For quarterback Joe Flacco, Super Bowl XLVII doesn't feel like it was all that long ago.
One year, nine months and 21 days later, the Ravens will return to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for their first non-preseason game since.
So how will it feel?* *
"I have no idea whether I'll feel at home," quarterback Joe Flacco said. "I doubt it. It's not going to be filled with as many of our fans as was there for the Super Bowl. I'm treating it like a typical road game."
The Ravens played in New Orleans during the preseason, so this isn't their first trip back since they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Flacco said he got those reminiscent feelings out of his system then.
"It was nice to go down there for the preseason and be able to see the city again and get that all out of your mind because I wasn't playing in that game," he said. "This week is going to be different. It's all business. We're going there to win a football game."
At the same time, there's no denying there's going to be some emotion once the Ravens step onto that turf.
"You're going to have some flashbacks, but nothing really beats the real thing," outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said.
"There's always going to be history there because what we did was historical," added wide receiver Jacoby Jones, who scored two huge touchdowns in Super Bowl XLVII. "Every time when I walk in that stadium, no matter whether I'm retired or not, I'll be like, 'This is a piece of me. I've got a piece of this turf.'"
In the next sentence, Jones said the Ravens stopped talking about the Super Bowl last year. They can't let those emotions get the best of them on Monday Night Football.
"I think we're going to be ourselves," Jones said. "We don't want to get too out of hand. That was two years ago. We're trying to get to this year's Super Bowl."
The truth of the matter is that most of the Ravens weren't even present on Feb. 3, 2013.
Of the players on Baltimore's 53-man roster for the Super Bowl, only 22 remain. There are three other players with the Ravens who were on injured reserve during that game (Lardarius Webb, Anthony Levine, Jah Reid).
It's a different team now, and more than half of it doesn't even have those memories.
"What you did in the Super Bowl, that's great," said wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., who was with the Carolina Panthers at the time. "You can't take that trophy with you.
"Probably the people who are working the stadium facility want to make sure the power doesn't go out, but other than that, that is part of history."
