How often do you get a day like today, when you can root for the Patriots, see them win, AND see your brother make both ends of his bet on the game (he took the Colts and the points, and the under on the combined score)?
Sorry, Hoosiers. I just grew very very tired of all that Battle of Good vs. Evil pregame hype. And Peyton Manning is a smug little shit. And I’m mainlining so many reruns of “The Wire” on demand these days that I feel like I actually live in Baltimore. And that requires me to hate the Colts. So I do.
Time to pour a glass of baby’s blood, and regard the world with a carmine smile.
del said on November 4, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I watched some of the game too — first I’ve seen all year. During the game a neighbor came to the door to get his kid while we were all playing The Game of Life (w/ the game “muted” on TV). He said he was rooting for the Colts “because Peyton Manning’s a good ambassador for the sport.” Hmm. Does a brutish nasty sport really deserve a good ambassador? Would he root for a gentleman fighter in one of those FOX sports garage brawl “fighting” matches? I’m with you Nancy, people have been worshipping Peyton Manning for years — his heroic decision to return for his senior season at Tennessee (and the Tennessee outrage when the Heisman went to Charles Woodson). And of course there was Steve Spurrier’s needling when he said that “you can’t spell Citrus (as in Citrus Bowl) without U T(ennesse). That was low.
I’m sure Manning’s a fine guy (unlike Ryan Leaf who was cast as Mick Jagger to Manning’s Paul McCartney during their college years), but I like Tom Brady and was glad to see the Pats won.
P.S. And just to provoke more commentary, I should come clean: I like the Yankees too!
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alex said on November 4, 2007 at 10:17 pm
What I’d like to know is how (or why) people get so ego-involved with something so outside themselves as a football team. You’d think Indiana had just been kicked in the nuts.
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ashley said on November 5, 2007 at 1:07 am
Rooting for the Patriots is like rooting for the Lions.
Against the Christians.
Geaux Saints.
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nancy said on November 5, 2007 at 1:09 am
Just this once, Ash. It’s these particular Christians that get on my last nerve.
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John said on November 5, 2007 at 7:44 am
The lions just had bad public relations guys.
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Colleen said on November 5, 2007 at 8:14 am
I’m with Alex. After two years working at Ohio State and dealing with the insanity that is Buckeye Football…I still don’t get it. I always get on my husband when he says “we” in reference to “his” teams. “we? I didn’t see a short bald middle aged guy out there on the field.”
But I’m sweet like that.
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John C said on November 5, 2007 at 9:05 am
What bugs me about Manning is his joyless demeanor. To watch him in a big game is to watch a guy who looks like he is having absolutely no fun at all, even when he is winning.
And Alex and Colleen … It’s hard to defend the silliness of sports fanatics. And to be sure many go overboard – either in the direction of extreme silliness or worse: obnoxious, rude violence. But I will say this: Part of the enjoyment of following a sports team passionately is precisely that you are engaged in something larger than yourself, and out of your control. You are also part of a larger community. The worst sports fans I know are the ones who use it merely as an excuse to drink excessively and construct some meaning out of the anger that is their desperate life. The best ones are true lovers of the craft of sports, and people who are naturally drawn to other people and to sharing experiences with them. I have been a Red Sox fan since the early 1970s. When they won in 2004 I cried, not because of some silly baseball trophy, but because I thought about my grandmother. The Red Sox were one of the things that drew us close. She would stay up late to listen to the west coast games, then call me in the morning. She died in 1985 and would have absolutely loved the current team.
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del said on November 5, 2007 at 9:27 am
Baseball can summon so many powerful memories — memories of childhood and family. My mother-in-law just told me that her grandmother was a devoted Detroit Tigers fan. And my late grandfather listened to every Tigers game on a little transistor radio in his later years (after he’d lost his sight). This past year my 9 year old son made the little league all-star team and a naturally reserved child blossomed. He now talks baseball statistics and history incessantly. Last week he wrote “Babe Ruth” on one of his baseballs and asked me how much it’s worth. And we play catch all the time — even into November. Sometimes when we play catch I think of Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams talking about becoming a rebellious teen and refusing to “have a catch” with his dad. Very powerful.
I suspect that Peyton Manning’s joyless demeanor may stem from the fact that he plays not just for himself, but to make his football star father proud. Was it Freud who said that we live our lives to please our parents?
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4dbirds said on November 5, 2007 at 9:56 am
Since you’re an honorary Balti-moron (as we affectionately call them ’round here), be sure to stop by Hot Tomatoes in Fell’s Point and pick up a deep fried cheesesteak. To die for.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 10:07 am
…And that requires me to hate the Colts. So I do.
Bless you, sister. Now we can have communion over steamed crabs and warm beer.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 10:10 am
Hot tomatoes and deep fried cheesesteak? Must be a new thing. What the hell are you transplants doing to my town?
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Jeff said on November 5, 2007 at 10:36 am
Isn’t it weird that St. Peyton has developed this whole anti-hero persona in his ads, all descended from his eerily effective performance in a mock United Way ad on Saturday Night Live? Where exactly do you get to see the saintly Manning who sets up the one i keep seeing?
(Confession — i was in Indy, attending seminary, when the Mayflower Express rolled into town. My senior pastor, who is back in the Promised Land today, had a signed picture of Johnny Unitas on his study wall. Our church burned down on Christmas Day, 1986, and first artifact replaced was a specially express mailed photo of Mr. Colt, sent from his own hand. Suffice it to say i was trained before ordination never to feel at ease with the phrase “Indianapolis Colts,” but i was taught duckpin bowling.)
