Streeter: Ravens fans are tempting fate and daring to hope this NFL draft

Some football fans lean on superstition when approaching the NFL draft, clutching their lucky jerseys. Others are absolutely serious, with draft guides scribbled within an inch of their lives. Still others, like me, are about the vibes, jazzed by those moving videos of supportive grandmothers and slow-panning shots of players running through wheat fields.

Whatever their philosophies, some Baltimore Ravens fans are anticipating this week’s event with a very specific and sometimes fleeting feeling around these parts: hope.

To paraphrase Nina Simone, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new coach. Is it a new life for the Ravens? And are you feeling good?

“I think any draft is hopeful, definitely now,” said Matt Lightner, a Ravens super fan since he attended their inaugural game in 1996. “I think we’re headed into the unknown, and the unknown is hopeful.”

My personal football fandom is kind of rabbit’s foot-y, more about root, root, rooting for the home team than an actual deep knowledge of the game. I’m at the point where my sixth grader is still explaining plays to me. I’m fine with it.

At the end of the day, though, it all comes down to supporting your team, no matter what. I personally want the Ravens to maximize on the momentum of miraculous promise in a “Rudy”-like way. I want that moment. For the three more serious fans I talked to who are current and former personal seat license owners, including Lightner, the approaches vary. But they all believe that with new head coach Jesse Minter, as well as some optimistically strategic picks, there might be important rings and trophies in our future.

Lord knows we’re overdue.

“It’s better in Baltimore when the Ravens win — that’s for certain,” said current seat owner Adrianna Ebon, whose Threads handle is the very on-message BlackGirlsLoveSportsClub.

For OG fan Thomas Smith, the draft is not about woo-woo superstition or fashion. It’s about the game. “For all of us, it’s mostly about regime change,” he said. “Change is gonna happen. It’s how you adapt.”

I admit my interest in the draft is more sociological than statistical. I love watching the exact moment a college kid becomes a millionaire and the future changes forever for him, his family and the distant cousins who “coincidentally” pop up the minute he’s on TV.

I had never watched a draft until April 2009 when I was dating my future husband, who politely told me he wasn’t committing to attending my birthday party because he’d be watching and amending his fantasy league picks. He changed his mind and came anyway. “He must really love you!” his best friend told me later.

Smith relates to the dichotomy of hardcore fan and love interest who just wants to get to the party. He delayed penciling in the date of his September 1998 wedding until the Ravens’ schedule, the first in the new stadium, was published. His wife was not amused, a state that continued when opening day was, indeed, the day after their nuptials, delaying the flight to their Maui honeymoon by a few hours. The Ravens got blown out in the blazing heat by the Kansas City Chiefs. “She was still on mad on the plane, and she wasn’t happy till she had a mai tai in her hand,” he said.

Years later, Smith says, his wife is supportive of his fandom, which takes the draft as a very serious, operational thing. “I just want to see the direction the team is going in,” he said. “As fans, we have an idea what should happen, and we want to see if the GM thinks what we think.”

So what are the diehards looking for this weekend? Smith thinks the draft will go well if the team sticks to their true Baltimore nature.

“One thing I do love about the Ravens is that they understand the culture, understand exactly who they are,” he said. “That’s why they’ve been successful for so long.”

Ebon said that after years as a super fan of former chief John Harbaugh — “I thought he was the best coach, ever” — she’s excited to see Minter take the post as only the third head coach in the Ravens’ 30-year history.

Lightner is hoping for an interior defensive lineman, “because if they don’t do that, they’re going to keep having serious issues with the defensive line. My personal hope is that we take care of the positions that are needed first.”

But even in his hardcore-ness, he admits that he enjoys a fashion moment.

“I do like the outfits,” Lightner said. “I wonder how much these custom suits cost and they didn’t get paid yet!”

At the end of the day, all we want as Ravens fans is for them to insert the missing puzzle piece that makes us winners.

“It’s a new chapter,” Ebon said. “This is very new. Harbaugh only has one Super Bowl ring. We want three more.”

And we’re feeling good.

Hey, Baltimore! This is now almost exclusively a column about you! I want to know what you want to hear about. What issues are making you tear your hair out? What cool people and clubs are making your neighborhood better? What’s the thing about which you say, “Nobody ever writes about this?” Hit me up at leslie.streeter@thebanner.com, or leave a comment below.