Justin Tucker<\/a> as \u201cThe GOAT\u201d or (Greatest of All Time) when the player trotted near the fans\u2019 stands, Taylor received an affirmative nod from the kicker, offering that after practice, he\u2019d come to the sidelines and sign Taylor\u2019s Ravens baseball-styled cap adding to the dozen or more signatures he\u2019s already collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter all, the 11-year veteran is a cinch to become a speech-maker in Canton\u2019s NFL Hall of Fame \u2013 upon retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Taylor and his long-time neighborhood pals, Davon Tucker and Jones, are all proud, lifelong, devoted Ravens fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three gents were toddlers when then-Baltimore Colts owner, Bob Irsay, hired movers to pack up the team and move to Indianapolis in March 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They do fondly recall when Art Modell relocated his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996 \u2013 and the Ravens were born. They were elementary schoolers, ready to root for Charm City\u2019s new NFL team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Colts aren\u2019t even a part of our DNA,\u201d noted Taylor, adding \u201cwe were so young, we don\u2019t have memories of them.\u201d In their short lifetime, the fellows have witnessed two Super Bowls, 2001 and 2013 \u2013 somewhat amazing considering the franchise is less than 30 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re natural-born Ravens fans,\u201d added Jones, a graduate of Bmore\u2019s Merganthaler Vocational Technical High School aka MERVO High, where he played Lacrosse and football. He\u2019s currently a Baltimore County corrections officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to rooting for their Ravens, the threesome are gung-ho about No. 8 \u2013 five-year starting QB, Lamar Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll show \u2018em this year,\u201d said Taylor, an experienced long-distance moving van driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s healthy and we support him. Believe it or not he\u2019s got lots of haters who don\u2019t appreciate his talent. Even some local media,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re rooting for him to bring us another Super Bowl title,\u201d said Davon Tucker, a Baltimore City school bus driver, who claims Justin Tucker as a \u201cthird-cousin removed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll definitely prove his doubters wrong. That\u2019s what we\u2019re hoping for,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to some NFL talking heads, the Ravens are predicted to have a mediocre season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Davon Tucker, Taylor and Jones are confident the team will rebound from last year\u2019s disappointing 8-9 record in the competitive AFC North division, only the second losing season in head coach John Harbaugh\u2019s 15-year tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOffensively, tight-ends Isaiah Likely, Mark Andrews and wide-receiver Rashod Bateman, should be potent weapons for QB Jackson,\u201d said Taylor, a former Lacrosse player at Baltimore City College High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Davon Tucker, an ex-Lake Clifton High School basketballer, said an improved offensive line will instantly help Jackson regain his magical abilities from his 2019 MVP season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jones expressed similar sentiment with his boys adding, \u201cthis year, we should be 13-4 at least or at best 15-2.\u201d Jones formerly attended Baltimore City College (High School) and once worked as a lab technician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three fellows said they enjoyed their first-time visits to the Under Armour Performance Center complex, where each summer, nearly 1,000 fans are invited daily, to experience the Baltimore Ravens training camp, according to Ravens PR executive, Tom Valente.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The performance center was constructed in 2004. Coupled with additional renovations in 2018, the entire facility and Owings Mills campus is valued at about $54 million, according to published reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, Sept. 11, the Ravens play their first regular season game against the New York Jets at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and on Sept. 18, will face the Miami Dolphins for their first home game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three lifelong Raven’s fans share their history with the team and thoughts on the upcoming season at one of the team’s open training camp sessions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ravens","tag-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Ravensfans2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2062,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions\/2062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}