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As NFL teams around the league ramped up to full speed over the summer, so too did the media personalities covering football. Training camp is a good time to warm up arms and legs, hot takes and unique angles.
But while the football-loving audience must wait until tonight to see if the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens are ready to go for the 2024 season, there is no doubt sports media is already there. Everywhere you look there are takes in abundance- and many of them revolve around what this game means for the Ravens and reigning MVP Lamar Jackson.
Specifically, all is lost if Baltimore can’t take revenge on Kansas City for last year’s disappointing AFC Championship Game loss. Here’s James Jones on Fox Sports, busting out the old “must-win game” adage for literally the first game of the season.
Across the way in the media world, Dan Orlovsky was on ESPN explaining how tonight’s performance will tell us everything we need to know about the Ravens’s ability to stand up to the Chiefs in the AFC.
And so it goes. Nick Wright believes it’s one of the biggest games of Jackson’s career. Stephen A. Smith contended it’s important for the Ravens and Jackson to send a message on First Take. Everywhere you look, pundits are staking their claim to the 2024 kickoff serving as a referendum on everything the Ravens stand for. With the implication being that if they falter, if they fail to pull off the win, they may as well pack it up.
And it’s only Week 1!
There are many stereotypes among fans about how sports media operates, and not all of them are true. But one that is very accurate is the instinct to proclaim the game right in front of us as the biggest game, the one that will reveal all the answers. In this era of debate, take artists haven’t waited for the stakes to match. There is a solid foundation to a take declaring the 2023 AFC Championship Game as the biggest of Jackson’s career. It is a bit more of a stretch to do so for a game both teams enter with a 0-0 record.
But instead of maybe growing frustrated by the outsized takes compared to the moment, we should bask in the glory of it all. Because it means football is back. Each game means everything and nothing all at the same time, no matter the outcome. Part of the fun with sports is the debate and nothing gets sports fans going quite like football.
So the Ravens better win tonight. Or else Jackson is a fraud and Baltimore is fated to never again see a Super Bowl. But if they win, the Chiefs are in trouble! There is no wrong answer. And that is beautiful.