Howard Brothers settles into his living room in Baltimore on a Sunday afternoon in the fall to watch the Baltimore Ravens play on television.
After the Baltimore defense forces another punt, the network telecast breaks to highlights of another game. The studio analyst announces Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has just broken another franchise passing record, eclipsing Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas.
Brothers, 75, gets that familiar twinge in his stomach. Not because he dislikes Manning. He actually admires the quarterback’s play.
The problem is his hero Unitas never played a down in Indianapolis.
The trouble is seeing that old horseshoe and the blue and white uniforms.
The sting is hearing the name “Colts.”
Twenty-five years after the Colts played their last home game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, these feelings continue to resonate with Brothers and many Baltimore fans over the age of 30.
“It makes me feel lousy really," he said. "[Manning] may set franchise records for Indianapolis, but not for the Baltimore Colts. That’s ridiculous. It should be a separate [history].”
Baltimore fans bristle at the notion that they should let these hard feelings go. How callous is it to tell someone to get over something that brought numerous hardened, blue-collar men to infant tears on the morning of March 28, 1984 when owner Robert Irsay and the Colts skipped town in the middle of the night?
For many, it would be like telling them to forget about the death of a family member. These are scars that will never fully heal no matter how many Super Bowl rings the Ravens may win or how many games Indianapolis might lose.
“It was a shock,” said Brothers. “Even though you knew something was coming, it was just a big shock when you lose a team that you rooted for all that time. You couldn’t believe it. They showed the moving van with the snow coming down [on TV]. It was terrible really, a terrible time to lose something like that.”
Older Baltimore fans still remember their Colts fondly, recalling how it brought the community together every Sunday. Players lived locally and worked there in the offseason. Even the demigod Unitas could be seen mowing his lawn or playing catch with the local children of his neighborhood.
Quite a difference from today’s players.
“There was nothing like the old Colts," said Brothers. "It was like a religious experience every Sunday…That’s what you lived for the whole week. ‘Come on Sunday.’ It was amazing.”
The NFL has changed dramatically since Unitas and the Colts dominated the late 1950s. In Baltimore’s 12-year NFL hiatus, from 1984-1996, the NFL introduced free agency, the salary cap, and personal seat licenses for season tickets.
Though the scars of the Colts’ departure remain, Brothers adopted the Ravens as his new team when they arrived in Baltimore in 1996. His sense of civic pride and devotion to Baltimore sports enabled him to embrace the NFL once again, though it’s not quite the same.
Many fans that experienced losing the Colts were at first hesitant to embrace the Ravens, given the circumstances surrounding their move from Cleveland. It just did not feel quite right, though Baltimore had tried to secure an expansion team when the league awarded teams to Jacksonville and Charlotte in 1993.
“I was thrilled when they came here,” said Brothers. “Of course, the way they got it was the same way that Indianapolis got the Colts. [Cleveland] griped and all, but at least they kept all the Browns’ records and everything. We didn’t get anything from Indianapolis.”
Unlike Brothers, you will not find Mirv Metzger, of Millers, Md., camped in front of the television watching football on an autumn Sunday afternoon. Metzger, 60, still considers the Baltimore Colts to be his favorite team, even though they disappeared in 1984. Metzger has never been able to adopt the Ravens as his new team, still feeling an undying sense of loyalty to the team that takes the field every Sunday only in his memories.
His disgust with the NFL and his belief that the league made Baltimore jump through hoops to secure another franchise was the final straw for him.
“The move was the biggest point, but then realizing that the state of Ma
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