Ravens Become Latest Team to Ban Locker Room Fun Amidst 1-5 Start

The Baltimore Ravens are off to an embarrassing 1-5 start on the season and the result of that start was an article in the Baltimore Sun asking "what's wrong with the Ravens?"

It sounds like it's just a bad year. The team is dealing with injuries that have forced inexperienced players into important positions and neither side of the ball is playing up to expectations. While it may just be a lost season, a veteran coach like John Harbaugh can't just shrug his shoulders and not do anything. Action must be taken and according to the Sun, Harbaugh attempted a classic coaching trick to try and turn the season around.

He had the ping pong table removed from the locker room. Among other things. Via the Baltimore Sun:

The Ravens promptly removed several recreational staples from the locker room, including the basketball hoop near Jackson’s and Flowers’ stalls, the pingpong table that rookies Buchanan and Mike Green often battled on after practice, the once-popular corn hole boards, and yes, the video game consoles, often lit up with intense rounds of Super Smash Bros., that regularly drew small crowds of teammates late in the day.

According to the article, the genesis of this move was punter Jordan Stout posting an Instagram story of Jackson playing video games with the caption, "Hard at work," but coaches and players have been doing this for years with varying results.

Back in 2013 Ryan Clark and some other leaders on the Steelers banned young player from playing ping pong. Eventually Mike Tomlin stepped in and just had the table removed. The Steelers went 8-8 and missed the playoffs and have only won three total playoff games since.

When Tom Coughlin took over the Giants in 2004 and the Jaguars in 2017, he had the ping pong tables removed both times. The Giants went 6-10 for the third straight season, but ended up winning a Super Bowl a few years later. The Jaguars won 10 games for the first time in a decade, but then went back to being bad a year later.

In 2022 there was a story about the Dolphins players getting rid of their ping pong table. Mike McDaniel was proud. Then it turned out that Tyreek Hill had just bought a new table. Miami lost five of its last six regular season games and were eliminated in the wild card round. There have been no ping pong-related stories about the Dolphins this season.

As for the Ravens, it has not worked as they promptly lost their next two games by a combined score of 61-13. It's almost like it has no effect on how teams play football, but it always sounds like someone is trying to do something and that's what really matters.