Dennis Mannion expects the Ravens to sell a lot of black jerseys Sunday night at M&T Bank Stadium - between 300 and 500 of them, to be exact. That's three or four times as many replica uniform tops that fans buy on a typical game day.
Yet the all-black uniforms, which the Ravens will wear for the first time Sunday night against Cleveland, weren't chosen for their potential as a big moneymaker for the team, he said.
"It will definitely boost [sales]," said Mannion, Ravens senior vice president of business ventures. "But we're at a point in our brand life cycle where our jerseys are still selling with frequency."
If the Ravens were looking to maximize the money they would make from a third jersey, Mannion said, they'd have designed something much different than what many of their fans had already bought.
Black Ravens jerseys have been available since 2002. Reebok created them as what's known as a "fashion" item - similar to pink Orioles caps or red Yankees jerseys. Then, last season during a practice, All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis suggested to incoming owner Steve Bisciotti that the team try an all-black look on the field.
So why all black?
The short answer is the swagger factor.
"You come out dressed in all black, with a swarm of 53 men, that could be exciting," Lewis said when the new uniforms were unveiled.
Dr. Joel Fish, a sports psychologist in Philadelphia, agreed that in the culture of sports, black uniforms are associated with swagger.
And even though there's not a shred of hard evidence linking the two, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"If you feel like you look tough that day, or you feel like you've got swagger that day, then it increases the chances - when the game first starts - that you're going to play that way," said Fish, the director of the Center for Sports Psychology.
Fish cautioned that the swagger factor could actually work against the Ravens.
"The x-factor is that it can push buttons in the other team, too," said Fish.
"You can't say for sure how this stuff is going to play itself out, but it can have a short-term - and I emphasize a short-term - psychological effect. Is this going to influence a play in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line? No."
Fish said another, and perhaps more measurable reason, to use a new jersey in the middle of the season is to shake things up.
