Interested in hearing your take...

posted a fanshot over on BB

I am sick and tired of hearing about the move. It was 25 years ago, time for Baltimore to move on.

Watch The Band That Wouldn’t Die

They need to embrace Harbaugh and Flacco and co. Theirs is a good team. Until this past decade, they were missing very little in the lousy Colts team (with an occasional exception). Since then they’ve won a super bowl with the Ravens and have fielded one of the better teams in the league pretty consistently.

Why some people won’t let this die in a league where many teams have changed cities through the years, well it’s just slightly disturbing. I know that they will say that it’s because of how it happened with Irsay, but the general point is that they were hurt at the time for losing their team. That was just a specific point at which to vent their frustrations.

It’s like a couple getting a divorce. They can gripe about the particulars and how things are done by the other, but that is just par for the course. The bottom line is that they are getting a divorce, which is a pretty big circumstance in a relationship that has gone far from their original intentions. Any time a couple is divorcing, there are hurts in the relationship and faults to find with the other. Blame will be assigned by each toward the other. That is to be expected when a relationship of that magnitude falls apart. All the particular blah-blahs will vary some, but there will always be blah-blahs. The main point is that they lost a relationship and that leaves a scar.

Same with the city of Baltimore. They aren’t the first city to lose an NFL team to relocation, and they aren’t the first city to be bummed out about it. Every time there were reasons why. Every time there were people in that city who didn’t care much about supporting the team. And every time there were fans who were die hard types, and those fans died a little when their team left them for greener pastures.

So why are some in Baltimore so traumatized by this over twenty five years later? Or any time past the point of getting another franchise (interestingly, a franchise that went trough a nasty divorce of their own before coming to them)? Go figure. They can keep the blah-blahs going forever of why their loss was worse than any other city has experienced, and how their ex should be hated forever for this, but that is just a sad way to live.

It’s like two divorced people now married to each other, where the one keeps talking about their issues with their ex who broke their hearts in a most grievous manner many years earlier. Probably at some point before twenty-five years later, the new spouse is gonna start to wonder if they can just move on and be happy with what they have now. My sympathies are with the Baltimore Ravens organization. They would’ve hoped that time and their efforts would have helped everyone move on by now. Maybe if they win five more super bowls for the city…

Maybe now that ESPN can’t exalt the Pats effectively over the Colts, they are trying to bring the Colts PR down to the level the Pats suffered a couple years back. Remember when their players were booed in the pro bowl following spygate and 18-1?

That’s it! It’s a conspiracy, a conspiracy I say! I have to go now. The black helicopters are spying on me at this moment.

They have a fantastic football team to love now. It’s been a long time, doesn’t time heal all wounds?

And I don’t really plan on seeing it tomorrow. I think we all were a little take aback by the way Baltimore acted during the 2006 playoff game. Ravens fans didn’t just want their team to beat the Colts- they wanted to throttle them, massacre them, destroy them, eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, etc, etc. And then displaying the scoreboard as “Ravens vs. Indianapolis”….wow. I never really realized how passionate Baltimore was about the Colts moving until that game. Afterwards, I got really annoyed by the constant whining. Like other fans, I simply said, “It happened 25 years ago, so get over it”.

However, more recently I’ve come to sympathize with Baltimore. Obviously, Bob Irsay was a drunk idiot and was the worst owner imaginable. Indy fans should consider themselves lucky to have class acts like Jim Irsay and Herb Simon as the owners of their pro sports teams. Baltimore didn’t have that luxury at the time. What they had was a owner who was full of BS and flat-out betrayed them.

