When Nate, a 26-year-old football fan from Northern Maryland, learned that the Ravens had traded for star Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby, he had a different reaction than most members of the Flock. Not because he didn’t like the deal, per se … but because he now had to follow through on an extremely public promise he made when he believed the Ravens were too stingy to pull off such a bombshell move.
“I know how the Ravens are, and they don’t like to trade for big people,” Nate told Sports Illustrated in an exclusive interview last Friday. “And also seeing that they've never traded a first-round pick for a player, [I thought,] they're not gonna do it.
“Like, I usually make bets that I know I'm gonna win.”
But of course, this wasn’t your typical bet. Believing himself immune to any adverse consequences—considering the trade was, in his estimation, too splashy and too flashy to actually happen—Nate had already announced to his few thousand X followers that he would shave his head if the Ravens did the impossible and brought Crosby to Baltimore. So when the team actually pulled it off (and much to Nate’s surprise), his reaction was less “Heck yes!” and more “What have I done?"
“Honestly, I forgot that I even made the tweet,” he admitted. But “then I remembered, and I looked back, and I was like, ‘Oh no.’”
A man of his word, Nate made good on his hair-raising promise just a few days later. That Monday, he shaved his head. And on Tuesday, at 7:23 p.m. ET, he posted a photo of the results (which have been verified by SI) with the caption: “Welcome to Baltimore @CrosbyMaxx.”
Not even an hour later, all hell broke loose.
Welcome to Baltimore @CrosbyMaxx https://t.co/0SV7bdrfZq pic.twitter.com/wSmGm0HRsU
— 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙚 (@Hamilton_DPOY) March 10, 2026
At 8:02 p.m. on March 10—merely 49 minutes after Nate’s post went live—the Raiders announced that Baltimore had “backed out” of the deal for Crosby, which would have sent two first-rounders back to a rebuilding Vegas in exchange for the five-time Pro Bowler. The NFL world was stunned—and Nate, roughly 24 hours removed from his haircut, was bald.
News of the deal’s implosion arrived while the Maryland native was out to eat at a former place of employment.
“One of my old coworkers came up to me, and I told her what had happened,” he said. “This [was] before the trade got canceled.”
About 20 minutes later, though, the same coworker came back and broke the news that the Ravens had backed out. And soon, Nate watched himself go viral.
“Once the trade got canceled, that’s when the tweet blew up,” he explained.
In the days that followed, Nate said he fielded interview and contest requests from the likes of ESPN, Bleacher Report, DraftKings and two Baltimore news stations. Some family and friends stumbled upon his tweet (and his subsequent haircut) by way of @NFLMemes on Instagram, or from some post on Facebook. He even found write-ups from local papers as far away as Nashville and Fort Worth.
“I laugh it off,” he mused, “but it's kind of crazy how quickly things can go viral.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Nate said he had “mixed feelings” on the trade even before the Ravens pulled out. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t believe in Crosby, but rather that he felt Baltimore may have given up a tad too much, especially “knowing about [Crosby’s] injury history.”
“Not to be a box score watcher, but not having a season above 15 sacks?” he added of the pass rusher. “I mean, yeah, he’s good. But I don’t know if he’s [worth] two first-round picks.”
In any event, he didn’t sound too pressed by the unfortunate timing and playout of the saga, which ultimately cost him his locks ... and in the middle of winter, too.
“I don’t regret it,” he added. But “I mean, it’s cold now.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Ravens Fan Who Shaved His Head After the Maxx Crosby Trade Has No Regrets, Actually.
