I found the below commentary in today's issue of the Baltimore Sun from Dan Rodricks. Here it is:

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Colts' Curse converts comeback to calamity
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Dan Rodricks

January 19, 2006


I became a believer on Sunday, when, on live television, that tall, talented and goofy-looking quarterback from Pittsburgh saved the day for his team by tackling the small, fast guy from Indianapolis whose wife had stabbed him in the knee the day before.

And then, a few minutes later, there was that awful field goal attempt that had more shank in it than all the osso buco in Little Italy.

What more proof do you need?

What we have here -- rather, what they have in Indianapolis -- is the Curse of the Colts. That city is doomed as a football town.

The people there might be nice, God-fearing, patriotic, Jeff Gordon-lovin' people -- but they never should have made a deal with the devil to hijack Baltimore's original National Football League team in the middle of that March night in 1984.

They never should have added insult to injury by keeping the name, the colors and the logo of Baltimore's beloved team. They never should have tried to appropriate our brilliant legends, our colorful history. They never should have sold those commemorative Indiana license plates with Johnny Unitas' number on them!

They had a chance to leave the Colts' name, colors and legacy in Baltimore -- until we could get a team of our own again -- but they didn't.

They rubbed it in our faces.

They are cursed.

There's no other explanation for the Indianapolis Colts' loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in that NFL playoff game Sunday.

Did you see what happened?

First of all, the Colts were losing. In fact, they were down at one point, 21-3.

This team was supposed to roll over everybody, to be the first undefeated NFL team since 1972. Despite having failed in so many attempts -- seven trips to the playoffs since leaving Baltimore (ouch!) -- this was supposed to be the Colts' year to go to the Super Bowl.

But we get to last Sunday afternoon, and it's late in the game, and they're losing, 21-18, and Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has just been sacked again. People are leaving the stadium.

Eighty seconds left, and the Steelers have the ball just a couple of yards from the Colts' end zone.

What happens? The Steelers' running back Jerome Bettis, who hadn't fumbled all season, pops the pig. The ball flies into the air and ends up in the hands of the Colts' Nick Harper, whose wife, police said, had been charged with stabbing him in the right knee the day before.

Minus the wound, maybe Harper runs 95 miraculous yards for the winning touchdown, and the Colts advance to the next game of the playoffs.

But that kind of thing doesn't happen to an accursed team.

What happens is, the Steelers' big quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, dives and reaches for Harper's ankle, and Harper goes down.

Still, the Colts manage to get close enough for a game-tying field goal attempt by the talented kicker, Mike Vanderjagt.

Vanderjagt could have sent the game into overtime.

But that kind of thing doesn't happen to an accursed team.

Instead, Vanderjagt blows it. His kick was so bad you needed a wide-screen TV to view it.

When Robert Irsay, an ornery and unreasonable man, owned the Colts and pulled them out of Baltimore, where they had been rooted for a couple of generations, he caused a disturbance in the universe. As long as people related to Irsay own the team, and they do, the team will never get to the Super Bowl.

This is supernatural stuff, folks. But I believe. It comes out of the same netherworld that gave the Boston Red Sox the Curse of the Bambino, except what gave the Colts' curse life was more malevolent and, therefore, it's probably going to last longer. (And the Curse of the Bambino lasted 86 years!)

Even David Letterman, a son of Indiana, sees it. Monday, in his nightly banter on CBS's Late Show, Letterman reminded his national television audience of the Colts' dark odyssey to the Hoosier state.

"Before the Colts moved to Indianapolis, our chances of getting to the Super Bowl were really nonexistent because we had no team. ... You had to have a team to get to the Super Bowl.

"So now we get the team. This weasel steals the Colts out of Baltimore. ... Just packed them up in the middle of the night and then sneaked them out under the cover of darkness. Johnny Unitas and the old Baltimore Colts -- they are all gone, and now the Indianapolis Colts. And Indiana has long been known as the home of colts. Anyway, it's ... Next to Kentucky, our grass is nearly as blue. But none of this makes any difference. So now they finally get a team. They get a program.

"I'm so dumb. I make the mistake of getting excited. ... I'm not saying I actually went out and got dip and chips. You couldn't prove that I did. But it was the closest thing to a football party I will ever have in my life. Really. The big screen, everything, we're ready to go.

"And then nothing happens."

