Fraser Smith's Essay: February 7, 2013

Tuesday’s Super Bowl celebration may go on and on and on. WYPR’s Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith comments in his weekly essay.

Does your face still hurt? Sure it does. You can’t stop smiling. Maybe you never will. You’re part of Ravens Nation.

In time, Baltimoreans – 200,000 of them give or take – will be able to say, years from now, just where they were on Lombardi Day, the day our team came home with the big prize.

The parade was almost as exciting as the games that got us there. Has this or any other city ever been so excited? Has a team ever seen so much love? Have t-shirt vendors ever been so delirious?

It was like having been there when the Orioles won the World Series in 1966, when Brooks seemed to jump out of Memorial Stadium. It was like Lenny Moore catching a pass and disappearing in a crowd at Yankee Stadium in 1958. It was as if destiny had stayed around for one more day to preside over the excitement.

If you weren't there, TV gave you the wide angle dimensions of Baltimore’s joy. The massive stadium was as alive with people as a New York subway at rush hour – minus the pushing and shoving.

And Ray. We don’t need to use his last name anymore, right? He seemed to be auditioning new Squirrel dancers. Joe Flacco smiled warmly as if there really was a moment when he wasn't preternaturally cool. And Haloti Ngata was out there in a t-shirt, no jacket, ‘til he got closer to the stadium.

Everyone – player and fan – seemed over the moon. The Pratt Street parade route and the stadium seemed to challenge Fifth Avenue or Wall Street as the nation’s iconic venue for celebration. Ticker tape? So yesterday.

One of the revelers, climbing on a tank-like military vehicle, joined Ray for a version of the last ride. The rider looked like a freedom fighter, but with a camera.

At home or inside the park, we were all afflicted with the same, sweet complaint—chronic smile disorder.