Edgar Allan Poe continually captivates vast numbers of communities across the world whether through his timeless works, personal strifes, or an eerie intertwining of the two, even in modern sports. Poe’s image scrawls across modern day pop culture artifacts aimed at literature fanatics, gothic coteries, and lovers of all that is dark and morbid, however his famous dark-feathered mascot from the poem “The Raven” has also morphed into something jubilant and cartoon-like. The rare encounter of Poe or his works fashioned in this way unveils the far reaches of his influence as it passes into a peculiar territory of modern culture traditionally unreserved for Edgar Allan Poe: professional American football. The National Football League (NFL) claims a colossal annual revenue based on ticket sales, corporate sponsors, and team memorabilia. One such piece of memorabilia stands as a 12-inch tall resin statue depicting a cartoon-like raven in a football jersey with “Poe” etched across the back of it.
This happy black bird acts as the mascot for the NFL team, the “Baltimore Ravens,” who have a special connection to the late Baltimore writer after whom their mascot is named. In 1996, after phone-in polls and local news channel call-ins, the name ‘Ravens’ reigned most popular among fans for the newfound football team in Baltimore, trumping other suggestions like “Mustangs” or “Americans.” Though the NFL Hall of Fame website notes that “Ravens” was chosen in honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Jon Morgan for the The Baltimore Sun points out that the name outshined other options “even among people who did not know it was the name of a poem or that Edgar Allan Poe is buried in Baltimore” and they “found it easy to visualize a tough, menacing black bird.” No doubt, this idea of a “tough menacing black bird” is reminiscent of the actual ravens that loom over the Tower of London, standing guard over the now tourist attraction to this day; this in itself could stand as a reference to Poe, as his works were favored in Europe before truly gaining popularity in the United States. Having the caricature bird “Poe” as the team’s mascot, however, clearly shows the reference to Edgar Allan Poe made by the team name.
Upon Mascot Poe’s first charge into the Baltimore stadium, he was accompanied by two other ravens named Edgar and Allan. After the 2008 football season ceased, the Baltimore Ravens’ Franchise decided to retire Edgar and Allan, however, leaving Poe as sole mascot. The cartoon raven Poe is quirky, fun, and adorable; he makes appearances at schools and special events, promotes exercise and well-being for children alongside the football players he roots for, corresponds with fans via email, and gladly sits atop your shelf in the form of a 12-inch statue. Not long after eliminating the late writer’s first and middle namesakes, though, the franchise invested in two real ravens, cared for by the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, named Rise and Conquer; they contrast their fellow mascot as two intelligent oil-black defenders of Baltimore, a true reflection of the stoic ravens that stood guard within the Tower of London.
Juxtaposing the mascot Poe is the real raven, the bird Poe had described as “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous” with eyes containing “all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming.” The raven in this poem acts as a symbol of satanic wickedness for the lonely narrator as he descends into madness over the loss of his love Lenore; though the bird never changes his countenance throughout the poem, the narrator’s failing mind begins to change his description until the raven has morphed into a foreboding image of evil. Out of context, the caricature raven currently representing the Baltimore football team seems like some kind of a joke or even insult to this great literary bird and Edgar Allan Poe. However, I think he has the opposite effect; at first he seems unintimidating, even inviting, but in reality he is an omen for another city’s football team as he brings into the stadium with him a flock of destruction in the form of a powerful and accomplished football team, just as the true raven acts as an omen for the narrator.
Mascot Poe and the Baltimore Ravens are perhaps the farthest from any kind of ‘normal’ Poe artifact that exists today. Though the Ravens can’t boast individuality as a bird figure in sports or even the NFL, they are indeed the only team named for a literary figure. The exclusivity of Poe as the only writer represented in the NFL stresses his acclaim, not because a plethora of football fanatics enjoy his works, but because he created a figure so recognizable that a sports team’s audience could imagine them becoming a bad omen for their opposing team on game day. This distinctly dark and dangerous figure and the poem it resides in have in turn become synonymous with their creator, a person thought to lead a foreboding life dismally reverberated within his writings. In that reverberation lies the joining of Poe and his work as one one for the modern reader, as it seems nearly impossible to separate Poe from his work, and not just any work, but The Raven. In a way, Edgar Allan Poe and his raven do indeed act as one, Poe’s hellish raven prophesying to an unnamed narrator his nearing descent into madness and Poe has presaging his sinister black bird, an inspiration that would someday take the shape of a $26.99 statue of a happy caricatured black bird sporting a football jersey available for purchase on Google.com.