Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football team. The 1995 Northwestern Wildcats’ dream season served as the inspiration for the Ravens’ colors, which were unveiled in early 1996. Since the Ravens’ initial campaign in 1996, the uniform’s style has mostly stayed the same.
Introduction
Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football team. The Ravens are a member team of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division of the National Football League (NFL). The team’s headquarters are in Owings Mills, Maryland, and M&T Bank Stadium is where they play their home games.
The team was founded in 1996 after Art Modell, the Cleveland Browns’ owner at the time, revealed plans in 1995 to move the team from Cleveland to Baltimore. Following a settlement reached between the league and the city of Cleveland, Modell was forced to leave the Browns’ history, logos, and records in Cleveland to make room for a new club and personnel when play resumed in 1999. In exchange, he was permitted to bring his squad and people to Baltimore, where those individuals would later organize an expansion franchise. Steve Bisciotti currently owns the Ravens, and with a valuation of $2.98 billion, they rank as the 33rd most valuable sports franchise globally.
Also Read: AFC Team Profile and Analysis: Baltimore Ravens NFL Team
History
The Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell decided to move his storied organization, and in 1996, he made a deal with the city of Baltimore to do so, giving rise to the Ravens. The newly renamed Ravens, whose name comes from the well-known poem by Baltimorean Edgar Allan Poe, was legally a resident expansion team because Cleveland agreed to keep the Browns’ name, legacy, and colors for a future replacement franchise. Ray Lewis, a linebacker chosen first overall by the team, rapidly rose to the top of the NFL and contributed to the Ravens’ image as a fiercely defensive squad.
The Ravens finally made it after four years without a winning record in 2000. The club won 12 games during the regular season and easily won the AFC playoffs, surrendering an average of fewer than 6 points per game. This was made possible by the league’s top-ranked defense.
Uniform
Since the Ravens’ initial campaign in 1996, the uniform’s style has mostly stayed the same. The 1995 Northwestern Wildcats’ dream season inspired the Ravens’ colors, which were first used in early 1996. The “talon” stripes on the black helmets rise from the facemask to the crown. At home, players typically don purple jerseys, while away; they don white jerseys. All games in 1996 were played with the team donning black pants with a single, wide white stripe. The Ravens chose a more traditional NFL appearance in 1997, wearing white pants with purple and black stripes and jerseys with a different typeface for the uniform numbers.
The Ravens wore the road uniform, which consists of white pants and white jerseys, in Super Bowl XXXV after the 2000 NFL season. The Ravens used to wear black socks with this all-white outfit, but starting in 2021, they switched to wearing white hosiery. The Ravens started wearing white jerseys for the home opener with a 1:00 kickoff in the 2002 season. The team unveiled an alternative uniform in November 2004 that featured black jerseys, solid black pants, and socks. In 2008, the Ravens resumed pairing their white jersey with black pants.
The Ravens have sported their black uniforms at least twice per season since 2010. They donned the all-blacks once, the black-on-white once between 2011 and 2013, and one more in 2015. Both times they wore alternate uniforms; in 2014 and 2016, they donned all-black attire. They wore all-black twice and all-black once in 2017. In a road game against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 13, 2018, the Ravens made their new look debut by donning white jerseys and purple pants. Unlike the purple pants worn in Color Rush, which have side stripes of gold and white instead of black and white, these pants are purple. The Ravens then wore their new purple pants and standard purple outfits on October 21 against the New Orleans Saints.
The Ravens wore their black uniforms with purple pants for the regular season’s last game against the Browns on December 30. The Ravens donned this outfit again on October 11, 2021, in a 31-25 overtime victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football.
Also Read: M&T Bank, Baltimore Ravens Extend Partnership Through 2037 NFL Season
Jersey
Purple, black, and metallic gold are the official colors of the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens often used black socks with the combo. Still, on January 2, 2022, they wore purple socks instead, practically duplicating their Color Rush outfits with only a few gold accents versus the Los Angeles Rams.
Full Name: Baltimore Ravens
Nickname: “Purple Rain”
Founded: 1996
Ground state: Maryland
Team Owners: Cleveland Browns
Prominent players: Deion Sanders, Ray Lewis, Steve McNair