Columns

That Colts deal still hurts

Mackey and Matte and Johnny U. And the grownup in me says it shouldn't matter.

By GARY SHELTON
Published January 11, 2007

Mackey and Matte and Johnny U. And the grownup in me says it shouldn't matter.

So much time has passed since a franchise snuck out of town. It has been 22 seasons since the Colts left Baltimore, and they were there for only 32. Increasingly, the adult inside whispers that I should just get over it.

Raymond and Lenny and the Iron Horse. And the cynic inside says they are yesterday's news.

Other towns have lost franchises, and you don't hear their teeth gnash. Houston and Cleveland and Los Angeles and St. Louis all have moved forward. A part of me thinks maybe I should deal with it.

Bubba and Fatso and the Mad Dog. More and more, I don't sound nostalgic. Just old.

There is a new team in town, with new colors and new stars. To those on the bragging side of age 50, Baltimore now belongs to the Ravens. The Colts used to play here? Yeah, and the Dodgers used to play in Brooklyn and the Bears used to play in Decatur. Maybe I should turn it loose.

Still, it stings. There is an NFL playoff game in Baltimore on Saturday, and the wrong team is wearing the horseshoe.

First love sinks in deep, and that's as true with football teams as it is with anything else. For me, that team was the Baltimore Colts, the team of Johnny Unitas and his high-top shoes and Tom Matte and his wristband.

Remember the running gag in the movie Diner, when a prospective groom forced his fiancee to pass a Colts trivia contest before he would marry her? A lot of us knew the answers. This was the team that won perhaps the greatest game ever played (the '58 NFL championship) and that lost perhaps the most important (Super Bowl III, the game that validated the AFL).

Even for a kid growing up a thousand miles away, it was a team of wonder. There was John Mackey and Raymond Berry and Lenny Moore. There was the Mad Dog (Mike Curtis) and the Iron Horse (Alan Ameche) and Fatso (Artie Donovan).

Alas, there also was Bob Irsay, the boogeyman of Baltimore, and the dark day of March 28, 1984. When Irsay loaded up the Mayflower vans and left in the middle of the night, it was as if he had kidnapped a team and a city's innocence.

In Baltimore, the town that lies between New York and Washington without quite being either, the wounds have not healed for the 50-and-older set. All of which adds extra meaning when Indianapolis comes to town Saturday for an NFL playoff game.

"There are still people here who have the Colts' horseshoe tattooed on their butts," said Donovan, the old defensive tackle. "People here are a little wacky."

At 81, Donovan is a T-shirt model again. He gave his approval this week for a shirt to be manufactured with his face in the name of beating Indianapolis. There is another with Unitas on it. In other words, some fans cling so firmly to the past you would think they were doing it with Berry's hands.

"There would be a great deal of satisfaction for a lot of people if the Ravens would stick it to the Colts," Matte said. "This adds a little fuel to the fire."

Bruce Laird, an old Colts defensive back, put it this way: "We were cheated out of our heritage, out of our franchise, out of our history."

For whatever reason, losing a team seemed to affect Baltimore more deeply than other towns. Los Angeles lost the Raiders and the Rams, but L.A. is too cool to care. Houston lost the Oilers and St. Louis lost the Cardinals and Cleveland lost the old Browns.

"I think it bothered Baltimore because it's a blue-collar town," Matte said. "We lived here, our children were born here and we died here. We didn't live in million-dollar houses. We lived in the neighborhoods."

"People still talk about '58," Donovan said. "(For them) Irsay ruined Sunday afternoons."

It would have helped if the Colts had changed their nickname upon leaving, the way the Browns (now the Ravens) and Oilers (now the Titans) did. That way, Baltimore could have reclaimed the "Colts" name when the Ravens came to town.

"We never played for Indianapolis," Laird said. "Johnny Unitas didn't. Raymond Berry didn't. I didn't. That's not right. We never played there."

Remember Matte's wristband? In 1965, Matte had to play quarterback because of injuries, and the plays were written on his wristband. That wristband is now in the Hall of Fame ... representing the Indianapolis Colts.

"I love Indianapolis," Matte said. "Great city, great people. But what does Indianapolis have to do with us? We played in Baltimore."

So what does Matte think when he sees the horseshoe? "I get confused. When I did the Ravens' broadcast, I would call them the Baltimore Colts because it was ingrained in me."

And when he hears the name of Irsay? "Jerk. I don't know how he got into the NFL to start with."

And when he sees a Mayflower moving van: "I think, at least it took Irsay away."

"I want to suit up for this one," Laird said. "I don't want to hit anyone. I just want to put on a uniform and stand there. Maybe I could play one play, and then they could carry me off."

As of Saturday, the Colts will have played more playoff games representing Indianapolis than they did Baltimore. The Ravens have won as many Super Bowls in Baltimore as the Colts.

Eventually, the wounds will close. Eventually, even the youngest of the scorned fans will grow old. Eventually, the Baltimore Colts will sound as aged as the Brooklyn Dodgers.

But not yet. Not until this weekend is over.

And maybe a few more after that.

[Last modified January 10, 2007, 23:43:09]