The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They play in the Northern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl only once, Super Bowl XXXV, in the 2000 season against the New York Giants.

On November 6, 1995, the then-Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell made and announcement that he would move the team to Baltimore, stating the inadequacy of Cleveland Stadium and the lack of a sufficient replacement along with his large debt. The decision triggered a flurry of legal activity that ended when representatives of Cleveland and the NFL reached a settlement on February 8, 1996. It stipulated that the Browns' name, colors, and history of the franchise were to remain in Cleveland, including past records and the attribution of its Pro Football Hall of Fame players. A reactivated Cleveland Browns team would then begin play in 1999, while Modell's relocated club would technically and legally be an expansion team, the Baltimore Ravens. Still, some consider the Baltimore Ravens and the pre-1995 Browns organization as one continuous entity, using terms like "The Modell organization" or "Art Modell's franchise" to denote it.

After relocating his franchise, retaining the current contracts of former Browns players and personnel as per the agreement made by the city of Cleveland and the NFL, owner Art Modell hired Ted Marchibroda as head coach, who had previous experience with the Baltimore Colts during the 1970s and the Indianapolis Colts during the early 1990s. Ozzie Newsome, the Browns tight end for many seasons, joined Modell in Baltimore as director of football operations. He was later promoted to Vice President/General Manager.

Focus groups, a telephone survey, and a fan contest were all held to help select a new name for Modell's relocated club. Starting with a list of over 100 possible names, the team's management reduced it to 17. From there, focus groups of a total of 200 Baltimore area residents reduced the list of names to six, and then a phone survey of 1000 people trimmed it down to three, Marauders, Americans, and Baltimore Ravens. Finally, a fan contest drawing 33,288 voters picked "Ravens", a name that alludes to the famous poem, "The Raven", by Edgar Allan Poe, who spent the latter part of his life in Baltimore, and is also buried there.

From 1996-1998, the team originally used a logo that featured raven wings flanking a shield with the letter "B". However, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a jury verdict that the logo infringed on the copyright in a logo drawing by Frederick E. Bouchat, a Maryland amateur artist and security guard.

Bouchat sued the Baltimore Ravens, claiming that he was the first one to design the "B" shield shortly after the team announced their intentions to move to Baltimore. The team defended themselves, claiming that the logo was made independently. But the court ruled in favor of Bouchat, stating that team owner Modell had access to Bouchat's work: Bouchat had faxed a copy of his design to then-chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority John Moag, who shared the same office building as Modell.

As a result of the lawsuit, a new logo was designed, featuring a purple and black raven's head in profile, with the letter "B" superimposed in metallic gold and white. The secondary logo of the Baltimore Ravens is a shield with alternating Calvert Banners in kind with the flag of Maryland (which incorporates the flag of Baltimore) interlocked with a stylized "B" and "R".

Despite the logo controversy, the Baltimore Ravens' uniform design has essentially remained the same since the team was established in 1996. In 1996, the team exclusively wore black pants with a large white stripe on it. The Baltimore Ravens were the first team to wear dark pants with a dark jersey, which has now become common with many NFL teams, although the Baltimore Ravens' pants were darker than the jerseys; the practice of pairing jerseys and pants of the same color did not come into vogue until 2001, when the New Orleans Saints wore an all-black combination in three games. They wore white socks with black and purple stripes.

In 1997, the team introduced white pants with black and purple stripes to be worn with the purple jersey. They also changed the black pants by adding a purple stripe to the white. The uniform now consists of black helmets, white pants, metallic gold trim, and either purple or white jerseys. Purple "talons" rise up from the facemask up the center of the helmet.

In November 2004, the team introduced an alternate uniform design featuring black jerseys and solid black pants and black socks. It was a home game victory versus the rival Cleveland Browns, titled "Black Sunday." It has been worn for select prime-time national game broadcasts and other games of significance. The black pants are different than those worn by the '96 Baltimore Ravens. There is no white stripe, instead the pants are solid black with the Baltimore Ravens logo on each hip.

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