I'm posting this because as a Redskins fan who is not quite old enough to have a very good memory of the Baltimore Colts before escaped to Indianapolis in 1984, I remember Joe Washington with the Redskins in the early and mid-1980s. He was what the NFL calls now and perhaps then a hybrid on offense. Someone between a wide receiver and running back. Someone you could run out of the backfield in a traditional set, but run draws, catch screens and swing passes out of the backfield. But you also line him up in the slot position as a possession receiver, or even big play receiver.
Hybrid offensive players tend to not be big for running backs and not tall for receivers. They tend to be about 5'9-5'11 around 190-200 pounds or smaller than that. Strong enough to run the ball out of the backfield and catch the ball as a wideout and get open. But not quite big enough you want that player to be doing full-time, at least as your go to runner or receiver. The guy who really reminds me of Joe would be Eric Metcalf who played for the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons in the 1990s. And played both halfback and wide receiver, as well as return kicks and punts.
If you look back at the Baltimore Colts, their last few seasons, especially in the early 1980s, up until 1984, when they relocated to Indianapolis, it was very dark very gloomy. The team was bad and they weren't drawing, playing in an aging stadium, that was basically designed for baseball, where the Orioles play. Playing in a rough area in North Baltimore. I know, I went to Orioles games there and went to a Stallions game there as well. Like the stadium, as far as watching games there.
But Baltimore Memorial Stadium, it wasn't the right stadium for NFL football, as far as allowing a franchise to be profitable there. By 1984 when the Colts left, there were probably more reasons to not go to a Colts game, then there were reasons to go to a Colts game, to the point, that this is also an interesting story and I won't go very far into it but the Colts actually drafted John Elway in 1983. Elway being the smart guy from Stanford that he is, knew that the Colts by this point were one of the worst franchises in the NFL. Decided that he didn't want to be part of a long-term rebuilding project, especially for a team that might be relocating and told the Colts he wouldn't play for them.
The Colts traded John Elway to the Denver Broncos in 1983. Dan Reeves the Broncos head coach/general manager ends up getting a steal in this trade. The most talented QB in the NFL, on a team that was already a playoff contender, but as it so happens, the Broncos end up playing the Colts at Baltimore Memorial Stadium, week 1 of the 1983 NFL Season. Baseball is still going on at this point, the Orioles are still playing, so the football field, half of it is dirt, for the baseball field. (The other half is dirt for the football field also, ha ha)
Week 1 in Baltimore in September and in Maryland at this point its still summer time, a very hot humid day in Baltimore, temperature in the 90s, plus add on the humidity very common late Maryland summer weather and the Colts take their frustration out on John Elway, beat up the rookie QB, the whole game, pounding him into the hot dirt field the whole game. This one game in 1983 against the Broncos, sums up the state of the Colts at this point. After the Colts leave Baltimore in 1983, Baltimore football fans, had one goal and one mission at this point and only one mission.
Was to land another NFL franchise, to prove to the NFL they can support an NFL franchise, even if that means building a new stadium, which is what you see in the beautiful Ravens Stadium, that opened in 1998. Which is how they got the Baltimore Stars of the United States Football League and won the USFL Championship in 1985. With players like running back Kelvin Bryant who ended up playing for the Washington Redskins, how they were able to get NFL preseason games and draw big crowds for all of those games.
In the early 1990s, how they got so close to landing an NFL expansion franchise in 1993, with a plan for a new stadium. How they landed the Baltimore Stallions of the CFL in 1994 and won the Eastern Conference Championship in 1994 and the Grey Cup in 1995. And how they landed the Cleveland Browns in 1995 over to Baltimore for the start of the 1996 season and of course they became the Ravens.
If you want something bad enough, you basically have to do anything (you know thats legal and perhaps within in other limits) to get what you want, to show whoever you have to prove to, that you are not only willing, but able to support whatever transaction you are trying to land. Thats how Baltimore and the State of Maryland felt about pro football, they were pissed off over losing the Colts and decided to use that anger to get the Ravens.
The Colts were already in decline in Baltimore by 1979 even though they still had pretty good talent at least on offense. QB Bert Jones and RB Joe Washington in the same backfield and Roger Carr, Don McCauley to throw the ball to.
There was a big reason why Bert Jones only played nine seasons for the Colts, he couldn’t stay healthy. But when he was healthy, he was about as good as any QB in the NFL in the 1970s. And had he stayed healthy the Colts are perhaps still a playoff team in the late 1970s and into the 1980s and perhaps the fortunes change in Baltimore.
With a good Colts franchise and team, perhaps the City of and State of Maryland Baltimore is more open to building the Colts a new stadium which they definitely needed. As great as home field advantage as Baltimore Memorial Stadium was, it was a financial hole that needed to be replaced.
“Rare original TV Broadcast footage from the 1st Quarter of the 1960 Baltimore Colts vs. the San Francisco 49ers. This was the season that Niners Coach Red Hickey introduced the Shotgun Formation which was later popularized by the Dallas Cowboys and is now used by virtually every team in Pro Football.”
Interesting matchup between a good veteran San Francisco 49er team who were pretty solid in the 1950s and had the wildcard been around back then, probably would’ve made the playoffs several times, against the two-time defending NFL Champion Colts who were going for a three-peat.
The San Francisco 49ers of this era were good and again would’ve been a consistent playoff team back then if their were wildcards, instead of just the conference champions making to postseason and then playing the NFL Championship against each other. But the 49ers weren’t a championship team. Good on offense, but perhaps not great and didn’t have a great defense either.
The Colts were going for their 3rd-straight NFL Championship in 1960. So this was a matchup between a good football team in the 49ers, against a proven NFL champion in the Colts.
"Joe Namath brought swagger to the forefront of the AFL-NFL battle, as he guaranteed the Jets would defeat the highly-favored Baltimore Colts in the third AFL-NFL Championship."
This is perhaps my favorite time of year, its either the holiday season or the start of summer which for Marylanders is late May, because I love football history, pro football and otherwise and I have a lot of these games, at least the highlights of them in my DVD library. And out of all the games in Baltimore pro football history (whether it's the Colts, Stars, Stallions or Ravens) its this game right here.
We'll never know this for a fact, but let's say Colts QB John Unitas, who I and a lot of others believe is the great QB of all time, including my father, is healthy for this game, the Colts beat the Jets by the amount that they were favored to. They probably either cover the seventeen point spread or come close to it.
If John Unitas was healthy and played the whole game, this wouldn't of been the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history. The Jets did have a very good, if not great team in 1968. I'm not taking anything away from them. But just look at the game, look at those two touchdown passes that Colts QB Earl Morral missed, one of them went for an incompletion, the other fell short for an INT, Morrall misses a wide open Jimmy Orr in the end zone for a td pass early in the game.
If John Unitas is healthy and plays the whole game, the Colts in the first half probably up with a couple of scores to take control of the game. But instead go scoreless in the first half, because QB Earl Morrall, misses Jimmy Orr, who was wide-open in the end zone. And then he throws an INT, when they Colts were already in field goal territory. And then the Colts missed chip chop field goal. We will never know this for sure, but this is the mostly likely outcome, had John Unitas been healthy and played this game.
The Jets played very well but they also got some big breaks, like not having to face the best QB in pro football, until the second half when he wasn't at full strength. And the Colts simply not playing well as they should've and leaving two touchdowns on the field, as well as another touchdown in the second half.
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