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derwood said on November 5, 2007 at 10:57 am
More importantly….Navy beat Notre Dame!!!
d
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 11:00 am
Baltimore has a bronze statue of St. John the Field General at the Ravens’ stadium and they have renamed the entrance to “Unitas Plaza.” When Johnny passed a few years back, Peyton Manning did not get to wear the black hightop cleats in honor of Unitas. The Baltimore QB did though. Unitas went to his grave not wanting any of his records to be in the Indy record books. So cool.
Not that I’m bitter or anything.
Duckpins. Hilarious, Jeff. They should bring those back for the kids.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 11:05 am
Go, Navy!
My hapless (adopted) Chargers are unfortunately remembering who they really are. Namely, the Chargers. They made a rookie running back look like he was a combo of Jim Brown and Barry Sanders.
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Robert Rouse said on November 5, 2007 at 11:17 am
I enjoy Colts football, but I usually take it as part of the game when they lose – to anyone but Tom Brady. Talk about SMUG! Brady’s demeanor on and off the field reminds me of one of thos BMOCs everyone loathed. And I love to see him get irritated. It drives him crazy to lose. I just do not like the man at all.
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Sue said on November 5, 2007 at 11:28 am
Not to take anything away from Baltimore Colts fans (because I thought that whole “sneaking out of the City in the dead of night” thing was pretty awful), but when I heard that the new team was going to be called the Ravens I was really happy. What a perfect, fitting name. Not being from Baltimore, I hope I haven’t said anything inappropriate, folks.
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nancy said on November 5, 2007 at 11:41 am
Lance Mannion wrote a fan letter to Johnny U. when he was a little boy, and Johnny U. wrote back. Told him to study hard and play chess.
Of course, today Johnny U. would ask for Lance’s mother’s name, come over, seduce her on the kitchen table and then leave Lance with a little half-sibling nine months down the road. Because that’s the way the NFL rolls, today.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Nah, it’s cool Sue. I just like to trot out my “bitterness” as a joke. I really don’t get worked up about sports. Enjoy them, but I’m more of a “go out and do it” kinda guy than a “sit on my butt for several hours every weekend” kinda guy. Thankfully, we have Sportscenter and Tivo. All killer, no filler.
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ashley said on November 5, 2007 at 12:43 pm
BTW, Drew Brees, the best QB not playing in that particular game, had 346 yards passing. IN THE FIRST HALF.
If you want to see the “saintly” Peyton Manning, come see what he’s done for NOLA since the federal flood. As for Eli, well, he’d rather be playing squash.
So, for y’all, I will raise a glass of NattyBo and toast Johnny U.
Did the community of Bawlmer feel any shame when they (or more correctly, the evil and vile Art Modell) did the same thing to Cleveland that Indy did to them? Just an honest, curious question, from a guy whose owner has threatened to move to both LA and San Antonio in the past 5 years.
When I was a kid, I didn’t write to QBs, I wrote to linemen. Deacon Jones wrote me back, sent me a signed photo, and told me that QBs were the enemy. Seriously.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Ash, yes, I felt the same when the Browns moved to Bal’more. I am not and never will be a Ravens fan because of the similarities of the sitautions. In fact, when discussing football with old freinds from home, I frequently question how they can cheer for a team that they “stole” just like the Colts were “stolen.”
Most of them reply along the lines, “Hey, at least Cleveland got to keep the name and the colors and they got a team the very next year.”
I ain’t buying it though. In my mind, Bob Irsay and Art Modell were Satan’s spawn. separated at birth.
BTW, that’s great about Deacon. He is on Jim Rome’s show several times a year. An old school badass with some great stories.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Hey, all this football talk reminds me of a great Colts story I heard from Billy Ray Smith a few weeks back. He is an ex-Charger who currently has a morning sports talk radio gig. Pretty funny guy, too. Anyway, his father played for the Baltimore Colts and was roomates with Bubba Smith, who at 6’8″ was one of the first real giant-sized football players.
Well, Billy Ray says he will never forget the first time he met Bubba Smith. BR was four years old and was in his father’s dorm room and when Bubba suddenly appeared in the doorway, Billy Ray just started crying. Hilarious.
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Jeff said on November 5, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I feel a 250 question quiz coming on . . .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083833/
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Jeff said on November 5, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Oh, and the duckpin bowling is still going on in Indy:
http://www.iariasrestaurant.com/
I wrote to Jerry Kramer as an Pop Warner league offensive lineman, years after he wrote “Instant Replay” with Dick Schaap (great book, btw); got a Unitas-ish response with a picture. Wonder what a ten year old would hear back today? Actually, linemen would be delighted to hear from anyone, other than when they miss a block on national TV. We might be pleasantly surprised.
QBs, another question.
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Danny said on November 5, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Hahaha. Diner was on my mind too!
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ashley said on November 5, 2007 at 8:06 pm
What about the Baltimore CFL team! Weren’t they called the Colts, then the “Baltimore professional football team”, then the Stallions.
I remember the Homicide episode where the ‘detectives’ were honored on the field, and Ned Beatty’s character kept complaining that it just wasn’t the same thing.
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danindy said on November 6, 2007 at 7:58 am
Wow Nancy, didn’t realize you were such a hater!!
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