A Team, A City and the Intertwined Reputations of Both

Brandon Marshall has been suspended by the NFL for violating the Personal Conduct Policy. He has been questioned or arrested by police 13 times since 2004. He has been arrested (with charges later dropped) in domestic violence incidents with his girlfriend and fiancee; they were different people at different times. He received a year of probation for "driving while ability-impaired" after pleading down from DUI.

He is not a good guy. Yet all many fans see is 226 catches over three seasons (100-plus each for the past two), and a dynamic receiver to replace Derrick Mason*.

*Assuming he retires, which is still up-in-the-air at this point. I won't even bother with how insulting it would be to replace someone of Mason's character with someone as obviously flawed as Marshall.

Baltimore does not have a good reputation around the country; that's part of the reason for this blog. Thanks to movies and television and even the news media we are seen as a city filled with criminals and drug-addicts, the lowest form of thugs. Unfortunately, this is reinforced at least in-part by the reputation of our football team.

I love the Ravens. They are the team I grew up watching, rooting for in the Super Bowl, complaining about through years of offensive ineptitude, and just supporting against those horrid Steelers fans.

However, the team is looked upon in the same vein as the city, a group of thugs whose issues are overlooked by a fanbase who cares only for wins. Part of it is the focus on dominating defense that tends to be the cause of most of the violence in the sport on the field. But, the incidents involving Ray Lewis and Jamal Lewis, as unfair as it may be, have clouded the minds of many.

Both of those guys came from questionable backgrounds, but at the time of their run-ins with the law had not shown any real character problems over several years playing for the Ravens. That knowledge, I would like to believe, is why most in Baltimore from those times to the present have defended those players. It wasn't something known nationally, though, and along with the previous civic perception gave the team a bad reputation.

Marshall, on the other hand, would not have the same well of support to draw from.

He would be a guy that we know what we are getting into, and that the national media and fan base would see as a desperate move only for a shot at winning. When, not if, he has problems, it would be under our watch and so we would get a further hit nationally.

In addition, the risk is not worth the cost to the team's long-term ability to compete. Any deal would likely cost several draft picks, including at least one first-round pick. When Marshall ends up suspended, you not only end up right where you were before in the receiver situation, but worse off with the loss of the value the picks have.

Baltimore fans have even spent the better part of a decade mocking a franchise that was too willing to take chances on players with questionable character: the Cincinnati Bengals. They managed one playoff appearance before returning to the level of a national punchline, only with the added burden of a criminal reputation.

An attitude of "win at any cost" works when you are talking about cutting players who aren't producing, or bringing in the veteran with the known value to start over the rookie full of potential. When you start talking about the kind of desperation where you start overlooking sociopathic behavior for the shot at a title, it fails.

There is no fun in winning a championship if your fans are too embarrassed to celebrate it to the fans of other teams. At best, you get the problems of your team shoved back in your face. At worst, you get the problems of your team shoved back in your face with laughter and disgrace.