An Embarrassing Display by Ravens “Fans”

After a sluggish start stemming from an auto accident during training camp, Ravens TE Mark Andrews posted 55 catches for 673 receiving yards and an NFL TEs-best 11 TDs in 2024, marking his second (10 in 2019) double-digit TD season. He became the Ravens’ all-time leader in TD grabs and total TDs (51) this season as well.

Andrews is a grinder. If you’ve ever attended a Ravens training camp session, no one, bar none, outworks him on the practice field. He’s an honorable citizen, an outstanding spokesperson and role model for those suffering from Type 1 diabetes and he freely gives to the Baltimore community.

And if not for a couple of drops during this season’s Divisional Playoff game in Buffalo, fans would unanimously label him an exemplary member of the Baltimore Ravens. But the drops did happen. His failure to convert a 2-point attempt possibly kept the Ravens out of the AFC title game and a chance to advance to the Super Bowl. That said, without his efforts the team may never have had the chance. But the vitriol directed his way ever since the loss to Buffalo has been not only staggering, but mind-blowingly shocking from a fan base that I thought had more class.

Apparently, I was wrong.

Now granted, those lashing out at Andrews is the behavior of the vocal minority. They are trolls, cut from the cloth of detestability who harbor clinical levels of insecurity. Ridiculing others somehow lifts their subterranean levels of self-esteem and comforts them during moments of self-loathing.

And then there’s this…

AWFUL: #Ravens TE Mark Andrews’ girlfriend, Elena Yates, had to shut off social media comments after fans brutally attacked her and Andrews over his game-losing catch.

Over 20,000 people brutally commented under Mark’s recent IG post.

Many death threats and evil comments. pic.twitter.com/EsCUJ0100i

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 20, 2025

Meanwhile in Buffalo, the popular Bills Mafia, which isn’t just a large collection of Buffalo area fans, but much like the local Ravens Nests and Roosts, each raising money for worthy causes, has made significant contributions to Andrews’ Breakthrough T1D charity which supports children with diabetes.

In an effort to support Ravens TE Mark Andrews, Bills Mafia now has donated close to $60,000 – and counting – to the @BreakthroughT1D organization, which works towards curing and improving the lives of those dealing with Type 1 diabetes like Andrews.https://t.co/FuMqUkBDYw

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 22, 2025

While scumbags who claim to be Ravens fans send death threats to Mark Andrews, Bills fans are contributing to his charity to fight Type 1 diabetes. Let that sink in…

Justin Rubin, a Facebook friend of mine who I’ve never met personally, reaches out to me regularly for my thoughts and opinions on all things Ravens and Orioles. Justin has been an ICU nurse for 9 years, a nurse in general for 12 years and for the past 8 years, he’s worked tirelessly at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore’s ICU/Cardiac ICU. Concurrently, he’s attending Purdue University as he aims to become an Acute Care Doctor and Critical Care Nurse Practitioner.

Like most rational Ravens fans, Justin was sickened by the vilification of Andrews because he had a bad game. And during a recent exchange on social media, Rubin casually mentioned something about Andrews’ Type 1 diabetes and how it affects performance in frigid conditions. The topic piqued my interest, and I asked him to elaborate.

“With extremely cold temperatures for someone with Type 1 diabetes, it causes a worsening neuropathy which is numbness, weakness, and pain in hands and arms. It also drives up blood sugar because the stress of the cold drives up cortisol levels which makes the person’s liver produce too much glucose and decreases the body’s sensitivity to insulin. All of that can make it difficult to concentrate enough to make catches and it diminishes the physical ability to catch the football.”

It’s quite possible, given the ascent of both Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar, that the Ravens graduate from Mark Andrews given the $11M in cap savings the team would realize should they release or trade the team’s all-time leading touchdown producer. That’s the business side of the game.

And if that does happen, how tragic, after all he’s done for our enjoyment, after all he’s done for the team, after all his mentoring of Likely and Kolar, after all he’s done for the community and its children, that his lasting memory of Baltimore could be the death threats, and the disgustingly barbaric verbal abuse directed at him and his girlfriend.

For that we can thank all the sorry ass excuses for human beings hiding behind their keyboards in their mothers’ basements.

Lamar Jackson to Mark Andrews on Sunday: “It’s all of us. We’re a team, bro. It’s all of us. It ain’t just you”

pic.twitter.com/tM5Dk5KPwQ https://t.co/CWVPwp0okp

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 22, 2025

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/01/22/lombardis-way/mark-andrews-in-buffalo/