Is the city of Baltimore no better than the Irsays?

http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/9924492

Mike Freeman has a well written piece on SportsLine today, talking about his connection to the city of Baltimore and that city's still lingering broken heart over the Colts. I can understand the bitterness some fans may have felt, especially since the Colts left in the middle of the night with no warning whatsoever, leaving a hole that would last more than a decade.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the Ravens weren't an expansion franchise, right? Didn't Baltimore do just what Indianapolis did and used its money to rip another team away from a steadfastly loyal fan base? How can they still cry foul after they've committed the same act themselves?

Obviously, I'm not expecting the Colts to be received warmly. It's a playoff game and they're the visiting team. But any animosity toward the Colts should have ended in 1995, when Charm City took the dagger out of its heart and rammed it in Cleveland's back.

 

Baltimore's taken great delight in playing the victim over the years. Time they get called on it.

 

Uhh ... no one in Baltimore is blaming Indianapolis, just the Irsays and/or the Colts. And if Cleveland has any beef, it's not Baltimore that they're taking it out on, it's Modell.

Rightfully, in both cases.

 

Bob was an utter lout.

 

The point is that Baltimore got its team back -- maybe not the Colts -- but it got its team back. And at the same time, it did to Cleveland what Indianpolis did to Baltimore -- it lured a team away.

You can blame the Irsays and you can blame Modell, but at the same time, someone had to make an offer to them. Baltimore apparently had no problem in doing just that.

 

If you check out the Baltimore Sun's sports blog, the top item as of this writing asks fans to please not riot if the Ravens lose, or something like that. Apparently there's talk around Baltimore that a Colts win would set off some bad stuff happening. Ridiculous, if true.

 

IJAG, white courtesy phone, please.

 

Good point. There'd be a lot less vitriol if Baltimore had the horseshoe back. That's all they really wanted in the first place: their Colts back.

It's taken a decade (and a Super Bowl ) for the purple and black to grow on people. Apparently, it has.

 

I hate Peyton (Mr. October) Manning. No way in hell I want the Colts to win this one. And I'm not a Ravens fan, either.

 

As I understand it, what Baltimorons are still upset about -- and I think they have a point -- is that when the Irsays left, they took the uniforms, the records, and the colors with them. The Ravens didn't become the Baltimore Browns. When Baltimore stole a team, it physically stole the franchise, not its history. Unitas, Berry, Mackey, Moore, they're not Indianapolis Colts. They're Baltimore Colts. A lot of people still get upset seeing the Blue and White horseshoe, because it feels like part of their identidy. It's also kind of like your wife, your first true love, leaving you for someone else, and that someone else pretends all your college memories, all your vacations together, all your Sunday mornings, are now his. You can meet someone else, and fall in love with them too, but you'll always have that history with your first wife -- even if another guy is pretending its his -- and it will still hurt to see her.

Cleveland's true love left it for Baltimore, but then a few years later, the city got an exact replica to put in its place, and it could simply pretend like all the good times they spent together still happened, and their time apart was like slipping into a very painful, but ultimately not lethal, coma.

Baltimore has to see its ex-wife on television every week, every time Payton Manning does a commercial selling insurance, credit cards, mobile phones, sanitary napkins or whatever. Every time Marvin Harrison catches a pass, he's wearing John Mackey's number, a number that under any other circumstance, would have been retired.

So -- and I'm not expert, really -- while it's a subtle distinction, and I think people in Baltimore feel Cleveland's pain, I can sympathize with Baltimore's beef. As a Bears fan, if the Bears had left in 1991 and moved to San Antonio (just a hypothetical), and claimed that Walter Payton was the San Antonio Bears all-time leading rusher, I'd be furious.