The Patriots' main rival during their Super Bowl years was the Indianapolis Colts. Sure, the Jets were the hated division enemy from New York. The Steelers were the greatest franchise in NFL history that couldn't beat the Pats when it counted. The Chargers were the Norv-led contenders who could never quite stop beating themselves. But year after year it was Peyton Manning and the Colts that stood between the Patriots and the Super Bowl.
That era has long passed, coming to a conclusion in the Arizona desert in the winter of '08. The Patriots are still Super Bowl contenders but the Colts have tumbled to the AFC depths while Manning is throwing passes in the mile-high air of Denver. Many would say that Skinny Rex and the dysfunctional Jets have taken over the Colts' role as the Pats' arch enemy. Not so. The Jets aren't good enough (yet) or nasty enough to fill that role.
But Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens are.
The two best teams in the AFC (sorry Steelers) square off again tonight in the biggest game of the week and one of the biggest games of the year. It's not just a chance for both teams to get back on track after disappointing losses last week. It's a game that could -- and probably will -- decide where the two teams will play when they meet again in January. It was the same with the Pats and the Colts. The Pats would win the regular season match-up, thus making Manning and the Colts come to frigid Gillette to lose in the playoffs. It wasn't until the Colts starting winning in the regular season that they were able to make the Pats come to the comforts of the Dome where they were finally able to slay their enemy.
Every champion needs a rival. Every hero needs a villain. Now it's the Ravens' turn. They have been preparing for this role for years.
Most football fans had a bias against the Ravens from the moment their hideous Edgar Allan Poe logo was created in 1996. The recently deceased Art Modell moved the beloved Cleveland Browns right out from under the pug noses of the Dog Pound and took them to Baltimore back in the day when NFL owners were treating their teams like fast-food franchises. Load up the truck in the middle of the night, move to a new city, slap a new logo on it ... instant franchise! Modell may have been one of the key builders of the NFL, but in the eyes of many fans he was scum for moving the Browns to Baltimore. His crime paid off a few years later with a Super Bowl title, lead by loudmouths (and hall of famers to be) Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharpe. The brash-talking Ravens were born.
The Patriots and the Ravens have played each other just eight times in the nearly 20 years the purple and black have been in existence. And the Pats have won seven of those eight. Each time the Ravens have come into the game thinking they were the better team and each time (but once) the Pats crushed them one way or another. Their first meeting was back in '96, with the Pats winning a wild one. I barely remember the game other than it was a Drew Bledsoe-Vinnie Testaverde gunslinger battle. The Pats would go on to an unexpected trip to the Super Bowl that year while the Ravens won just four games in their inaugural season.
The next meeting was at the end of the 1999 season. The end of the Pete Carroll disaster. The Patriots thrashed the Ravens 20-3 in the regular season finale to finish at 8-8. Fortunately it did not save Pete Carroll's job. The Ravens also finished 8-8. The next year they would win the Super Bowl ... and the Pats would begin the Belichick era. The next time the two teams would meet -- in 2004 -- both franchises were sporting Super Bowl rings and cocky attitudes. The Ravens and Ray Lewis came into Gillette on a cold, rainy Thanksgiving weekend and the 9-1 Patriots dominated them 24-3. Corey Dillon carried the ball 30 times in the mud for 123 yards, a preview of what he would do in the playoffs.
The Pats-Ravens rivalry really started to reach a boil in 2007. The Patriots came into Baltimore at 11-0 and the talk of an unbeaten season was everywhere. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and the Ravens were determined to put a stop to all the talk. And they almost did. It was a true heavyweight battle, with each team exchanging hay makers. The score was 10-10 at the half. 17-17 after three. The Ravens held a 24-20 lead with just more than three minutes left to play when Brady led one of his greatest -- and luckiest -- game-winning drives. The Ravens D stopped Brady on a fourth-down play but the officials said one of the Baltimore coaches had called a timeout before the ball had been snapped. Brady got a new life and took advantage of it, connecting with Jabbar Gaffney a few plays later for the winning touchdown. I still pop the tape of that game into the old VCR everyone now and then. It's a classic.
As was the next meeting in 2009. The Patriots prevailed 27-21 in a game of hard hits and cheap shots. It's the game where Belichick tells Raven receiver Derrick Mason to shut the eff up and the game where Terrell Suggs (T-Sizzle. Now that's the nickname of a villain) was called for roughing Brady and whined about the "Brady rule." Once again the loudmouth Ravens left the field steaming and vowing revenge.
They would finally get it a few months later at Gillette in the playoffs. A game I would prefer to forget. Ray Rice burst through the Pats D line for an 83-yard touchdown before I even had my first drink and it just got worse from there. Ravens 33, Patriots 14. It was a drubbing. A beating. A whuppin'. The Pats had it coming and the Ravens were anxious to deliver it.
The two met again the following October with a lot of experts questioning if the Pats had what it took to ever beat the Ravens again. They did. It was another close game and Gosty won it with a clutch field goal with more than a minute to play for the 23-20 final. The same score for the last game the two teams played ... the AFC title game at Gillette last January that the Ravens still can't believe they lost. Another classic battle that came down to a kicker, this time Baltimore's Billy Cundiff and this time the kick was missed.
Other than the drubbing in the playoffs the Patriots have always come out on top. How can it be a rivalry if one team keeps winning? It's like the Sox and the Yankees. But even a one-sided rivalry can be a heated one. The hatred and resentment of the team that always loses (and their fans) keeps building and building. The Patriots (as they were for the Colts) are the Ravens' white whale. Tonight gives them another chance to lunge a harpoon into the chest of Brady and Belichick.
Dan Shaughnessy says Pats' fans don't hate the Ravens, once again reminding us why sportswriters should never speak for the fans. He says Baltimore is too likable a city. Which I found out when I went to a Ravens game last year. But it's not New England vs. Baltimore. It's Patriots vs. Ravens. It's never a regional thing. New York's a great city. I love going there. It's not that the Yankees are from New York. It's that they win all the time. You think people hate the Celts because they are from Boston? Not really. It's that they are sick of them. Just like football fans across the country are sick of Brady and the Pats. They could be the Minnesota Patriots and people would hate them.
Dan says there's no hate like there is for the Jets. Well, maybe he should have sat in the stands of the AFC title game last January to see how Pats' fans feel about the Ravens. Or maybe he should come sit with me and my nephew Pete on my couch tonight.
The Ravens? They are a great team with great players. But they talk too much. They whine a lot. We hate 'em. They're the new villain. And they are perfect for the role.
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