Today, when I wear my Colts cap around La La Land the comments I get are all the same..."You've got it easy, you've got Peyton" or "Another undeafeted season".
Not so, my friends. Slow down.
A true Colts fan from Indy has ridden through some of the darkest times that any NFL team has gone through.
I was living in Indy when they built the Hoosier Dome...without a team to play in it.
Then I got the phone call saying that the Colts have left Baltimore in the cover of darkness and possibly were on their way to Indy. When they arrived you would have thought that it was the Queen of England pulling into town. It was really the Colts and we had a team for the Dome.
The Hoosier Dome sold out every day since.
We didn't get the Colts of old...no Johnny U., Burt Jones (I remember that Burt was 2nd or 3rd string then retired right after they arrived).
We endured Art Schleeeeester, Jeff George...it was really really stinky times.
Then, after one more losing season (I can't or won't recall, but maybe 2-14) we drafted Peyton Manning.
What I noticed about Peyton that rookie first season was his poise in the pocket. Unshakable, steady and professional. He didn't look like your normal rookie college guy trying to make the transition to the NFL syle offense. He had that in spaids from the beginning.
At that time he had Marshall Faulk and Marvin Harrison and it was a tiny seed, a little germ of things to come. Indy had a team.
But, it would be a long, long time before a Superbowl.
We traded Faulk to St. Louis, who then went to the Superbowl and won.
Each year we got knocked out of the playoffs...Pittsburg, New England...but, yes, finally we got there and won three years ago.
Peyton doesn't have five rings. He has just one.
So, lighten up everybody. Your teams have still been winning...it's not all Indy all the time.
Except 2009/10.
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