Looking for a “Ticket to Ride”

Figuratively Speaking…

When the Ravens traveled to London back in 2017, I decided to make the trip across the pond. Fortunately, we booked our trip from Saturday to Saturday with the Ravens game against the Jaguars scheduled for Sunday. You remember the game – the infamous sideline kneeling in protest that chased fans away, some even permanently. That’s not exactly how we wanted to start our vacation. But things improved dramatically after that forgettable Sunday.

We did the touristy London things you’d expect, but my biggest request of my traveling group, was to do an overnight trip to Liverpool so that I could experience the town of my musical heroes – The Beatles. To make the most of the day, we hired a guide for a private tour. Unlike the game, it was unforgettable.

Different parts of Liverpool had their own Beatles’ connections and as we drove from one significant spot to the next, our tour guide Allan would share stories about the town and origins of some songs. One that he dove into was “Ticket to Ride”.

During the band’s formative years, they spent some time in Hamburg, Germany and being young lads, they explored The Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s famous red-light and entertainment district in the St. Pauli neighborhood. Prostitution is legal in Hamburg where national laws recognize sex work as labor. And in the case of prostitution, it requires regular health checks after which the sex workers are given some form of receipt which in Americanized terms, is sort of an FDA seal of approval.

John Lennon called the receipt a “Ticket to Ride”.

Red light districts in Amsterdam feature sex workers in store front glass cases – window shopping if you will for the lady rental of your choice. It’s a bit mind-blowing. And somehow, this story reminds me of the Ravens coaching search.

Messrs. Bisciotti, DeCosta and Brown are being quite selective, even at the risk of losing out on a good candidate who might not share their patience given the absence of guarantees. The sheer volume of candidates the Ravens are considering makes this feel like a beauty pageant. None are perfect. Each has their shortcomings. Each, their strengths.

But as time goes by and the candidates fall one by one, the Ravens could paint themselves into a corner. They may hold the most coveted coaching job on the market but candidates won’t wait forever. It reminds me of an old friend who while trolling bars for his next “date” was known to say, “She was a 2 at 10, but a 10 at 2”.

Hopefully the Ravens don’t wait too long and find themselves mumbling my old friend’s credo because there were times when he woke up the next day with regrets.

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