Throwback Thursday: Hall of Fame Weekend

The return of Colts football means the return of Throwback Thursday as well! I know how excited you all are for that.

But I know you're all more excited to see the Colts take the field in Canton, Ohio, on Sunday for the first (of five...yuck) pre-season game for the team. As I'm sure you are all aware, the Colts will be facing the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The match-up probably holds more intrigue for fans of the 1990s and 2000s as Brett Favre, Marvin Harrison, and Tony Dungy will all be inducted into the Hall of Fame the night before.

Since it isn't every year, I thought our first walk down memory lane could be to the last time the Colts rolled into the Hall of Fame game.

For some reason, I completely forgot that the Colts played in the game only eight years ago against the Washington Redskins. I thought it was longer ago than that. It was eight years ago yesterday, actually.

As you can imagine, the game wasn't exactly a memorable affair.

The game was certainly headlined by the Redskins, as they were celebrating Art Monk and Darrell Green's induction into the Hall.

For us Colts fans, this game lacked...well quite a bit. It would be Tony Dungy's final season with the Colts, this we all knew. But the Colts began the pre-season without seven starters including Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney, Harrison, and the injured Peyton Manning (if memory serves, this was his bursa sac surgery year).

That means that, yes, Jim Sorgi got the start for the Colts. And Sorgi only played one series. This meant that it was Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen the rest of the way. Yikes.

In typical pre-season fashion, the Redskins got the game started with an onside kick, and Jason Campbell quickly marched the Redskins down the field for the score and the 7-0 lead. The Colts would answer on a Sorgi-led 16 play drive that only yielded a 26 yard Adam Vinatieri field goal.

The second quarter wasn't much better. The Redskins scored their only other points of the half off of a botched snap to Gray, resulting in a safety. Gray responded with a 30 yard scoring toss to Onrea Jones (who?) and the Colts finished the half on another Vinatieri field goal. Pre-season at its finest.

Still, the Colts had the lead at the half 13-9.

And then the second half happened.

The Colts did get the scoring started with an Adam Crossett field goal. Yes, you read that right. But from there it was all Washington.

Rookie Colt Brennan threw two touchdowns, and Lorenzen threw a pick six as the Redskins pulled away to a 30-16 victory.

But again, this is the pre-season we're talking about, and we know how seriously the Bill Polian and Dungy regime took the pre-season.

The standouts of the Colts? Gray was 10-19 for 160 yards and a score, and also added 11 yards on the ground as the team's third rusher. The Colts running game was led my one Mike Hart who had four carries for 53 yards. In total, the Colts ran for 113 yards, which may have been higher than any total during that 2008 campaign.

And in case you were wondering, the Colts leading receiver was Gijon Robinson followed by Courtney Roby. Don't you all love the pre-season?

All sarcasm aside, I am actually excited for the Hall of Fame weekend. I'm probably the most excited to see Harrison's speech, since I can't imagine him going on for too long. Watch it be the longest speech.

And as all of you know, as a born and raised Wisconsinite, I'm a big Favre fan as well, so I'll be excited to watch his speech. And of course, I'll tune in for Dungy's speech as well.

Football is back, friends!