As if Baltimoreans needed a reminder to support their Ravens as they head into the playoffs, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a statement Wednesday urging residents to “Light the city purple.”

On Tuesday, members of the Ravens own painting crew sprayed giant images of the team logo on Federal Hill and at War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall. (The mayor was not able to make it to the logo painting events Tuesday, as she was last year.)

“I want to first congratulate Coach Harbaugh, the players, and the entire Ravens organization for their fourth consecutive trip to the postseason,” the mayor said in a statement. “A home playoff game is going to be great for Baltimore.”

Purple light fixtures are being installed on city buildings by the Department of General Services, according to the statement. (Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced later Wednesday the dome of the Old Courthouse in Towson will be turned purple Friday.)

The painting crew will also do its midnight stenciling next week, said Heather Harness, advertising and marketing manager for the Ravens.

“Hotels, bars, and restaurants in the city will benefit from the thousands of fans coming out to watch the game together,” said Rawlings-Blake.  “I look forward to joining thousands of fellow Ravens fans as we light this great city purple. Go Ravens!”

The Ravens have not had a home playoff game since after the 2006 season.

Watch the video from Tuesday’s giant logo stenciling at city hall

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Peggy Greenspan (left) of Community Support Services hugs Weinberg Foundation staffer Janna Krizman as Susan Ingram, also of Community Support Services, looks on.

Middle East residents expressed their anger Thursday night at a presentation from East Baltimore Development Inc. and Ravens games may be a little trickier to get into this year. Those stories and more in this week’s business top 5.

1. 15 Maryland nonprofits receive $10,000 grants – by Alissa Gulin

It pays to make a good impression on an employee of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation — literally.

Fifteen Maryland nonprofits each received a $10,000 grant through the foundation’s fifth annual Employee Giving Program, which allows support staff to handpick an organization to receive the money.

2. Residents rebuke EBDI developer – by Melody Simmons

Saying they were excluded from the process, angry residents of Middle East shut down a presentation Thursday by the developer of the 88-acre redevelopment as he attempted to detail a series of recommendations for the future of the stalled $1.8 billion project.

Scott Levitan, senior vice president of the Forest City-New East Baltimore Development Partnership, was forced to halt the meeting after nearly an hour of protest over issues such as the renaming of the community and the process that Levitan employed to map the latest shift in the overall development.

3. Audit faults UB for lax financial controls – by Nicholas Sohr

State auditors criticized the University of Baltimore for lax financial controls and spotty student record keeping.

The audit, released by the Department of Legislative Services on Monday, raised issues with grade changes, unpaid student bills and the potential for mismanagement of large school contracts.

4. 2,500 terminate enrollment in BGE PeakRewards program – by Rachel Bernstein

About 2,500 customers have terminated their enrollment in Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.’s PeakRewards program after their air conditioning was cut off for hours during one of the hottest day of the year.

The PeakRewards program was started in 2007 to help customers save money while reducing energy use. The program offsets air conditioner demand during times of “peak” electricity use. The idea behind the program is to help reduce the chance of power outages happening during the summer, as well as giving the customers back a little change.

5. Getting in to Ravens games could be trickier this year – by Danielle Ulman

Baltimore Ravens season ticketholders couldn’t help but notice something strange when their tickets recently arrived in the mail.

The tickets, which were sent out before Monday’s agreement between National Football League’s team owners and players to end the lockout, came with no information other than the game number.

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Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced Tuesday afternoon that for the next week, he has banned the use of the word “chief.”

For now, the two chiefs on his payroll — Police Chief Bill McMahon and Fire Chief Bill Goddard — will be called Bill #1 and Bill #2, respectively.

If you haven’t caught on yet, this ploy is an effort by Howard County to express its pride for the Baltimore Ravens as they go on to face the Kansas City C#!@%s on Sunday in the NFL playoff Wild Card round.

“I have said it for a long time – Howard County is where Maryland comes together, and nothing brings us together like the Ravens,” said Ulman in a written statement. “We want to make sure the Ravens and all of their fans know that purple passion cannot be contained at the Baltimore border – it’s all over the state.”

Earlier Tuesday, Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined the Ravens’ painting crew in spraying the team logo in the grass at War Memorial Plaza.

The mayor, dressed in a Ray Lewis jacket and jeans bearing the Ravens logo on each back pocket, took hold of the sprayer and helped the crew outline the logo on a giant tarp.

“This year, to show our pride, we are going to ‘Go Purple’ by firing up the purple lights and painting the town purple,” she said in a statement. “No team in the NFL will have as much hometown support as our Ravens.”

The painters also went to Federal Hill Tuesday to leave their mark, and purple light fixtures are being installed around the city.

Ulman also said the Howard County government’s George Howard Building in Ellicott City and the Gateway Building in Columbia will have a purple glow cast on them as long as the Ravens stay alive in the playoffs.

