Blame Video Games: Baltimore Ravens Take Players’ Games Away, Lose Anyway
from the try-again dept
I very much promise that you don’t need to know about, or even care about, American football in any way for this post. We should all know at this point that the “blame video games” crowd has not gotten any smaller recently and that video games are blamed for just about everything you can think of as a result. Presidential candidate gets shot at? Video games. Think that America is in a state of moral decay? Video games! Mass shootings? Video games, bruh! The abuse of Medicaid coverage? You guessed it: video games.
This cultural default is so pervasive, in fact, then when the Baltimore Ravens started off this NFL season with one win in four contests, the team decided that part of the problem was the video game consoles in the locker room.
On October 20, The Baltimore Sun reported that after going 1-3 and a player posting a photo of them playing games to social media, team officials and Harbaugh removed several “recreational staples” from the Ravens’ locker room. These included a basketball hoop, a ping pong table, a few corn hole boards, and some “video game consoles.”
The report doesn’t specify which consoles, but it does mention that the team often played “intense rounds” of Super Smash Bros, so I’d assume some Switch or Switch 2 systems were removed. The outlet also says that these Super Smash sessions drew “small crowds of teammates late in the day.”
I’ll just go ahead and note that the Ravens lost the following two games after those “recreational staples”, including the gaming consoles, were removed. Now, they won this past weekend, but that was because they were playing the Bears and the universe enjoys keeping me miserable, but that isn’t really the point.
Instead, the point is that this reflex is stupid. Video games aren’t making the Ravens bad at football. A combination of the players playing and the coaches coaching is what is doing that. And while this is something of a silly story without any real important consequences coming from it, it certainly does highlight the silliness and ubiquity of this video game blaming reflex we seem to have as a society.
Stop looking for scapegoats, in other words.
Filed Under: blame, football, videos games
Companies: baltimore ravens
Comments on “Blame Video Games: Baltimore Ravens Take Players’ Games Away, Lose Anyway”
The beating will continue until you w8n. Also having fun and being relaxed is bad.
Their next step will be to take away beds, pillows, etc.
Re:
It won’t stop if they win. Even a single win will be taken as proof their plan worked, even if their win rate hasn’t improved
Well.. at least they weren’t playing any version of Mario Party, otherwise the whole team would hate each other and not actually be a team.
'if it's not the fault of the games it might be us, the owners... it's the games.'
Ah yes, because clearly you want your players to be as un-relaxed as possible before they go out to play, and you certainly don’t want them to engage in any friendly competition to build team cohesion…
This seems to be more about leisurely attitudes in the locker room and not video games specifically. This is the weakest anti-antivideogames take.
the beatings will continue until morale improves.
Not a particularly good example
The video-games-are-to-blame mantra gets repeated often enough that there are much better examples to cite. This one overlooks the other causative factors, e.g., 7 Pro-Bowl starters out with injuries including the QB, very difficult schedule over first 6 games, etc. Yes, it was probably a dumb move to pull the games, but that’s not why they lost two games — or why they won the third.
The book PISSANTS is best on this subject
There is a specific chapter on speedrunning strategies for different N64 Mario Kart tracks. Too real! Also these players are the ones who can never get a game but are on contract.
Raven in My Eyes :: Poe Pimpin'
Chicago Bear #16ways; versus Ravens 30xcrazy= murder…#10deep
Someone isn't aware of the priorities.
Who thinks winning has anything to do with generating revenue?
Video games aren’t making the Ravens bad at football.
You’re goddamn right it isn’t! It’s the damn cornhole! Game of the devil. Saps your intellect and your precious bodily fluids.
Somehow it's John Madden's fault
The problem is that the Raven’s coaching staff think that Madden NFL 2005 (released in 2004) is a later release than Madden 26 (released this year).