Marlon Humphrey can’t hide from his increasingly poor performances for the Baltimore Ravens, but one franchise great and Super Bowl winner has no sympathy for the struggling cornerback’s excuses, especially when they involve ranting against the team’s fans.
Former Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe, who was a key reason for the 2000 team winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy, called Humphrey out. Sharpe spoke on the Night Cap podcast and took Humphrey to task for his role in the Ravens’ 33-10 defeat at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9.
Humphrey got off the worst start possible when he was beaten by Jags’ tight end Nate Boerkircher for 52 yards on the game’s second play. Sharpe urged Humphrey to take responsibility for his mistakes and not blame the fans.
As Sharpe put it, “I’m sorry the fans just want guys to play hard, I’m sorry fans have a level of expectations, I’m sorry. Marlon, you did it to yourself. You were an All-Pro at one point in time, you went to the Pro Bowls and now you look nothing like yourself, but guess what? If you spent as much time in your playbook or trying to get better like you do on your podcast, I guarantee you things will turn around.”
This is a direct response to Humphrey’s astonishing rant toward Ravens fans before the game against Jacksonville. The 30-year-old subsequently cut a more conciliatory tone after he and other members of the secondary were routinely burned on Thursday Night Football.
Marlon Humphrey Unleashed Rant vs. Fans
Humphrey was asked on his own podcast about fans being concerned about the Ravens losing games. He responded, “when are they not freaking out to be honest? I mean I’ve won a freaking ball, I’ve won a ball game and you know what someone said when they saw me? ‘Y’all almost lost today.'”
The veteran defensive back even believes fan backlash “possibly has become infectious. You know, it’s like Weaver says something. One of the guys came in like, ‘Yeah, man, it’s really not healthy the stigma that’s like placed on us from our own fans.”
Humphrey earlier lamented, “we get booed in the first quarter oftent times. I mean, frack, but it doesn’t really matter. Look man, it’s an entertainment business if you want to pay their money. They can boo if they would like to. They can cheer if they would like to. They can not cheer if they would like to. I know there is expectations, but like I said, I’ve been in that Brown stadium when they was 0-16 and that place was thick with rocking and people in there. So fandom varies from place to place.”
Drawing a seemingly negative comparison between Ravens fans and supporters of AFC North rivals the Cleveland Browns is a curious move. Especially from a player expected to be a leader on a new-look defense, but who looks more like he needs to be traded.
Humphrey’s instead become a liability. Like when he was torched by Boerkircher.
JAXvsBAL on Prime Stream on @NFLPlus
Humphrey told The Baltimore Sun’s Sam Cohn, “I’m chasing a perfect game,” but that answer sounds out of touch with what fans are seeing on the field.
What they’re seeing is a Ravens’ defense unable to play to its talent level.
Ravens Out of Excuses for Poor Defense
The Ravens have few excuses to be this bad defensively. Bad enough to be surrendering the 25th-most points in the NFL, and unable to get off the field on third down.
Those numbers shouldn’t be possible when rookie boss Jesse Minter is a defensive-minded head coach. Minter also inherited a unit with plenty of All-Pro talent.
Humphrey, do-all safety Kyle Hamilton, middle linebacker Roquan Smith, edge-rusher Trey Hendrickson and defensive tackle Nnamdi Mdubuike are all All-Pros. The Ravens have also invested premium draft capital in other players, like 2025 first-round pick Malaki Starks.
Unfortunately, second-year safety Starks is enduring his own shaky performances this season. Those struggles continued when Starks was burned by Jaguars’ wide receiver Parker Washington for a touchdown.
JAXvsBAL on Prime Stream on @NFLPlus
The breakdown prompted Sharpe’s fellow 2000 Ravens Super Bowl winner, Qadry Ismail, to take aim at general manager Eric DeCosta. Ismail simply asked, “Who drafted these dudes? Who built this team?”
There’s a lot of blame to go around, but the fans can justifiably feel they aren’t owed much based on what they’ve witnessed this season.
Ravens Super Bowl Winner Blasts Marlon Humphrey for Fans Rant