It's been reported over  that Jimmy Irsay and the NFL team from Indianapolis held a party/reunion last Fall for a bunch of the old 1975 old Colts, including ones who never played in Hoosier land and still live in Baltimore. I like a good party as much as the next gal, but this one made me at first angry and then sad. I know that the sportscasters and commentators who did not grow up in Baltimore idolizing our beloved Colts tell me I should be over it by now, but that is easy for them to say. Given the special relationship between that team and this City, you just can’t get it if you didn’t live it. The love that I and many others had for the Baltimore Colts is a feeling that you cannot just turn off with a switch. It does not have an expiration date like a bottle of beer. Yes, the pain dulls but for me and others, it never goes away completely. Like hives, it flares up when I am exposed to the wrong stimulus. Watching those classy royal blue uniforms and horseshoes on TV or at a live game will usually bring on an episode.                                                                                                                       

 

However, nothing stirs it up more than the NFL team from Indy and its owner claiming what is rightfully the Baltimore Colts, and not the Indianapolis Colts. You see, I have a very un-NFL, un-business like view of what counts when it comes to sports teams. To the NFL and the Colts owner, the only thing that counts is legal ownership. Bob Irsay made that painfully clear years ago when he publicly declared that the Colts were his team, not Baltimore’s team. But to me, the most important word in the name Baltimore Colts was the word Baltimore. What counts the most is not the legal ownership but the ultimate Baltimore Colt’s fan, Loudy Loudenslager, the great games played in Memorial Stadium, the Colt’s band and our fabulous fight song, the Colt Corrals, all the great players who only need first names like Johnny, Lenny and Gino, and later the Sack Pack and Bert and Lydell. All of these memories, records and traditions are part of the sports history of Baltimore; they have nothing to do with Indianapolis or the Indianapolis Colts, regardless who owns the team.                                                                                     

 

I can honestly say that I practice what I preach in this regard. Tragically, because of the NFL’s blatant disregard, Baltimore regained NFL football only by taking the Browns from Cleveland. I am not going to get into the debate of whether it was forced or voluntary, but thank god, the Modells left the name, uniforms, traditions and records in Cleveland. Even if they had not, they would never in my mind have been part of the records and tradition once the team moved to Baltimore. They belong to Cleveland whether legally or not. As much as I respect the accomplishments of Jim Brown and the other great Cleveland players, I would have been embarrassed to bring them to Baltimore for some celebration as if they were ours.                                                                         

 

So, when the Hall of Fame ignores the distinctions and treats the Baltimore Colts as just an earlier version of the Indianapolis Colts, it hurts. When the pre-Super Bowl media hype treats the Baltimore Colts and Indianapolis Colts as one and the same, it opens old wounds. And, when old Colts, particularly ones who have made Baltimore home, attend a party in Indy that blurs the distinctions, it upsets me once again. Don’t get me wrong. It is a free country and they are free to go to whatever parties they want. But, I am also free to not like it.                                                                               

 

When Jimmy Irsay wants to treat his franchise like there is no difference except for the geography, he is free to do so. Pardon me, however, if I am not buying into his mea culpas about his despicable father and his so-called attempts to make it right with Baltimore. He had his chance to make things right in 1996 and reportedly he was willing to do the right thing only if he got the right price. If he had done the right thing then and returned the name, uniforms and records, I would be over it by now.                                              

 

Well, there it is. I got it off my chest and I feel better already. Maybe now, I can follow all that great advice about getting over it. What do I care if Indy has a team? Surely, they deserve a team too and besides, I have my Baltimore Ravens, which I love passionately. Actually, I wish that I could really believe that I was over it. It is no fun feeling those pangs of nostalgia. But, somehow I feel like I will be breaking out in hives again when I am watching the Super Bowl on Sunday.