In Super Bowl Recap, Not Everybody Loves Ravens

Let me get this straight: Art Modell’s loudmouth, taunting, undisciplined, loutish Ravens win the Super Bowl, with Ray Lewis voted MVP.

And the NFL is worried that the XFL will be an embarrassment? Give me a break!

D.S. ADAM

Newhall

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What has happened to professional sports, and the NFL in particular? I switched the Super Bowl off after the national anthem and before kickoff. I refuse to watch a bunch of ill-mannered, foul-mouthed, overpaid brats slapping each other around and swearing, quite offensively, on national television.

There was a time, not so long ago, when professional athletes behaved like sportspeople; now they are nothing more than a bunch of greedy delinquents.

ALAN M. STRASBURG

West Hollywood

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I gave The Times’ sportswriters a lot of gas for predicting the worst event in the history of sports before the Super Bowl even had a chance to take place.

I am sorry.

From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.

From the innermost depths of my soul, I am terribly, terribly sorry.

GARY DURRETT

Glendale

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Now comes the really scary part of the football schedule for the Baltimore Ravens--the off-season.

RALPH S. BRAX

Lancaster

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Well, it finally has happened, Ray Lewis has been anointed the most valuable player of the Super Bowl. What next, O.J. Simpson the citizen of the year? Thank God Disney didn’t decide to pick Lewis as the athlete to go to Disneyland and Disney World. How am I able teach our 12-year-old son right from wrong when he is bombarded with all the garbage that spews from the media? How do we explain to him that when a player has broken the law, and is still playing, that it’s OK? The player’s lawyers will take care of it.

Aren’t we, as a society, allowed to shame a person if they do wrong? I guess not.

PAUL KENNEDY

Lake Los Angeles

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Oh, if Jim Murray still were around to comment on the bizarre prism through which Bob Oates views football. What would Murray say about an analyst who presumably watched the same Super Bowl as the rest of us and concluded that the Ravens’ defense was less than impressive?

How about this: “Oates would have panned Rembrandt. He’d send the Mona Lisa back to the drawing boards. Or tell Beethoven that deaf guys don’t compose. He’d caution Shakespeare to keep it simple.”

Oates tells us that the Ravens’ defense can be had, and that all you have to do is spread them out and throw deep. Gosh, if only the Ravens’ four playoff opponents had thought of that, they might have scored more than their combined four-game total of one touchdown on offense. Oates goes on and on about what might have happened if the Giants had done this, or hadn’t done that. It’s like suggesting that if Hiroshima had been a couple miles down the road the bomb might have missed it.

It’s incredible that this stuff is passed off as analysis. The only analysis that Oates should be thinking about is the kind that costs about $100 an hour.

STEPHEN M. ASTOR

Glendale

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I always suspected that greedy NFL owners such as Georgia Frontiere and Art Modell would dance with the devil for a nickel. After seeing Mr. Modell’s on-stage celebration with Ray Lewis (I think that was a dance), I now have proof of the fact.

Mr. Tagliabue, please feel free to keep such wonderful characters as these out of Los Angeles. We are not dying for a team that badly.

RICH LANG

Playa del Rey

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Bill Plaschke’s column of Jan. 29 has the right tone. The Baltimore Ravens have a great defensive team. It’s just too bad it is wasted on a bunch of juvenile jerks.

Ray Lewis not a role model? Give me a break! How many little kids do you suppose are doing that embarrassing waddling, strut-thing in their vacant lots today?

TOM REINBERGER

Glendora

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For my MVP vote, I choose the media. Did they help win or lose the Super Bowl? No, but they did not give up when Ray Lewis insisted that they “let it go” or when the Ravens’ coach called them “unqualified.” That kind of integrity is what I want my two sons to aspire to, and not the NFL’s brand of justice, better known as “Just Win Baby.”

JIM JOHNSON

Van Nuys

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Perhaps what Ray Lewis really needs is a free trip to Wonkaland. I think a turn or two on Willy’s psychedelic ferry might wipe that smug little smile off his face.

Wonka Continued: Doesn’t Tony Siragusa bear an uncanny resemblance to that snotty little girl who turned into a grape and kept expanding until she exploded?

JIM MALLON

San Luis Obispo

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First, the Florida Marlins win the 1997 World Series, now the Baltimore Ravens capture the 2001 Super Bowl. I guess the Minnesota Wild can start sizing up the best spot in its arena to put the 2003 Stanley Cup banner.

MER VALDEZ

Long Beach