My name is Janos Stefan, and I'm a Ravens fan. This is my story.
I'm a 37-year-old father of two from a country in Europe, Hungary, slightly left of the middle of nowhere.
In the mid-'90s, I was focusing mostly on the NHL, as I was born in Czechoslovakia (it existed in the '70s) and hockey is very popular. With the rule changes, holdouts and overall situation, I started to turn my attention to other stuff as well. Enter the NFL.
The sports TV station in my beautiful country started to broadcast games regularly. This was around 2003-2004, when the Patriots won two Super Bowls in a row, and, of course, just about everyone in Hungary is now a Patriots fan (bleh).
At the time, I worked for an American company called Ygomi LLC. I started as a service desk agent, and since we had peculiar shift schedules because of the time difference and all, I found myself going home from work at 2 a.m., without being sleepy, and trying to find something to watch. That's when I stumbled upon the games, and before long, I was a fan.
At first, I did not have any particular favorite team. I just watched whatever was on TV. But I remember one game where there was this guy named Ray Lewis, who the commentator raved about, and he was blowing people up! After a couple of months spent reading about the organization and the way Ozzie Newsome works, how John Harbaugh was brought in, and more, I felt that this team is something special and would be worth my support!
My love of the Ravens is well known among my band, Ghost Toast. I always wear my jerseys when we play live. That leads me to the point. This story is about songs.
My band plays stuff that, according to most people, is really weird. It's a progressive, instrumental thing that ranges from rock to drum and bass, from metal to trance, with all kinds of sound effects and borrowed vocals and speeches and who knows what else. I would like to aim your attention to two tracks from our album that was released in 2013. Both have something to do with the Ravens.
One track is called Legacy (it even has a video). Those that are impatient should skip to around 4 minutes, 20 seconds. Recognize that voice? The other track is called Nor Defeat. I watched a press conference some time ago, and immediately thought when I heard Harbs recite this quote, "Gosh, I just HAVE to use this, it's so perfect!"
It would be nice to know what Ravens fans think after listening to them. I wonder what they would think of some person in a tiny country far, far away creating stuff like this.
Sincerely,
Janos Stefan (Debrecen, Hungary)
