On the heels of the Baltimore Ravens' thrilling playoff run and Super Bowl victory, state legislators have introduced Senate and House bills to make the raven an official state bird of Maryland.

Of course, Maryland already has one state bird, our beloved Baltimore oriole, which received its special distinction in 1947. (Although the state first made special provisions to protect the Baltimore oriole in 1882, according to Maryland records.)

According to reporting by The Washington Post,Baltimore County state Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a Democrat, filed a bill Thursday afternoon that would place the raven alongside the oriole, essentially giving Maryland two state birds. Identical legislation, with...

Tens of thousands of Ravens fans gathered outside of City Hall to welcome the Super Bowl Champion Ravens back to Baltimore this morning. Many, like Marchelle Wilson of Glen Burnie, said they had been waiting since 5 a.m. "I just want to see Ray," she told us. In the surrounding buildings, tons of people pressed their faces against windows and hung out on parking garage balconies just to get a glimspe. 

They all got their chance at 11:45 a.m. when players appeared on the front steps of City Hall, including wide receiver Anquan Boldin, linebacker Terrell Suugs, linebacker Ray Lewis, running back Ray Rice, quarterback Joe Flacco, and safety Ed Reed with his son on his shoulders. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake got the crowd riled up by starting a "Seven Nation Army" chant before introducing Coach John Harbaugh. "How bout them Ravens?" he shouted to raucous applause. He also broke into a call-and-response-chant of "What's our name?" "Ravens!" three times before giving the floor to Reed.

Like he's been doing, Reed...

The social media news site BuzzFeed has compiled what has to be the happiest group of photos Baltimore has seen in a long time. Number 14 is pretty special. Which is your favorite?

[Image: courtesy of Baltimore Ravens]

Baltimore erupted Sunday night after Ray Lewis' last goal line stand finally nailed down a wild Super Bowl win for the Ravens as fans took to the streets — as much in relief perhaps as celebration — to whoop, sing, dance and shout for joy.

Fireworks exploded over many of Baltimore's neighborhoods, including Canton in the above video, after the Ravens' anxious and unpredictable 34-31 victory over San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII.

Unflabbable Joe Flacco was named the Super Bowl MVP, throwing for three TD's and no interceptions for the third straight playoff game. But after jumping out to a 28-6 lead, following a 108-yard kickoff return by Jacoby Jones to open the second-half, the game took a sudden turn for the worse after a strange power outage that lasted more than 30 minutes and seemed to rob the Ravens of their mojo.

However, as they have all through their remarkable playoff run — underdogs in Denver, New England and New Orleans against the San Francisco — the Ravens proved resilient, rallying the troops to hold off a surging 49er offense.

Ray Lewis, of course, just before the...