Colts v. Ravens more than just a game...

"Every time a Raven smashes a Colt on Saturday, a part of me will shatter inside again, and perhaps by the end of the game there will be no more pieces left to break. We remember in Baltimore the date March 29, 1984.  Let "them" never forget January 13, 2007."

No other NFL story is quite like this one.  A city who helped put the NFL on the major media, big profits gravy train--Baltimore-- battles the legacy of it's own past in what will most likely go down as an epic, emotional struggle of good vs. prime-evil. The prime-evil is explained thusly.  No other sports town has suffered this legacy of deceit, ignorance, back-handed stabs, and attempts to erase it's NFL football culture from the minds of the public (no disrespect to Brooklyn Dodgers fans). The story is old now, but it rings true for cultures since the beginning of time--the rise from humble beginnings, the reach to the top, achieving the greatest pinnacle of success (1958, 1959, 1970), and the slow, methodical fall culminating in an ultimate defeat--loss of team and tradition in March 1984.

The prime-evil reached its zenith as big-time, national TV dissing by the NFL Commissioner when Baltmore town tried to get back a team during the expansion beauty pageant in the early 1990's. That Commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, said Baltimore should "build a museum" after Charlotte and Jacksonville were awarded teams. Baltimore did just that, but not in the way the Commish envisioned, by plotting to get back it's NFL heritage, which took 12 years, a lengthy time given the history of the league. The fact Tagliaboo-boo, as we disaffectionately refer to him in old Balmer, is a nominee for the Hall of Fame, and our football savior, Art Modell, is not, gives you an idea of how Baltimore is viewed by the rest of the NFL sports culture. Could we feel any more like Poland during the Partition, or all through WWII?  We were an NFL sports nation without a team for 12 years. And told our NFL culture had no further right to exist. Some forget the NFL used to pump Washington Redskins games into our living rooms almost exclusively on Sunday afternoons for 12 years. It was like a forced conversion. A PR flack for Tagliaboo-boo was once even quoted saying Baltimore was considered part of the Washington market.  Oh how they erred and tried their best to ignore our Baltimore Colts history. 

And they still ignore it today. The Indianapolis Colts are allowed to print and quote Baltimore Colts history in their media guide as if it was built of their own sweat and tears. Many of us still remember Unitas, Donovan, Moore, Parker, Marchetti, Mackey, Jones, Havrilak, Laird, Matte, Smith, Mitchell, Ehrman, Cook, Carr, Doughty, White, Krause and so many others pouring out blood on our field, the largest outdoor insane asylum on 33rd Street, and then living and playing with us on our own streets for many years. The NFL is even complicit in the Hall of Fame, not including the Baltimore Colts history as part of Baltimore NFL football history.  

We have had our revenge. We did to them what they did to us. We acquired a team from Cleveland legally, ethically, leaving them their heritage, and helping them get back a team within 3 years. They should stop their whining. No one ever tried to erase their NFL heritage or culture like they did in Baltimore.  And we won a Super Bowl 5 years later. 

Today is really nothing more than a grudge match,  a way to say we are still here, a means of showing the NFL the best defense, like in the war of 1812, happened in Baltimore. "O Say Can You See", words from the Star Spangled Banner, sung at every Football game, was coined by a Baltimore doctor after the defense of Baltimore against the invading British. I don't know if songs will be written about today's game. I do know Baltimore fans will be singing a sirens song of hoots, hollars, screams and shouts in a psyche releasing crescendo, partly to close old wounds, partly to help destroy the will of the current progeny of our stolen team. 

And now "It's time"-- to go "William Wallace" on King Irsay and his band of Colts. Here's hoping the Ravens knock the silver and blue horseshoes off those tainted white helmets. Indy has been cursed since the Irsay's stole the team we in Baltimore helped build. They stole our lucky charms. Since then Baltimore has acquired another quality football team, won a Super Bowl, and established another tradition of NFL excellence. There was some hope here that Prince Jimmy Irsay, when he became King, would see the light and correct the sins of his father. The Prince has ultimately not succeeded in stepping out from under the King's long shadow, to our great despair. I do not know how he sleeps at night, but I doubt it is ever without a vision of the stunned looks of Baltimore Colts football fans haunting his last REM. Maybe one day the horseshoes will be returned to where they really belong and can be retired with dignity. I am sure Indy can find it's own identity. Baltimore Colts are only, truly a part of Baltimore football lore.  Every time a Raven smashes a Colt on Saturday, a part of me will shatter inside again, and perhaps by the end of the game there will be no more pieces left to break. We remember in Baltimore the date March 29, 1984.  Let "them" never forget January 13, 2007.
Slavic Mike