OT: Quality column on Indy/Baltimore game

[PonyExpress]

http://sportsline.com/columns/story/9924492

Quality work by an up-and-coming columnist... Another reason to dislike the current Colts (as if we needed one) is the way their slimy late owner abandoned Baltimore, taking the team name and records with him. Irsay the younger was quoted in the USAToday on Thursday, lecturing Baltimore fans that it was "high time they moved on", as if he should be the arbiter of their mercy. Now we know why Manning chokes, Polian acts like a feudal lord, and his fancy team can't win the big one: A fish rots from the head down. Look no farther than the clownish Irsay clan. Indianapolis still claims Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Art Donovan et.al as its own in the football HOF. You can steal a team, but are you allowed to steal people's memories? Worse than the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn was that theft... Anyone see the movie Diner? You get a pretty good idea of how rabid Baltimore fans were back in the day. Justice would be served if Ray-Ray and company eat the horse-shoes alive tomorrow. Having said that, I find myself hoping that the Colts win, so that the Pats get an opportunity to hammer Indy in the dome next week. Pey-back is a byatch...

Final note: I believe BB grew up a fan of the Baltimore Colts, and worked there with Ted Marchibroda when Bert Jones was QB. I wonder how much he resents the team for moving, if at all...

 

[unoriginal]

Re: OT: Quality column by Mike Freeman on Indy/Baltimore game

All I ask is that the winning team's quarterback leave the game in a hearse.

 

[mosi]

http://sportsline.com/columns/story/9924492

Another reason to dislike the current Colts Final note: I believe BB grew up a fan of the Baltimore Colts, and worked there with Ted Marchibroda when Bert Jones was QB. I wonder how much he resents the team for moving, if at all...

Another reason? Another reason? IT IS THE REASON! Those rat bastards stole the Colts from Baltimore. Plain and simple. They are not the Baltimore Colts. Even Johnny Unitas would tell you that. Scum, that is all they are, scum. Not only that, they are cursed. Until they return Johnny Unitas' cleats to Baltimore, they will never win anything.

 

[Flying Fungi]

this was forwarded to me by my cousin in MD--apparently from the B-more Sun:

Dear Ravens,

Sorry to bother you. I know you've got a lot going on. But you should think about something that could help you in Saturday's playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts.

I get it when you say, as a lot of you have, that the game has no additional meaning to you because of the Colts' history here. I know all that stuff happened a long time ago, before your time. I understand that it's not your fight.

But if you're willing to think about it for a couple of minutes
and make it your fight, at least temporarily, you won't be sorry.

Please understand something: The crowd at M&T Bank Stadium is
going to be over-the-top intense Saturday. All previous standards for noise will be shattered. "Colts at Baltimore" will create a vibe that picks you up and carries you.

You should make the most of it. And understand it.

It will occur partly because this is the biggest home game in
Baltimore since 1977, but also because, for a lot of the people who buy
tickets and support you, this is more than just another big game. This is personal.

Some of the people who buy tickets and support you don't care, but a lot of them, probably more of them, do care passionately. They rooted hard for the Colts once upon a time, but then Robert Irsay moved the franchise and broke their hearts.

They're over it now, long past wailing about something that
happened in 1984. You live here during the season, so you know that. It really doesn't come up anymore.

But bringing the Colts back to town, especially in these
circumstances, stirs up those old feelings. The response is almost reflexive, involuntary, out of the fans' control. The sight of that lovely horseshoe on the Colts' helmet makes them angry all over again.

They start thinking about what was lost, and about the fact that Baltimore's Johnny Unitas is listed as an Indianapolis Colt at the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- an utter disgrace. They start thinking about all of the Hall of Fame Baltimore Colts -- including iconic figures such as Raymond Berry, Jim Parker and Gino Marchetti -- being listed as having played in Indianapolis.

They start thinking about the fact that the Colts used to be every bit as popular and beloved as the Ravens are now, playing before crowds so famously rowdy that a Chicago sportswriter once nicknamed Memorial Stadium "the world's largest outdoor insane asylum." You would have loved playing here then.

But then Irsay, a man whose own mother called him "a devil on
earth," took control of the team and ran it into the ground, another disgrace. Then Irsay got mad because no one here would build him the new stadium he wanted but didn't begin to deserve, so he looked around for some place that would oblige him. Indianapolis stepped up. The franchise packed up and moved in the middle of the night, like cowards.

That's why "Colts at Baltimore" makes people's heads spin around here, especially with a trip to the AFC championship game on the line. It can't be just another game.

The fans of Indianapolis are good people who just wanted a team; it's not their war, either. And today's Colts players don't even know the team used to play in Baltimore.

The history is relevant only to Ravens fans old enough to
remember. But if you think their remembering won't matter Saturday, you're mistaken. They're going to want to win so badly it almost hurts. Dispatching the Colts on the way to a conference title game would be their ultimate fantasy.

Passion and noise have swirled at every home game this year;
Ravens coach Brian Billick says he has never heard the fans so loud. But rest assured, they're going to take it past 10 and go all the way to 11 Saturday. They're going to burn the place down.

You have a choice. You can say it's not your war and pay no
attention. Or you can use it. Aren't players always looking for an excuse to wield an emotional edge? Isn't that the silver lining of a Pro Bowl snub? Isn't that why "us against the world" gets deployed even when it's baloney?

Well, here's an edge that's real, not baloney. You should use it. You should run out of that tunnel Saturday and look at those horseshoes across the field and hear the roar and feel the energy and think about what "Colts at Baltimore" means to the people who are cheering for you.

Then you should go out and find someone on the other team to hit.

 

[RyanTheColtsFan]

Im sure the article doesn't mention how the BALTIMORE Ravens stole the Browns from Cleveland.

 

[RyanTheColtsFan]

Another reason? Another reason? IT IS THE REASON! Those rat bastards stole the Colts from Baltimore. Plain and simple. They are not the Baltimore Colts. Even Johnny Unitas would tell you that. Scum, that is all they are, scum. Not only that, they are cursed. Until they return Johnny Unitas' cleats to Baltimore, they will never win anything.

Maybe Peyton and Co. can win one for Jim Brown and the legacy of the Cleveland Browns.

 

[NEPat]

Im sure the article doesn't mention how the BALTIMORE Ravens stole the Browns from Cleveland.

Yes, but Cleveland kept its colors and its past and all that, while Baltimore did not.

It was Irsay's fault, not the fans of Indy or the current team, but I'm sure Ravens fans will not care about that detail this weekend. That place is gonna be LOUD.

 

[RyanTheColtsFan]

Yes, but Cleveland kept its colors and its past and all that, while Baltimore did not.

It was Irsay's fault, not the fans of Indy or the current team, but I'm sure Ravens fans will not care about that detail this weekend. That place is gonna be LOUD.

Well, its not the first game back to Baltimore. Just the first playoff game.

Doesn't matter how loud its guna be. Clots will roll.

 

[NEPat]

Well, its not the first game back to Baltimore. Just the first playoff game.

That's true, but from everything I read and hear, Ravens fans are treating it like it's practically Irsay in the opposing huddle instead of Peyton. They are fired up for this game.

That's why I think it would help, more so than usual, if the Colts got off to a fast start. Calm things down a little.