It was a rotten year. That 401(k) tanked quicker than the Orioles in September. The Maryland men's basketball team rallied less often than Wall Street. As for employment opportunities, at times it seemed the only jobs around Baltimore were for starting pitchers.
Sports are supposed to muster the troops, push our worries aside.
The Ravens are doing just that.
If there's a bounce in the collective steps of Marylanders these days, credit football. Reaching the NFL playoffs - the Ravens play at Miami on Sunday - has given folks a distraction from their daily fears about stock woes, downsizing and housing ills.
Suddenly, Volvos are festooned with purple flags, grown men wear Ed Reed jerseys to work and government buildings are bathed at night in purple lights.
"I called Coach [John] Harbaugh Tuesday and thanked him for giving us something to hope for," Gov. Martin O'Malley said. "So much of the economy depends on consumer confidence. Lord knows, we can use some good news."
At his barbecue joint in Hunt Valley, Andy Nelson prepared carry-out orders for Sunday's game: 10-pound trays filled with pit beef, dry ribs and pork brisket.
"The playoffs are a shot in the arm for the restaurant business," said Nelson, a former Pro Bowl safety for the Baltimore Colts. "The further this team goes, the better we do."
On each aluminum pan heaped with food he scrawled the words, "Go Ravens!"
"I can feel the energy despite the day-to-day issues that we face," Mayor Sheila Dixon said. "People have that purple fever."
Come Sunday, Nicholas Brothers will don the Ray Lewis jersey he received for Christmas, put his travails aside and root his team on. It was a tough year for Brothers, 28, of Westminster. He was spurned by his girlfriend and had two auto accidents. Last month, engine repairs cost Brothers $3,000. Meanwhile, a friend wrecked his second car.
"I am living proof that Murphy really wrote a law," Brothers said. "But watching the Ravens has helped dull the pain. That's three hours where I get to go to a place where nothing matters but football. Sunday's game will drown out everything, and I'll be happy as a clam - as long as there's a 'W' at the end of it."
Wrapping oneself in the home team's identity is generally a harmless diversion, experts say.