But as for stripping words from our vocabulary for football’s sake, let’s just hope we don’t have to play New England at some point. It might be a little more difficult to convince the region to stop being American patriots for a week.

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The e-mail came last Wednesday: Because the Ravens were once again playing “meaningful” games in December, as a PSL owner I had the opportunity to send the team nearly $900 for four tickets to two potential home playoff games.

I had to decide before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

If the Ravens had beaten Pittsburgh last Sunday night, it would have been an easy decision. They would have had what amounted to a two-game lead in the AFC North with four games to play. They would have had a very good chance of playing at least one playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium. But they lost to the Steelers.

Read the rest of this entry »

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First naked bowling, now lingerie football … if TDR readers are sensing a theme with my latest blog posts, I assure you it’s just a coincidence.

But I can’t help it, I’ve got to chime in on this one. There’s been a lot of chatter over the airwaves, in print and around the water cooler about the Baltimore Charm, the city’s new lingerie football team that held auditions this weekend.

The basic question is, is women playing football in their underwear exploitation? Or is it just good marketing? The Charm will be the newest team in the 10-team Lingerie Football League, which has teams like the Dallas Desire and the San Diego Seduction. The league bills itself as “true fantasy football.”

Gotta give them credit for just putting it out there — league organizers know what sells tickets.

And it seems as if the women trying out for the squad are perfectly willing to buy into this image. After all they know the deal going in and no one’s forcing them to strip down to their undies and run around like Pamela Anderson did for Baywatch in the 1990s. (It should be noted that the women do wear pads … but they’re neatly positioned so as not to take away from the main attraction.)

So if the players are OK with it, should we be making a fuss? After all, it’s been pointed out that women’s beach volleyball players are just as scantily clad — and they’re on NBC on a regular basis (not to mention the Pro Beach East Women’s Volleyball Tournament that will be held May 15 at the Preakness Infield Fest).

But there is a difference. In beach volleyball, two-piece bathing suits are the uniform. And it’s the same for the men (although some do cheat by wearing sleeveless t-shirts with their shorts, but you get my point). Here, the difference in uniforms is almost the whole point. The league’s coaches and organizers may say fans are drawn in by the lingerie at first but come back for the football, but just one look at the league’s homepage and it’s clear what this is about.

But again, I wonder — should we care? An interesting note is that this league says it is profitable. Would it still be profitable if it was just women playing football? Maybe that’s a question for the Independent Women’s Football League, which I’ll note, I’d never heard of until five minutes ago when I did a Google search.

If women want to make some extra money running around playing football in their underwear, and if people want to buy tickets to watch, should we stand in judgment? Or should we applaud them for finding a business model and a marketing angle that seems to be working?

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So if the Ravens make the big game (I won’t say the official title for fear of jinxing it), will we be adding purple to the Maryland state flag? At this rate, that seems like a possibility.

Last week, Ravens grounds crew members painted City Hall and Federal Hill with the large Ravens logos. Now, with the blessing of the area’s county and city governments, late last night and early into this morning, the Ravens staff continued painting the town purple with spray chalk and smaller stencils.

From a Ravens press release: “As Baltimoreans wake up this morning, they will find the Ravens’ logo and team mantra ‘Play Like A Raven’ at over 100 locations throughout Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County. These locations consist of high-trafficked areas, marquee destinations, hospitals, libraries and other key spots such as the Inner Harbor, Cross Street Market, the Hippodrome and the Hunt Valley Town Center.”

Kidding aside, stuff like this is one of the reasons Baltimore is such a great sports town. But it takes two to tango — the Ravens are clearly marking their territory and making a big effort to keep the team in the forefront of people’s minds.

As Ravens President Dick Cass told me in a recent interview, the Ravens have a smaller market area than most NFL teams. And, being surrounded by teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, they do not have a strong secondary market. So, the team has to put a lot of effort into the areas that are solidly pro-Ravens to keep its fan base energized.

“Trying to generate more out of Baltimore is important for our future,” Cass said.

This weekend the Ravens face a tough opponent on Saturday in the Indianapolis Colts, who started off the season 14-0 before slipping to 14-2 at the finish.

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The Ed Block Courage Award recipients are scheduled to be announced by the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation today at Baltimore’s Sports Legends Museum — but don’t expect it to be a totally congenial display of what’s great about the NFL.

Some fans in the city are upset over the Philadelphia Eagles’ choice for their award recipient, Michael Vick. (The Ed Block Courage Award is given to NFL players who have been selected by their teammates. The team selects someone from their squad they believe exemplifies a commitment to sportsmanship and courage, according to the foundation.)

According to The Baltimore Sun, animal lovers in Baltimore plan to protest the press conference that officially announces the 32 players set to receive the award this year. The Baltimore Ravens, by the way, selected Dawan Landry as their 2009 winner.

In case you were under a rock this summer, Vick was released from prison after serving two years for his role in a brutal dog-fighting operation and signed with the Eagles in August. Those upset about Vick getting the award say the Eagles’ selection is offensive and Vick in no way reflects the intention of the award.