Actually, something did happen, Dave baby. A curse happened.

"The curse of Johnny U is alive and well in Indianapolis," said a note posted on a sports thread on The Indianapolis Star Web site. "The Colts will never win it all, until the name 'Colts' and the horseshoe logo are returned to Baltimore where they belong. You would think they would understand that the football gods will never ever let them win it all."

To which another note-poster replied: "Amen."

You can read the actual article here.

This is for all those "hoosiers" that talked smack to Ravens fans after the Ravens lost to the Colts in Baltimore back on 9/11/05. The Ravens may suck, but, oh I almost forgot, we won a SUPER BOWL!!! And we won without a fancy team that every dumbass in the USA was rooting for!!

Not to mention, we have a Vince Lombardi trophy that the BALTIMORE COLTS won on this very day in 1971 - that was one thing Irsay couldn't get his filthy hands on back in 1984.

(you know, I do feel a little guilty posting this picture, but I'm a bad man - I can't help it)

Ain't that a thing of beauty? I swear, I hate the Steelers, but I don't think I laughed so hard as when Vanderjagt missed that kick. Another great season completely flushed down the toilet for Indy!

Boy, for all the crap that came out of Vanderjagt's mouth over the years (and I know you Indy Dolts fans know what I'm talking about), football karma sure smacked him good this time!

Want to know why you missed, Vanderjagt? Here in Charm City, we all know why.




Can you say HOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKK!!!!?

Wow, I really should edit this blog more often.

Oh what has changed. I have a new job. It pays well, I do it better than I did my previous job, but it is still nowhere near where I need to be. I can't beat the commute, though - I have a very short walk to work. I can't really talk about my job any more than that right now. I guess I have to get fired before I can explain it more here, plus I just don't want to bring it home with me (even though I have to).

I still hate the Indianapolis Colts, that hasn't changed. Trust me, it's my nightmare coming true with the Indy Colts on top of the NFL right now (plus, with my Ravens as crappy as they are right now). The only consolation is that teams tend to fizzle out by the end of the year if they start out hot. Please let the curse on the Colts live! I'm praying for it!

That being said, the most obnoxious football fans in the USA are Pittsburgh Steeler fans. They are hands down the worst. Yeah, I know that they're the Ravens' division rivals, but the Steeler fans at my workplace act like total jackasses. When the Steelers started out hot, they did nothing but talk smack to all of the other fans (Ravens, Jets, Redskins, etc) about how the Steelers were going to win the next 7 Super Bowls. Then, as soon as the Pats beat the Steelers, they whined about the Steelers would never win another game this season. Steeler fans are to the NFL what Yankee fans are to baseball, to their fans their respective sports revolve around their team. Thank God for a salary cap in the NFL (actually, without a salary cap, that would mean that the Steelers would suck and the Redskins would dominate the NFL - and it would also mean that the Indy Colts could face contraction thanks to their tiny revenue stream - I'm already salivating at the prospect!)

So with football as a living hell right now, I am looking for other distractions. Like politics. Oh, nevermind, I am sick of everyone's political opinions too. Conservative/liberal, they're all annoying and they all want to tell you what to do. And they all think they're right.

So could looking for a new car be my distraction? Possibly, although I've sworn that I won't think about a new car until after the new year. So, I'm torn. My dream car is a Mini Cooper S (which I can afford), but it is awful small for the price. I could get a Honda Element, but the gas mileage sucks. I could get a new Volkswagen Jetta TDI (diesel mileage is great), but it's in massive high demand, and that means accepting a horrible price. Or I could get a Toyota Prius, but I'm still not sure about hybrids.

So I'm two years removed from college. I graduated cum laude with a B.A. history major. I'm doing absolutely nothing with my degree right now. I work a job that doesn't nearly pay what I need it to pay. I am going to grad school in two years, but two years seems too far away right now. What's a poor boy like me to do in the meantime, other than consume large quantities of alcohol and antidepressants?

Obsess about sports.

