The refrain began soon after the Baltimore Ravens left the field Sunday with a decisive playoff win in hand. Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan was only too happy to nudge it along.
"Nobody has respected this team until right now, and that's fine with us," Ryan said. "Tough on everybody else, just right for us."
Respect is a motivational tactic as old as sport itself. Coaches and players portray themselves as unwanted, overlooked and underpraised. Around every corner lurks another rival ready to steal credit. And the only way to seize that magic respect is to rise up and take it on the field.
So be prepared before the Ravens play the Tennessee Titans on Saturday to hear about how John Harbaugh was ignored in coach-of-the-year voting; how Joe Flacco went unnoticed by offensive rookie-of-the-year voters; how Ed Reed's big plays couldn't get him more than eight votes for defensive player of the year; and how no one picked the Ravens to come anywhere near the playoffs.
If the steady drumbeat about disrespect sounds silly coming from veteran coaches and perennial Pro Bowl players, well, understand that they do it for a reason.
"It's effective," said Eric Morse, a North Carolina sports psychologist who worked with teams at the University of Maryland. "Coaches and players look for bulletin-board material, and if it's not there, sometimes they drum it up. It's one of the few ways to tap into athletes' internal motivation for doing what they do."
Joel Fish, a Philadelphia-based sports psychologist who has worked with players from the Philadelphia Eagles and other pro teams, said that with quotes being chopped up and repeated on a 24-hour news cycle, inflammatory talk -- or anything that can be interpreted as such -- abounds more than ever. He said players use it most effectively when they genuinely believe they're being disrespected.
"I think it makes it personal," Fish said. "Athletes have a lot of pride, and athletes like to compete, so it can give a real emotional boost to a player or team."
Asked about motivating his team with talk of respect, Harbaugh said, "Guys get motivated a lot of different ways. It's a great question. It's interesting. I'm not sure exactly how our guys look at it. We believe in one another, and we've got a big challenge in front of us. They're playing really good football, and our football team is going to have to play better than their football team if we're going to have a chance to win. So that's how we look at it."
