When the Ravens took the practice field Thursday morning for the first official practice of training camp, Head Coach John Harbaugh was sporting a new custom T-shirt.
The shirt had "All In" printed on the sleeves. The front read "One," and had a picture of a rope underneath it. The shirt is meant to symbolize "one accord," which is part of Harbaugh's message during training camp.
"'One Accord' is something that we've been talking about now for quite a while – since forever, but really through the Super Bowl year and up until now," Harbaugh said as camp
opened.
The two phrases will be common themes throughout the next five weeks of training camp and into the regular season, as Harbaugh routinely looks for ways to connect with his team through motivational messages.
"'All In' is something we're going to talk about," he said. "What does it really mean to be 'all in' on something? To be completed committed to something? Who do you do it for? Why do you do it? Those [are the] kinds of things we'll be talking [to* *the players] about."
The themes of "one accord" and "all in" fall in line with other messages Harbaugh has preached to his players since arriving in 2008. His overall mantra is "The Team, The Team, The Team," which he referenced in his very first press conference.
Harbaugh's slogans have often ended up on T-shirts, just like "one accord" and "all-in," and some of the other sayings include:
- Ravens football is hustle. Constant hustle
- Ability is God-given, prowess is earned
- Embrace the grind
"We have a lot of good stuff," Harbaugh said when asked about slogans for this year.
"Absolutely. We have lots of tremendous stuff."
Harbaugh's messages over the years have connected with the veterans, and 11-year pro Terrell Suggs stressed that an important part of training camp is getting some of the newcomers on board with the system.
"Now we have a lot of guys with a year under their belt, and now we just want to bring all the other new guys 'All In,'" he said. "We know what our mission is, we know our goals, and we're here to achieve some good things –some great things.
"We just have to all buy in."
