We all have choices. Every day from the time your alarm clock prematurely rears its ugly head right up to the time you lay down your exhausted cranium for a blissful escape into the surrealism of your dreams, your day is filled with choices.
And each of those choices has an effect. Those choices affect the outcome of other occurrences. Think of the job you accepted. The job provided the resources that helped you to buy your family a new home and that new home was located in a neighborhood in which your daughter met her boyfriend who would later become her husband. They then had a son who played college football and due to the outstanding coaching talent at his school of choice, the young man refined his skills.
The following season he is signed as an un-drafted free agent and placed on an NFL Practice Squad. Another team signs him from Team A’s Practice Squad and on to their active roster where he enjoys a moderately successful career that provides his family with financial security. And so on and so forth.
Every decision has a cause and effect. With each choice we make, it opens another door and that door another. Think about the circumstances that led you to your spouse or your job or your school. Looking back, even the slightest change in circumstance may have led you to a place different than the place you currently occupy. Sometimes that’s good….sometimes not so good.
I remember as a kid, my Dad and my next door neighbor’s Dad Mr. Rudy, scored tickets to a Colts game. The Colts were playing the Lions and the December weather turned foul – cold and rainy. We were ill equipped to battle the icy rain and we headed back to our car. When we arrived at the car, we were grid locked and couldn’t get out. We waited there listening on the radio until the game ended. Wouldn’t you know it – the game went into overtime.
If we had only brought rain gear….Once again, the choices you make…..
I have many memories of the Colts as I’m sure you do too. I remember Big Wheel and the C-O-L-T-S cheer; I remember the Monday night games and the Howard Cosell banners; I remember the playoff games and the plane crashing into the upper deck; I remember Irsay and Joe Thomas ripping the hearts out of the chests of Colts fans for the way they discarded our heroes; I remember the sparse crowds and the drunkenness of Bob Irsay; I remember his threats to leave – the courting of the Colts by other cities like Memphis and Jacksonville; I remember the move.
For thirteen seasons our city was without professional football. Part of our heritage was robbed by a man trapped in a fog of alcohol. What if Carroll Rosenbloom had not traded the Colts to Irsay for the Rams? Would Georgia Frontiere own the Colts? Would they be in Baltimore and if so, would Camden Yards be the home to any stadium?
What if Bob Irsay had set aside the gin and tonics long enough to work out a deal with then Mayor Schaefer – would Baltimore still be waiting for its next Vince Lombardi Trophy?
Many of us wanted the Colts name and colors returned once the team formerly known as the Cleveland Browns moved to town. Of course Jimmy Irsay sounding much like his father, wanted a king’s ransom to make that happen. The Modells took a pass.
I can recall vividly the surreal feeling that encompassed me when I watched the Colts warm up at then PSI Net Stadium back in 1997. There goes Marshall Falk, #28 in the white uniforms trimmed in blue; there were those helmets with horseshoes. It was like an old friend had come back to town and recollections of that friendship inspire a smile. But then reality snaps you out of the daydream and you remember that he isn’t a friend anymore.
As time goes by and the Ravens history expands and their traditions grow deeper, the bitter taste
left by the loss of the Colts fades. We will forever have our memories; the videotape is there for our viewing and those high-tops and number 19 will forever be synonymous with Baltimore.
But given the sequence of events that started when Rosenbloom sold the Colts to Irsay, Baltimore is better off that the Colts left town. We have a trophy since the move – Indianapolis does not. We have a great stadium – Indy has one of the worst. We have a fan friendly owner – Indy…well, need I say more.
The cause and effect of one man’s actions has affected all of us. And I’m here to say at the end of the day, we’ve undoubtedly been affected positively.
The season that celebrates the 10th anniversary of our Baltimore Ravens, just can’t seem to get here soon enough!