That’s the reason I’m so perplexed as to why Baltimore seems to have something against Indianapolis. Sure, they agreed with Irsay to bring the Colts here. But what was nothing personal to the city of Baltimore. All they wanted was to bring in some more revenue to the city. Bob Irsay was the culprit then and he always has been. I understand the passion and I understand the hatred, but I just wish the two cities could get along once and for all. Let’s put the past behind us, shake hands, and agree together that Bob Irsay was a schmuck. Is that so hard?

look i wasnt able to see the whole thing but saw parts of both airings so far. i understand that it would be hard and it sucks especially for the fans of that team at the time the ones like us now that are so in love with our team. i do think that it was interesting there reactions and just here there take on it.
OH and anyone who thinks they think it is only them that have had this happen the director of the move was one of the big fans of that team and he didn’t write it as a pitty thing adn understands that other teams have moved but the diffrence is the way it happened and that this unlike many others had a visual and was memorable in the method it happend.

we dont know and i think thought that they have moved on at least mostly but this is the story of what happend not them complaining so calm down guys

that Bruce Raffel is a douche. Go troll somewhere else.

I saw most of the documentary and it was entertaining. I was in marching band in highschool and so I’m a fan of bands, that is why I watched it, not because of the Baltimore Colts.

This is how I think Baltimore citizens and fans see it:

They were the most loyal fans any team could ever have. They sold out the stadium each and every game (after the team was originally taken away from them for low attendance). In return the players of the team was a major part of the city. The players owned clubs and businesses and they were very bluecollar in how they interacted with their fans. Something that any hardworking person can relate with.

Then Bob Irsay lied to them. Time and time again. He said he was not in Phoenix discussing possible relocation, when he actually was. Phoenix actually made a public statement the day after he said that disclaiming that they were pulling out of discussions with Bob Irsay. He said that he was not going to move the team and then in the middle of the night, with no warning, Mayflower trucks rolled out of Baltimore and into Indy.

Now that is enough to warrant being mad, but then here is where it gets really bad. Even though the Colts were not in Baltimore anymore they did not give up on the team. The band stayed together (putting the director of the band into debt; he had to mortgage his house etc etc) and the city of Baltimore loved when they marched. Apparently so did other towns (even Philly who booed Santa Claus). Basically the city of Baltimore was showing the world that they wanted another team. But they got passed up on, twice.

But finally they were awarded the Browns franchise and the rest is History.

Here is the Colts’ fans perspective:

We don’t care! What happened happened. It’s in the past and it is history. We get it, you’re upset. Bad things happened, but now is the perfect time to build a bridge and get over it. If anything we should be the ones to be upset. Our Lombardi Trophy is sitting in Baltimore and not Indy.

anyone wanna laugh, look at what Browns fans had to say to Baltimore…

Heh…

anyone want to laugh, look at the number off rings Peyton has for all his stats. As many as Dilfer.

Jim Irsay is a silver spoon kid. I have more respect for his dad who actually earned money the good old fashioned flim flaming way. I never missed the Colts because you got the Irsays in the deal. Worth 12 years to me.

I agree..and I was a Redskins Steelers fan during all that : ) I couldn’t get Baltimore stations on my black and white tin foil antenna TV. We had 3 clear stations and channel 5 had the Skins and channel 4 always had the Steelers. Pick your poison.

BUT, if i were in Baltimore at the time NONE of this would have ever happened. You see, we had guys like Bruce living here at the time and they hid under the beds when the trucks rolled out. I mea, at least save the colors and names. If the band could only fight! Now, that would be a great movie. DEATH MARCH- The Baltimore Raven Band Story.

I wouldn’t be angry at the Colts for leaving Indy under the following circumstances. I’d help them pack.

The Colts were unhappy with the condition of the stadium they played in and Indianapolis offered them a new indoor dome.
Robert Irsay, the Colts owner, had many problems with Baltimore and the stadium, Memorial stadium.

1. Due to being far from the downtown area and any major highway, traffic to and from Colt games was very heavy and tied up traffic and trapped locals in their homes. It was also hard to find being about seven miles fron the downtown area on 33rd street. Many fans got lost getting to or coming from the stadium.

2. The stadium was a very poor football stadium and the seating bowl ended at the fifty yard line, the end zone near 36th street was open taking away money making seats. It also no club level. It was far behind its time.

3. The city of Baltimore would not allow the Colts to play at the NFL’s usual start time at one. Instead, they started at two which by law. Sports events were not allow to start before two on Sundays. Because of this the Colts had a hard time being on national T.V.

4. The Orioles, the city’s baseball team, also used the stadium and had control over food sales, and parking fees even during football season despite the fact that both teams payed a rent fee.

