After the Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans 21-7 on Sunday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said some words (as is typical) in the locker room. Some of those words were dedicated to needling Baltimore’s arch-rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who lost 20-13 in embarrassing fashion to the Jets a week after destroying the Ravens.
The Ravens weren’t pleased because apparently, those comments weren’t meant for television, despite cameras rolling in the locker room at the time.
“The comments made by John Harbaugh in the locker room following today’s victory over the Titans were meant for Ravens players and coaches only,” Ravens Senior Vice President of Public and Community Relations Kevin Byrne said. “The CBS-TV crew that was in the locker room was told by Coach Harbaugh that it could not broadcast what he was about to say. When Coach Harbaugh finished talking about various things happening around the NFL and in the AFC North, he told the crew that it could now use what he was going to say. Inexplicably, CBS-TV then aired comments Coach Harbaugh specifically said were not to leave the locker room. CBS-TV immediately pulled the video and apologized to the Ravens.”
This is really much ado about nothing. I’d assume Harbaugh wants to keep that public air of “respect” for the Steelers alive while still encouraging his players to disdain the team. Then again, I’m sure the same thing is happening in the Steelers locker room, and the Bengals locker room, and the Browns locker room, and so on and so forth.
Harbaugh pointing out that Pittsburgh got their asses kicked isn’t some sort of heinous, disrespectful statement – it’s a testament to how (usually) the NFL is a week to week, up and down, back and forth league. Hell, Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied for last in the AFC North at 6-4…but are just half a game out of first place. Each team beat the other at home by 20 points this year. This isn’t some sort of disgraceful display of sportsmanship, or whatever – it’s football.
