Baltimore fans were rightfully upset after the conclusion of the AFC championship Sunday. Some decided to take that anger and inflict it toward NFL television personalities.
After a dominant regular season, Lamar Jackson fell short against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, losing 17-10 to the defending Super Bowl champions. It was the first time Baltimore reached the conference championship in the Jackson era. The fan base, however, will have to wait at least another year for a potential Super Bowl appearance.
The Ravens faithful had the right to be angry and upset after the loss. But one particular Baltimore hooligan took things a bit too far, getting involved in an altercation with the "NFL Today" crew from CBS.
Boomer Esiason, who is a member of that crew, detailed an encounter with a drunk Ravens fan at the Baltimore train station following the AFC championship. Esiason recounted the story during an episode of "Boomer and Gio," a radio show on WFAN. The situation escalated to the point where physical blows nearly occurred. Thankfully, everything deescalated before that point.
MORE: Ravens' mistakes prove costly in AFC Championship loss to Chiefs
Here is more on the drunken fan encounter with the "NFL Today" crew.
Ravens fan attacks CBS 'NFL Today' crew
With the Ravens' Super Bowl aspirations coming to an end during conference championship week, a number of the Baltimore crowd was on edge.
While most were able to shake it off, one Ravens fan could not contain his contempt any longer, and decided to lob NFL conspiracy theories toward Esiason, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher of CBS' "NFL Today."
Esiason detailed the incident during his WFAN show Monday morning. The former NFL quarterback initially praised the Ravens' faithful, saying that the crowd "couldn’t have been any nicer at the stadium and even in this situation, for the most part."
However, there's always one out of pocket individual, and Esiason and Co. were treated to a rabid Ravens conspiracy theorist at the Baltimore train station whom Esiason referred to as a "total a—wipe d—bag."
"He decides that he’s gonna come over and he’s gonna talk to us about how the NFL is rigged," Esiason explained. "And he’s using very colorful language."
Esiason explained that, at first, the fan was engaging with Cowher, who was willing to have a back-and-forth with the individual. Cowher was not going to let the allegations of a rigged league slide, going to bat for the NFL.
"Coach is awesome right, he'll defend the NFL," Esiason explained. "'I don't want to hear this crap from this drunk a— fan that lost a bet' ... he's a Hall of Famer and will die with that shield."
However, the intensity escalated to the point where Esiason thought that the only way to stop the nonsense would be a potential fist to the face, discussing how he gave a bystander nearby a heads up about what was about to go down.
"I said, 'Listen, if he gets any closer, I may have to get up and effing smash this guy right in the face,'" Esiason said. "And I’m pissed off now. I’m trying to watch the [NFC Championship Game on an iPad], this idiot is screaming about how the NFL is rigged.
"We’re not gonna let anybody go after Coach Cowher."
That's when Burleson entered the action. The former NFL wide receiver came in hot, according to Esiason, giving the fans his two cents on the matter.
"Nate’s ready to come out of his suit and ready to rip this guy’s face off."
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The bystander that Esiason was talking to earlier, who happened to be an employee in the Giants' analytics department, elected to interfere himself, standing in between the boisterous fan and the rest of the CBS crew, telling the "lunatic" to calm down.
"It was nuts," Esiason said. "And then another Ravens fan started yelling at this guy and then the cops came in."
At the end of the day, no punches were thrown and no feelings were hurt. That one particular Baltimore fan, however, is going to have to come around to the notion that the NFL is in no way rigged.
The Ravens just got beat by a better team Sunday.
