Visualize Purple Camo

sorry it has been a while since my last post. Happy New Year!

New Years came and went with the rain coming down and the fireworks going up. (Thanks Rick for the great show!!)

Festivus is unofficially still being planned for sometime in February. Probably to coincide with the Super Bowl. Baltimore Ravens willing, the theme will be purple. (Sorry B, I truly do wish that the Redskins had a better year)

So more to the heart of it....

The Colts are coming to Baltimore...

I was a kid when the Colts left Baltimore in the dead of night. I can still remember the news cast of the Mayflower trucks in the snow. That memory is still very much a live in my hometown. I remember my grandfather being angry about his season tickets, my aunt calling for Irsay's head on the city gates (and yes I was young enough to think that there really were gates to the city.), my mother was angry, and who knows where my father was. I remember my first Colts game at Memorial Stadium. My father had a flask and brought a glass thermos bottle full of hot dogs. The people behind us had brought in a cooler. AHHH - now that was football!!!

For a long time Thanksgiving was not Thanksgiving without football in Charm City. Christmas was somehow not as jolly, family discussions about football became venomous. (Irsay's head should hang on the city gates!) And what sports team was in Baltimore to love in the dead of winter... NONE. Winters were colder then normal.

Then the CFL came to town and I admit it was good to be back in Memorial Stadium, sitting where our season ticket for the Orioles were for half the price. I did not get some of the rules; it was fun. But it was not the NFL.

And then Baltimore was passed over for an expansion team. I think that you could actually hear hearts breaking like glass across the city.

November 6, 1995 was a great day for Baltimore Football history. The Cleveland Browns were coming to Baltimore. We did understand how the Cleveland Browns fans felt. We had lost a beloved team too. Cleveland would get to keep their team name, their colors, and everything else that was theirs. While there was heartache in Cleveland, Baltimore was busy with what shall we call this team. There were name contests and quite frankly - they could not have picked a better on for the character of this team, or more about the city where they come to play.

After 13 years, football was back... and back to stay. A heartfelt "THANK YOU" to Art Modell.

We have watched the Ravens win some and lose some. We have watched quarterbacks come and go. We have watched our defense win a Super Bowl and we will continue to watch. Good, bad , or indifferent the fans will be there, because most of us remember what it was like to not have football in Charm City.

I have digressed, haven't I?

When Peyton Manning and the Colts offensive line come to the line of scrimmage, wait 5 seconds as Rex Ryan has requested, and then scream. Let out all of the frustration, anger, and or hatred that you have for the Colts. We know that our fan-freaking-tastic defense will do it's job. We know that "In McNair / Wilcox / Mason / Clayton and the rest of the Offensive Line We Trust"

May Manning wish he was Rothlisberger, and May the Ravens get a second post season game at home. AMEN