“The Ed Block Courage Award Foundation is an NFL-supported charity dedicated to recognizing courage in the League while improving the lives of abused/neglected children in NFL cities throughout the country,” according to the foundation Web site. Ed Block was the longtime head athletic trainer of the Baltimore Colts, was a pioneer in his profession and a respected humanitarian, the Web site says.

Do you think Vick getting this award is out of line?  On the one hand, he’s served his time, he’s now working with the Humane Society and does seem to be turning his life around. On the other hand, it’s only been two years — is it too soon to start congratulating Vick and forget his past?

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It seems like a good problem to have but managing millions of dollars can come around to bite a pro football player in the tush.

That’s why the NFL Players’ Association has called upon Financial Finesse to help players out with planning ahead for their future without football.

“With no guarantees in NFL contracts and the potential for a 2011 lock out, we want to make sure our members are prepared for injury or anything that cripples their career,” said DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA executive director. “We’d also like them to transition from football to a lifetime of financial security and independence — something that is possible only with smart financial planning.”

Financial Finesse is based in California and the NFLPA is in Washington, D.C.

I have written about this topic before and focused on pro baseball players, but saving money for the future can be an even tougher concept for football players.

As financial adviser Joe Geier told me then, football players are drafted and go straight to the NFL with a lot of money at a young age — many go from living it up in college to living it up in the league but with a mush bigger expense account.

Baseball players can be a little more worn down by the time they arrive in the majors. Most are drafted, spend a few years in the minors getting paid a pittance and have the chance to calm down a bit before they’re called up. While they are certainly capable of blowing through paychecks when they finally do get their millions, the problem is more prevalent in the NFL (and the NBA for the same reasons).

While much of the spending is for toys like a big house, cars, etc., another large part of players’ spending goes toward taking care of their family members. That plus taxes, and these guys aren’t as insanely wealthy as it might seem. (They’re just semi-crazy wealthy.)

I go back and forth between feeling sympathetic for players — mostly for the ones who don’t get their jerseys sold in stores but who protect the guy that makes 10 times as much as him — and thinking it shouldn’t be that hard to save money when you’re still paid a premium by anyone else’s standards.

What do you think?

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When I told my friends about the story I was writing for today’s paper on Delaware’s sports betting they all asked me the same thing. So why the heck are the pro leagues against this?

It’s a good question and it’s one I have a hard time answering.  Here is the gist of the leagues’ argument against why Vegas-style betting on sports should not be expanded to Delaware:

“Sports betting lotteries involving single-game betting threaten the integrity of professional and amateur sports and are fundamentally at odds with the principle — essential to the success of the MLB, the NBA, the NCAA, the NFL and the NHL — that the outcomes of professional and collegiate athletic contests must be perceived by the public as being determined solely on the basis of honest athletic competition.”

Also, “The implementation of a full sports betting scheme in Delaware would irreparably harm professional and amateur sports by fostering suspicion and skepticism that individual plays and final scores of games may have been influenced by factors other than honest athletic competition.”

Click here for the full complaint.

Here are a couple of popular arguments against that statement.

1) NFL injury reports: why in the world should teams be required to submit injury reports Tuesdays and Thursdays if people weren’t watching the point spread? Sure, the reports also help for fantasy sports — which also turns into a form of gambling when players contribute money into a winner’s pot — but injury reports have been around much longer than fantasy sports. Read the rest of this entry »

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UPDATE:  Nike is now denying that it has entered into a new endorsement deal with Michael Vick. See Liz Farmer’s updated blog here.

His is the fourth-highest selling jersey in the NFL this year — I’d guess you’d have to be insane to pass up on the opportunity to cash in.

Nike, which dropped then-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in 2007 after he plead guilty to running an interstate dog fighting ring, has resigned the reinstated QB who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. After his release from prison this summer, questions abounded about Vick’s ability to repair his image, get back into the league and be a starting player once again.

Seems we’re getting closer to those answers.

After serving his league suspension, Vick played last Sunday and took a few snaps for Kevin Kolb, who was starting in place of an injured Donovan McNabb. He threw two incomplete passes and ran for 7 yards, but the fans seemed to embrace him.

Reinstatement into the NFL? Check.

I saw a Vick jersey last Sunday at Delaware Park’s sports betting book. When I asked him why he bought it, he had this “Well, why wouldn’t I buy it?” look on his face.

“It’s his first time back today,” he said.

Apparently that’s good enough for fans…which is good enough for Nike. I get that. Image rehabilitation? I wouldn’t say “check,” but we’re on our way. Wonder what other former sponsors will come crawling back? AirTran? EA Sports?

But not everyone feels Nike’s being sensible. Check out Charles Robinson’s column on Yahoo! Sports for his view on why Nike’s move is hypocritical after the company basically scorned Vick in 2007.

What’s your take on Nike climbing on board with Vick?

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