The holiday season is a time for giving, but all anyone in Baltimore can think about is taking, taking, taking.
Specifically, taking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the same way Indianapolis took the Baltimore Colts a decade ago.
This isn't to suggest that Peter Angelos should withdraw his $200 million offer for the Bucs -- it's too late for that now.
Just recognize we're down in the gutter. Down there with Irsay. Down there with Indianapolis. Down there with the entire, stinking NFL.
Charm City? Please.
We're as dirty as everyone else.
PD People forget, there are loyal fans in Tampa, just as there once
were loyal fans in Baltimore. The ones here aren't better than the ones there. Nor are they more entitled to a team.
In fact, the Tampa- St. Petersburg area should be one Baltimore can identify with, considering the shabby way it has been treated by Major League Baseball.
Seven rejections in nine years.
What city can match that?
The most recent and most flagrant snub was in 1992, when Tampa-St. Pete produced an offer $15 million better than the one that kept the Giants in San Francisco.
The ensuing antitrust lawsuit resulted in a settlement worth more than $6 million and a formal apology for the group's two lead investors. Alas, it did not get Tampa-St. Pete a team.
Losing football after getting shafted by baseball would amount to the cruelest form of double jeopardy. But has anyone in Baltimore considered this? Does anyone even care?
All cities think of themselves as special, and Baltimore is no different. We lack the arrogance of New York or Washington. But for pure provincialism, we more than hold our own.
Forever nostalgic, Baltimore trumpets itself as a city of character, whatever that means. The homicide count is again more than 300. Exactly what kind of character are we talking about?
A true city of character would demand that public funds set aside for stadium construction be used to improve the quality of life for its residents.
But no city has that much character. So, let's not get carried away.
TH The truth is, sports franchises are vital to a city's identity and a
boon to its economy. In that sense, Camden Yards was a bargain. It kept us from losing the Orioles, and continued the revitalization of downtown.
A new football stadium makes sense in a different way. It would generate less economic impact, but would heal the psychological scars that have only grown deeper in the decade since the Colts left town.
Those scars wouldn't disappear; they'd resurface in Tampa-St. Pete.
So? That's their problem.
Actually, the NFL provoked this eye-for-an-eye unseemliness, provoked it by sticking it to Baltimore repeatedly, provoked it by flaunting its arrogance without remorse.
We played by their rules, jumped through their hoops, fought the good fight. Then we discovered they rigged the expansion process. What did they expect us to do, lie down?
The Bucs share in the collective guilt -- they voted for Charlotte, voted for Jacksonville, voted against Baltimore. Indeed, the entire league should have anticipated our anger.
Charlotte wouldn't have turned around and done this. Jacksonville wouldn't even have thought of it. Such vengeance was possible only in the old cities. Only in St. Louis. Only in Baltimore. Ah, civic pride.
Ten years, that's all it has been since the Mayflower vans rolled out of town. But here's Angelos, calling the Bucs "eminently movable," waving his $200 million, threatening to become the Irsay of Tampa.
And no one here blinks.
The case against Tampa is comparable to the case against Baltimore a decade ago -- inadequate stadium, declining attendance, the whole bit.
Around town, this elicits a shrug.
So much for a crisis of conscience.
Granted, the football tradition in Tampa isn't what it was in Baltimore. But what does that mean? Fans are fans. You lose your team, it doesn't matter where you live -- it hurts.
Then again, in the zero-sum world of professional sports, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Either Baltimore plays this dirty little game or it remains a CFL town forever.
The choice is simple and reasonable and inevitable. Just don't pretend that the moral argument favors Baltimore. And don't pretend that one city deserves a team more than another.
Root for Angelos, but know the truth: We're down in the gutter. Down there with Irsay. Down there with Indianapolis. Down there with the entire, stinking NFL.