The Baltimore Ravens were unable to come to an agreement with the Baltimore Orioles this week to settle their scheduling dispute, meaning the defending Super Bowl champs won’t be opening the season at home after all.
The Super Bowl champion has opened the NFL season at home for over a decade now, but the Ravens announced on Friday they won’t be partaking in the annual tradition.
The reasoning behind the unusual opener is that the NFL has set Sept. 5 for next season’s opener, but the Orioles already had a game scheduled for that day. After long negotiations between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and MLB commissioner Bud Selig, the MLB decided that moving the Orioles-White Sox game just wasn’t going to happen. So now, it appears the Ravens will begin their year on the road, which also means the Patriots won’t be partaking in the opening night festivities.
Usually the NFL schedules the champion to face a bitter rival and often times the losing team from the previous season’s conference championship — that being the Patriots this year. But the Patriots are slated to visit Baltimore this season, rather than the Ravens heading to Foxboro, taking them out of the running for opening night.
Many Patriots fans were excited about the idea of having the AFC Championship Game rematch on opening night, but they’ll just have to wait a few weeks longer to exact their revenge.
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