Sure, I mean, look at it. Sports is the last sanctuary for a guy who has had it with the rest of the world. Everything seems as if it's out of control, but when you turn on the TV to watch football, you realize where you are in life. Every movement you make has repercussions in the fantasy world of sports, where just one adjustment in your routine can mean utter failure for your team on the football field on Sunday. For example:

My Sundays are currently set into a specific routine, designed to complement the performance of the Baltimore Ravens in the best way I can. It could be referred to as superstition. Every Sunday (if the Ravens are playing at 1pm) I leave my house to watch the game at my uncle's house in Westminster. I drive up Rt. 15 and get on MD Rt. 140 in Emmitsburg heading east. There's a better and more direct way to my uncle's house than that route, but I must drive the 140 route. When I pass through Taneytown, I make sure to stop at McDonald's to get something small, like a coffee and/or double cheesburger. It doesn't matter whether I am hungry or not, I
must stop. I then continue driving east on 140 until I reach Westminster where my uncle lives. During the drive I tune in to Ravens Radio on WQSR 102.7 FM. Keep in mind that I am wearing a Ravens jersey on Sunday, usually the white away jersey of Ray Lewis. However, I bring both that jersey and my home purple Jamal Lewis jersey, so in case the Ravens happen to be wearing their home purple jerseys that day I can change into the purple jersey to match what the players are wearing. This routine only works if the Ravens are playing at 1pm on Sunday. If they play any other time, such as Sunday night or Monday night, I usually try to reverse my Sunday routine so I can do exactly the opposite of what I do on Sunday.

If I thought clicking my heels twice after a touchdown and running around the house three times clockwise at halftime would assure a Baltimore Ravens victory, I would do it.

Recently I have become enamored with baseball, particularly the Red Sox in the World Series about to break their curse. It helps that I hate the overinflated egos of the New York Yankees and their belligerent fans. Anyway, I have found that when I watch the Red Sox up to bat, they win. However, when I watch the Red Sox pitching, they seem to perform poorly. So throughout the ALCS and the World Series I have been turning the channel when the opposing team gets up to bat. Weird, but in my superstitious head it works.

Worrying about sports can become a full-time duty, and superstition makes it a full-time job. Any Red Sox fan would be proud of that attitude.

I got into an argument with a friend on Friday about the New England Patriots. I told him that I can't stand them, and that I'm sick of them winning all their damn games. He argued that I should like them because of what a great team they are, how great they work together, how great the coaching is, and how they've been able to do this in the salary-cap era. Well, I guess we'll agree to disagree, but the only good reason I could give him at the time as to why I hate the Patriots is because I hate a constant winner. I hate dynasties. I was hoping the salary cap would cure that.

After watching the Redskins take on the Bears in Chicago today, I finally came up with the best reason yet why I hate the Pats. During the game they would pan to the crowd to show all the fans. Of course it's mostly Bears fans, and maybe some Redskins fans. But the thing that caught my eye was the retard wearing a big Patriots jacket. That Patriots fan, that guy who shows up to all of the games around the league wearing his impertinent stupid Patriots crap, who shows up to games that the Patriots aren't even playing, that's the reason why I can't stand the New England Patriots. I went to two different NFL training camps this year (Ravens and Redskins), and at both training camps I saw Tom Brady jerseys. These people deserve to be smacked! Except for the fans in New England (as much as they have suffered through the years before 2001 with the Pats), every other Pats-wearing nimrod around the area is, as far as I am concerned, a bandwagon fan, a fan who only likes a winner, a fan who is not dedicated to any team unless they are winning.

It was sort of the same way back in January 2001 in Frederick, MD. Frederick is definitely a Redskins town, but when the Ravens started plowing through the playoffs on their way to the Super Bowl, all of a sudden everyone in Frederick started wearing purple. Their precious Redskins sucked, so they saw a winner 30 miles up Interstate 95 and started rooting for the Ravens. It got so bad 98 Rock Baltimore came out with a commercial that went something like, "We've been Ravens fans for 5 years, not 2 weeks." Very on-point.

Anyway, my point was about the Patriots and some of their pseudo-fans around the nation. Where were those idiots when the Patriots were bottom feeders in the NFL? Where was that Patriots dumbass in Chicago when the Bears absolutely obliterated the Patriots in Super Bowl XX? That is my point. I have all the love in the world for real Patriots fans that have stuck by their team through all that (especially when it seems the Red Sox can't get past the hated Yankees, I hate 'em too), but the bandwagon fans make me want to see the Patriots get their asses whupped. I was hoping the Seahawks would have been able to do it, but alas it was not to be. I have only one last thing to say to bandwagon Pats fans around the USA...

J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!