In previous years, there were a number of DJs in the Ravens locker room.
Whoever got their tunes on first, or had the loudest speakers, or was known for having the best taste, ruled the locker room music scene.
Now the players have a brand new gizmo – a Raven-ized jukebox.
"Actually the jukebox is extremely nice, to the point that I'm like, 'Yo, I want one of these,'" cornerback Jimmy Smith told me.
The jukebox wasn't brought in by the players. It was an action taken by the higher-ups since there's a new emphasis in the NFL to clean up the locker room and promote a more PG environment in the wake of the Richie Incognito incident in Miami last year.
So now music goes through an approval system. Once given the thumbs up, songs are loaded onto the jukebox. Then anybody can select whatever song they want whenever they want.
"The jukebox is a way to centralize the music," said kicker Justin Tucker, a former music major at the University of Texas.
"We try to include as many different genres of music as possible. We've had a lot of Bob Marley in there, a lot of classic rock with AC/DC, Led Zeppelin. We have some hip-hop and rap. We've been mixing it up."
I went through the recently played songs list and Tucker's right about the Marley stuff. They've been jamming on the reggae.
The time I last checked, there was a lot of Drake, Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive," some Stevie Wonder and even Zac Brown's "Chicken Fried." It's quite a wide range. I'd say the only thing really missing was indie and classical. I guess Tucker hasn't been performing any operas.
One thing I'll miss is the loss of a tradition: fullback Vonta Leach used to blast "Friday" by Sir Charles Jones each and every Friday during the season. When you heard that song, you knew it was the end of the work week.
"We'll find a way to play that," Tucker said. "When Friday comes, that's a given. From this point forward, maybe I can step into those shoes. Those are big shoes to fill, that's a great player right there."