5. The team was playing poorly and attentence went to about 20,000 in a stadium that could hold 60,000.

6. The city wanted to upgrade the stadium but both teams had different demands and the city could not make both happy so it did not upgrade the stadium.

In the spring of 1984 the Colts lease on the stadium was up and Irsay wanted a new stadium or to move. Instead of working out plans with Irsay, Maryland’s senate passed a law that allowed the state to take the team from him by the powers of eminemt domain. All that was needed was the law to pass by the House of Delegates. That was enough for Irsay to decide what to do. He moved his team Indianapols and its Hoosier Dome. Baltimore did however learn from its mistakes. When the Orioles said they had a lot of the same problems with the stadium (location and condition for example,) and threatened to move to Washington D.C., Baltimore built Oriole Park at Camden Yards . Just six years later they would build M&T Bank Stadium for a new NFL team, the Ravens.

All this film has done is stir up negative feelings toward the Colts organization. Not just Baltimore people, but football observers everywhere who would watch it and its one sided story. This has only been a Colts PR hit. And judging by the writers and producers, that’s exactly what their bitter old souls want. And some Baltimore fans couldn’t be more pleased either.

I agree with what Peyton Manning said after we beat the Ravens in our super bowl year. It’s time to move on. Many of the current players weren’t alive back then, and the ones who were born already were quite young. Why is it that they are treated with such disdain over things that they had absolutely nothing to do with. Time to move on.

And again, this isn’t the only team that has ever relocated. Baltimore has the Ravens. They need to be happy with that and let it go already.

but I have a complaint with Cleveland getting another team…

You made a comment with regards to both Carolina and Jacksonville….

Yet both of those teams have made the playoffs combined about a dozen times, both have played in 2 conference championship games each, and 1 has played in a SB.

However, they decide to put a new underachieving team back where an underachieving team left to go to Baltimore. The bottom line here is the only thing the Browns have done well for the last 35+ years is lose. Sure, they’ve had a few years where they were decent, but not since Otto Graham has the Browns even been relevant….

Even the latest expansion, the Houston Texans, have managed a better record over their expansion than the new Cleveland Browns….

I just personally think the Cleveland Browns team might have succeeded better had they gone to another city like Oklahoma City or San Antonio…

made no sense because the city itself wouldn’t break down and do anything for the Colts, which was an established team with SB winning credentials… so why would the NFL consider Baltimore after they ran their own team out of town?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTZVj9nNek

I wasn’t born when the Colts moved away from Baltimore, and became a fan long after 1984. But the one thing that really erks me is how the city of Baltimore still has angst towards indianapolis, the players. the organization, and the current owner Jim Irsay. If the old Baltimore players like Raymond Berry can be forgiving by actually attending Colts games and being on the sidelines with the players, than so too can the city of Baltimore. Jim Irsay is no where near the douche his father was and what city would say no to a football team? Your anger should be directed at Robert Irsay only. Not Indy, not his son Jim, and certainly not the players like the Ravens fans did when the Colts came back in that playoff game in 2006.

They brought this upon themselves. They lost the Colts. We got the Colts. The same thing with Cleveland. Quit crying about this for God’s sake. It’s over. The Colts play in Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis and the Ravens play at MT&T Bank Stadium or whatever it is called in Baltimore. It’s the Indianapolis Colts. No one cares where they came from.

I don’t care about the Baltimore Colts at all. I don’t want the history from them. I only care about 1984-2009.

This posting comes across as baiting to me. I mean, what kind of responses are you expecting from a Colts blog? “Oh gee Baltimore, sorry the dead father of our current owner stole a team you guys weren’t properly supporting. Here, you can have the Colts history from 1953-1983.”

The honest truth is that this rivalry is one-sided. The Ravens aren’t a divisional rival. They aren’t a conference rival. There’s nothing about the Ravens that makes for a rivalry, other than this nonsense that you guys drag up every now and then.

Seriously, let it die. Five years from now, the Colts will have been in Indianapolis longer than they were in Baltimore. Old wounds stay open because people pick at the scabs and won’t let them heal.