Ravens' slogan misses the point

Ravens' slogan misses the point
January 17
Washington Times columnist Thom Loverro
"Nearly 30 years after his last fight and almost 20 years since his voice could be heard above a whisper, Muhammad Ali remarkably remains a tool of inspiration in sports.

Baseball manager Jim Leyland used stories about Ali to motivate and inspire two of his World Series teams, the Florida Marlins in 1997 and Detroit Tigers in 2006.

Last year, after meeting Ali at an event in Louisville, Ky., U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger encouraged his players to look to Ali for inspiration in their campaign to win back the cup from Europe.

Ali lit the Olympic torch in Atlanta in 1996. The U.S. women's hockey team that won gold in Nagano in 1998, looking to him as an example of perseverance and determination, watched "When We Were Kings," the documentary of Ali's famous battle with George Foreman in Zaire in 1974.

And now the Baltimore Ravens, who meet the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in the AFC championship game, are using Ali as their rallying cry for this season.

Unfortunately, they picked as inspiration one of the lowest moments of Ali's career, an ugly performance of which Ali himself to this day probably still is ashamed.

"What's Our Name?" has been the Ravens' inspirational slogan since the start of the season.

I can tell you what their name is not. It is not honor or glory. That slogan represents neither.

Before the start of the season, Ravens coach John Harbaugh asked his father, Jack, a former head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky, to speak to the team.

Jack Harbaugh had used Ali's career as a point of motivation in speaking to his teams. According to the Baltimore Sun, he told the story about how Ali beat Ernie Terrell to his Western Kentucky team before the 2002 NCAA Division I-AA national championship game against favored McNeese State. "
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