“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a signed contract in hand! The Browns are indeed coming to Baltimore.” – Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, Nov. 6, 1995
With those words, two football-steeped cities’ fates changed forever. For Cleveland, it was a death knell whose ringing never could have been predicted. But for Baltimore, it was shocking relief to a city that could commiserate; it too had lost a team. Twelve years after its residents watched their beloved Colts flee in the dark of a snowy March morning in 1984, the NFL was returning to the city again.
It took months for the team that eventually became known as the Ravens to form an identity and win over some dyed-in-the-wool Colts fans, and the road they took that first season was quite rocky.