Indianapolis Colts Tickets

The Colts will be without star running back Edgerrin James who signed a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals in the off-season. This may mean even more aerial antics for Peyton Manning and his talented and speedy receiver corp. If the Colts' defense can put together the kind of season they had last year, the Colts should find themselves at or near the top of the AFC once again.

Staff Writer Russell Puntenney
Though not necessarily a bad quality, the Indianapolis Colts are one of the National Football League’s most historically inconsistent teams. Whenever expectations are placed upon them, whether high or low, the result is often the complete opposite: this means that for every “underdog” victory, however, there is also a heartbreaking loss that just wasn’t supposed to happen.

The Colts originally played in Baltimore, Maryland, and there were actually two completely different teams that ended up the Baltimore Colts. The first began in 1946 as the Miami Seahawks in the All-America Football Conference, before moving to Baltimore in 1950, joining the NFL and winning only one of 12 games in their only season. A fan club in Baltimore, however, lobbied for a revival of the Colts, and the city was again given an expansion team in 1953, with a roster consisting of what remained of the Dallas Texans. This is the team that would later move to Indianapolis, and was also, notably, the first in the league to have cheerleaders support them.

The Colts of Baltimore became a dominant force with Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas, appearing in three NFL Championship games between 1958 and 1964, winning two of them including the 1958 match against the New York Giants, often referred to as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” In 1968’s Super Bowl III, the Colts were a 17 point favorite to beat the American Football League’s New York Jets, after a 13-1 season and an effective 34-0 dismantling of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship. Sports media recognized the team as perhaps the greatest professional team to ever play the game, and it seemed like the only person that thought New York had a chance against the powerhouse was Joe Namath, the little known Jets quarterback who went as far as to guarantee a Super Bowl win. Somehow, defying all logic in the process, the Jets did go on to win that game, 16-7, making the Colts the victims of one of the biggest upsets in sports history.

The Colts would score a Super Bowl victory two years later, in the first such game after the official merger between the two leagues. A Jim O’Brien field goal with five seconds left to play gave the Colts a 16-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys, but this would be their last trip to the big game in a very long time. As they fell into and beyond mediocrity, owner Robert Irsay decided the only way to financially support the team was to relocate it, when the city of Baltimore could not afford a new stadium. Baltimore officials were irate over the decision, and even though Irsay claimed publicly he would not move the team, it officially belonged to Indianapolis by early 1984. The legal battle that ensued between the cities resulted in the Colts’ endorsement of a new team for Baltimore, which would eventually become the Ravens, but many Baltimore residents and former Baltimore Colts players remain vocal in their dismay over Irsay’s handling of the situation.

After moving to Indianapolis, the Colts have found limited success, constructing several powerful teams but never reaching the Super Bowl. Among the stars that have passed through Indianapolis are running backs Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, and Edgerrin James, wide receivers Andre Rison and Marvin Harrison, and head coach Ted Marchibroda. The most prolific Indianapolis Colt as of yet, however, is another quarterback reminiscent of Baltimore’s Unitas: Peyton Manning. In 2004, Manning set the all time single season record for touchdown passes with 49, one more than Miami Dolphin Dan Marino’s record that had been in place for 20 years.

Three years in a row beginning in 2003, the Colts displayed arguably the league’s most volatile offense and were often favorites to win the Super Bowl. This was especially true of the 2005 season, when the Colts started the season 13-0, only the fourth NFL team to do so, ended with a franchise best record of 14-2, and seemed to be destined to win the championship. Each of these seasons, however, the Colts seemed to fall apart in the playoffs, though each year their final loss was to the eventual Super Bowl champion. The New England Patriots beat the Colts on their way to Super Bowl victories in 2003 and 2004, while the Pittsburgh Steelers ousted the highly favored Colts before winning the 2005 season.

It seems the Colts’ best chance to return to the final game, then, will be when nobody expects them to actually be there. They will have plenty of help, however, when a new stadium is built to replace the RCA Dome, which will feature, among other things, a retractable roof and a seating capacity of up to 70,000 screaming fans. Lucas Oil has already bought the naming rights of the new stadium, which is expected to open in the fall of 2008 and will cost well over $600 million to build.

For more information, visit www.colts.com