Following a long day of workouts, meetings, and practice as part of the Ravens' second set of organized team activities, the rookies stayed late Tuesday afternoon in Owings Mills for a presentation that focused on their lives away from the team facility.
For more than an hour, the rookies engaged in a conversation and presentation about domestic violence from the House of Ruth Maryland, a local intimate partner violence center that partnered with the team last summer in the wake of former running back Ray Rice's domestic assault case.
"I think it's important for young men in every place in our community to be exposed to this kind of information and conversation, and a lot of it is conversation around what our culture, what our society expects of young men, particularly athletic young men, and how it is counter in many ways to a young man being able to form a healthy relationship with women," said Sandi Timmins, executive director of the House of Ruth Maryland.
The team joined with House of Ruth in August 2014, after a difficult summer caused by Rice's assault of his then-fiancee, Janay, in an Atlantic City elevator in February 2014. At the time of the agreement, Rice was suspended by the NFL for two games, but the Ravens cut him and the league suspended him indefinitely after video of the assault was posted by TMZ in early September.
The three-year joint venture provides training and partnership opportunities for the Ravens and the Baltimore-based center, with multiple educational sessions already held in the last year for the team. The Ravens agreed to donate $200,000 per year to the House of Ruth Maryland.
Timmons said the group's relationship with the Ravens existed before the agreement was formalized, but that the landscape across the country has changed in part because of the NFL's problems over the last year.
"I think the very fact that this has been so high-profile for a year now has opened up people to hearing about the work that we do, and allowing us to work with them, to speak to young people, young men," Timmons said.
Darren Waller, a wide receiver selected in the sixth round of the NFL draft out of Georgia Tech, said it was through that lens that he took in the session.
"It's a huge topic in the NFL, and something [in] this organization that hit them hard last year and they just want to provide us with the information so we can represent them well and learn from that example that was here last year and prove to them that that's not what this organization's about, and that we're men of integrity and a program that's going to put forth a good example for the community," Waller said.
The presentation from Lisa Nitsch, director of clinical services and education for the House of Ruth, was interactive and engaging, Waller said. Nitsch related to the players and made sure it didn't feel like a lecture, something she said is important when dealing with a group of young men.
To undrafted linebacker Brennen Beyer, most of the issues discussed weren't even on his radar.
Several moments stuck out to him, especially the nuances of the emotional and physical abuse highlighted in the presentation.
"I just thought it was black and white," Beyer said. "I didn't understand the finer details of how people can go about that, and why people just can't leave either. There's a lot of reasons why that's wrong, and I never understood that."
The training session was one of 19 off-the-field educational meetings for the rookie class, up from 17 last year.
On Thursday, they traveled to the Senator Theatre for a lecture from former Baltimore Colt Joe Ehrmann and a screening of "The Mask You Live In," a film that's part of House of Ruth's "Man Up" program to end domestic violence. Other topics include financial services, dealing with law enforcement, and housing.
Waller knows the NFL average career lasts just three years, so those sessions are just as important as the football ones.
"[Director of player development Harry Swayne] is doing a good job of preparing us and getting our Plan B ready and getting that thing into mind, that it's never too early to start focusing on those kind of things," Waller said. "With all this information they're giving us, it'll be on us if we end up in a bad position when we're done playing football."
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