ravens fan, and was inspired by the team's playoff run to Super Bowl XLVII.
He released his song on Wednesday and it's generating some buzz with over 3,500 views on YouTube. Wide receiver Torrey Smith also tweeted it out late Thursday night with the remark, "TOUGH!!!!"
King Los (a.k.a. Carlos Coleman, who grew up in West Baltimore) went to work on the song immediately after the Ravens' win over New England. Producer J. Oliver (Jeffery Robinson Jr.), laid the track in four hours and King Los had the lyrics by Monday.
"It was a big moment for sports and this city and I definitely felt it was necessary," King Los told The Baltimore Sun. "I was like: All right man, time to represent, let's go."
King Los explained the song as such:
"There's a triumphant factor here. We're a pretty tough town. We take a lot of criticism and we're known for a lot of things. But to be known for being a champion and just the tenacity of Ray Lewis. … I made it about anyone who comes from the bottom. Everybody counted you out and then there they are, at the Super Bowl."
The main lyric:
"Came from the bottom. Great to be a champ. Did it on our own nobody gave us a chance. No matter the odds, keep God in the circle, now every time it rain we turn the whole world purple."
If rap isn't your style, check out another song from the makers of the "Bring On Brady" parody. This one is a parody of "Some Nights" called "Tonight – A Ravens Battle Song."
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49ers Have The Edge On Paper
ESPN's scouts dug into the film of the Ravens and 49ers and have their determination on who's better at each position.
The Ravens offense generally rules, having the edge at quarterback, running back and wide receiver. The 49ers won on the offensive line, despite giving up nine sacks to the Ravens in their meeting last year.
San Francisco's defense sweeps the board at defensive line, linebacker and defensive back. The scouts, for some reason not explained, also gave Jim the edge over John in coaching.
Baltimore does have the advantage in special teams due to Justin Tucker's stellar season and the struggles of 49ers kicker David Akers. Akers led the NFL in misses this year and is generally pushing the ball too far left, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
All the matchups left Scouts Inc.'s Matt Williamson predicting a San Francisco win, 27-21.
"The Ravens are inspired by the impending retirement of Ray Lewis, but the tape shows that San Francisco has more advantages," he wrote. "In an excellent, hard-fought contest, the 49ers leave New Orleans with the franchise's sixth Super Bowl trophy."
Flacco Not Changing Leadership Style
Is this any surprise? Joe Flacco is going to lead his own way.
Linebacker Ray Lewis called Flacco "The General" after his win in Denver. But yesterday Lewis said Flacco "kind of has to come out of his quiet shell a little bit," to be the next "true, true leader."
With all due respect to the big man, Flacco doesn't agree. He was asked if he's worked on becoming more of a vocal leader.
"I haven't worked on it," Flacco said during his podium session. "Don't know if I agree with it. There are a lot of different ways to lead, and the bottom line is, it's about motivating our players to get the best out of them and having the belief that you can go do it in any situation. And Ray does a great job of that in his own way, and I don't know if there's anybody quite like him in that category. So in an effort to do something along the lines of the way he does it would be a mistake just because I don't think you're going to live up to it.
"You've got to do it your own way, and I think naturally as you get more comfortable with people and people understand you more and you become more confident in them and they become more confident in you, you become more vocal as time goes on."
There are other vocal Ravens such as outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, safety Ed Reed, safety Bernard Pollard and running back Ray Rice.
But The Baltimore Sun's Ed Lee still sees Flacco having to step up.
"Like it or not, Flacco is the organization's quarterback of the future – with or without a long-term contract – and he will be expected to fill the vacuum created by Lewis’ departure."
Ravens Get Te'o In Mock Draft
I know it's too early to be talking about the NFL Draft when there's still a game to be played. But I also know Ravens fans will be interested in this.
Sports Illustrated's Don Banks put together his first mock draft and slates Notre Dame inside linebacker Manti Te'o going to the Ravens at pick No. 31.
Regardless, this would be a fascinating story. Te'o, finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting before his crazy story shook the country.
"Not sure where the draft stock of Te'o will settle after the well-chronicled tale of his hoax of a dying internet girlfriend becomes yesterday's news, but NFL executives I talked to last week were taking a wait-and-see approach," Banks wrote.
"Te'o is a tackling machine and he finds the football in the takeaway department, too, but him getting run over in embarrassing fashion against Alabama had to give some teams pause about his overall game. At the bottom of the first round, however, Ozzie Newsome and Co. might consider him a steal of a replacement for the retired Ray Lewis."
Quick Hits
- Former Ravens outside linebacker and second-round pick Sergio Kindle worked out for the New York Giants. [The Baltimore Sun]
- Archie Manning* *reached out to Jack Harbaugh to talk about the nerves when two sons face each other. [Yahoo! Sports]
- Mel Kiper re-graded the 2012 draft and moved the Ravens from a B to a B [ESPN.com]
- 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knows how to butter up reporters. He ordered them pizza Thursday. [NFL.com]
- Here's a head-rattling matchup to look for: Ravens fullback Vonta Leach versus the 49ers linebackers. Leach blew up Patrick Willis in their last meeting. [USA Today]
- Who would you bet on to score the first Ravens touchdown in the Super Bowl? [ESPN.com/numberFire]
- 49ers defensive coordinator and former Ravens assistant coach Vic Fangio has high praise for Flacco. Fangio told Harbaugh during his first OTA, "You have your horse to ride for 10 years." [San Francisco Chronicle]
- They've begun painting the end zones at the Superdome. [Instagram/Ravens]
- Check out this awesome haircut from Joe Barber. [YouTube/The Baltimore Sun]
