After the Ravens’ season ended abruptly last Sunday night following a missed field goal, kicker Tyler Loop was the target of threats and online harassment from his team’s fans. He needed the support of the Steelers faithful to boost his morale!
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In the final moments of a heartbreaking 26-24 loss to arch-rivals the Steelers, Loop missed a 44-yard field goal. The Ravens were thus eliminated from the playoff race, while the Steelers confirmed their North Division championship in addition to qualifying.
In the moments following his missed punt, Loop received numerous unedifying messages from frustrated Ravens fans.
“You will never walk the streets of Baltimore safely again,” someone told him.
Another suggests that he “count [ses] days…”, while another added: “Don’t come back to Baltimore.”
Under a post in which Loop and his fiancée announced their upcoming wedding, several followers responded that they wished them a quick divorce.
In short, everything degenerated, as is too often the case for a simple sporting issue.
The Steelers to the rescue
The only good news in the story is that the foundation Loop supports, the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation, which provides food to families in need, was inundated with donations in the final hours.
In a wink, many donated the symbolic sum of $26.24, a reminder of the final score of the critical match.
The wave worked to the point where a member of the said foundation published a message that will perhaps serve as a balm to the heart of Loop in a difficult situation.
“We received a flurry of donations in honor of Tyler Loop, the Baltimore Ravens kicker who missed his game-winning field goal attempt Sunday night. These donations come largely from Steelers fans and it’s touching to see that a negative situation can become positive,” he wrote, according to DK Pittsburgh Sports.
A first?
Loop, a sixth-round pick in the last draft, had made 30 of his previous 33 field goals in what was an excellent rookie season.
Last year, when the Ravens were eliminated in the playoffs by the Bills when tight end Mark Andrews dropped a pass on a two-point conversion that would have tied the game, his foundation was also inundated with donations from Bills fans.
Donations from Steelers diehards to the Ravens, however, have certainly been extremely rare in the history of this bitter rivalry.
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