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Speaker 1: Last time I talked to you, and Steadman, you were

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Speaker 1: a bad man, So I don't want to talk to you.

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Speaker 2: Let me ask the first question.

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Speaker 3: Okay, what y Let me ask one thing?

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Speaker 4: What is all this about?

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Speaker 5: It's Saturday, January twentieth, nineteen eighty four. Robert Arsay, the

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Speaker 5: owner of the Baltimore Colts, is just inside the doors

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Speaker 5: of a building at Baltimore Washington International Airport. He's flanked

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Speaker 5: to his left by William Donald Schaeffer, the Mayor of Baltimore.

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Speaker 5: In front of him is a stand with several microphones

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Speaker 5: bearing the logos of Baltimore news stations. It's a press

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Speaker 5: conference and is being carried live on TV in Baltimore.

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Speaker 5: Local stations preempted the dukes of Hazzard and Webster for this,

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Speaker 5: and it was called by Robert, who had just flown

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Speaker 5: from Las Vegas to Baltimore to address a bombshell report.

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Speaker 4: Let me put in ahead, good on the on the

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Speaker 4: h give.

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Speaker 3: Me a let me break, Let the mayor have a chance,

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Speaker 3: but thank.

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Speaker 6: You in the newspaper.

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Speaker 7: In the newspaper today, there was a story that said

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Speaker 7: Robert Arsay was in Arizona and that the rolls mister.

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Speaker 4: I am.

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Speaker 7: I told everyone that you told me if you were

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Speaker 7: going to move the team, ever going to move the team,

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Speaker 7: you'll tell me first what.

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Speaker 1: They're let me all we get this over real fast.

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Speaker 1: I haven't been in Arizona. I haven't been in a

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Speaker 1: zero Arizona. I had been in three four places where

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Speaker 1: I got working machines going my own companies.

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Speaker 3: I haven't been in Phoenix. I give you my word

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Speaker 3: of honor. I'm a good Catholic. I haven't been in Arizona.

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Speaker 3: Where tow does all come from?

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Speaker 8: Who started?

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Speaker 6: Is?

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Speaker 3: I don't want to talk to you. I don't want

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Speaker 3: to talk to you.

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Speaker 9: The Governor's aid had mentioned that last night to the media,

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Speaker 9: and that's where.

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Speaker 3: I want to give you my word of honor.

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Speaker 1: I have not been in Arizona, UH for the last

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Speaker 1: digitable days.

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Speaker 9: Did you have a meeting plan today with I.

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Speaker 3: Didn't have any meetings planned. I don't know where else

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Speaker 3: comes from. Don Schaeffer's my friend.

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Speaker 5: The report, in fact was true. Ersay and the Colts

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Speaker 5: had come to a handshake agreement with Arizona businessman Anthony Nikolay,

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Speaker 5: who was a close friend of then head coach Frank

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Speaker 5: Cush's as well as Arizona government officials to relocate the

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Speaker 5: Baltimore Colts to Phoenix. Nikolai had been working on a

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Speaker 5: deal to get the Colts to move to Phoenix since

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Speaker 5: January fifth, which was a little over a week after

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Speaker 5: the colts nineteen eighty three season ended. A meeting between Ursay, Nikolai,

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Speaker 5: and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt was scheduled for Friday, January nineteenth,

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Speaker 5: and there was a good chance that by the end

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Speaker 5: of that meeting the Baltimore Colts would have become the

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Speaker 5: Arizona Back At Colts headquarters in Owings Mills, Maryland, Pete Ward,

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Speaker 5: who's now the Colts Chief operating officer, stopped by General

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Speaker 5: Manager Ernie at Corsi's office that Friday and found him

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Speaker 5: finishing up a phone call with Robert Ursay.

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Speaker 7: January nineteenth of nineteen eighty four, and I was an

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Speaker 7: administrat assistant. I was down the hall from the General Manager,

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Speaker 7: Ernie A. Corsi. Jim Orsay was in Tampa for the

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Speaker 7: Super Bowl that year. I was delivering a document to

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Speaker 7: our general manage at the time into his office and

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Speaker 7: he was on the phone with mister Ersay, and he

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Speaker 7: hung up It was me and one other person, the

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Speaker 7: director of marketing, who was a close friend to Ernie

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Speaker 7: Speck then and he said, we're moving the Phoenix. We're moving.

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Speaker 7: And he looked at me and I was cheap labor.

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Speaker 7: And he said, I'm going to need you to help,

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Speaker 7: you know, with the logistics, because I was part of

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Speaker 7: my job was buses and things like that. And that

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Speaker 7: was the extent of it. And I went back to

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Speaker 7: my office and I was like, you know, kind of

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Speaker 7: in shock, but also excited because you know, I I've

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Speaker 7: been through Phoenix, and I appealed to me, you know,

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Speaker 7: and I think the first thing I did was call

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Speaker 7: my parents. I said, my I was just told we're

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Speaker 7: moving the Phoenix.

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Speaker 10: You know.

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Speaker 7: I don't know when, but it's you know, I don't

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Speaker 7: know when yet, you know. And then twenty minutes later,

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Speaker 7: I get called down to Ernie's office. I get Paige

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Speaker 7: Pete Warick into my office. I went down there and

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Speaker 7: he's on the phone again and he hung up the phone.

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Speaker 7: He's with mister. He said, yeah, Bob okay, okay, Bob okay.

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Speaker 7: And he hung up the phone and he said, somebody

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Speaker 7: from the Governor's office in Arizona leaked a deal and

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Speaker 7: he's pulling out. He wants me to call a press

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Speaker 7: conference airport tonight. And then he looked at me and

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Speaker 7: he goes, what the fuck.

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Speaker 4: Is he doing?

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Speaker 5: That meeting between URSA and the Arizona folks that was

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Speaker 5: supposed to be on January nineteenth, it never happened. News

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Speaker 5: of the deal had hit newspapers in radio airwaves across

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Speaker 5: the country. First the meeting was delayed, then it was canceled.

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Speaker 5: Nikolay held out hope the deal could be revived, he

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Speaker 5: later told the Arizona Republic, until Robert Orsay showed up

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Speaker 5: at BWY, ostensibly to clear the air with that press conference.

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Speaker 3: Now, why would I want to go to Arizona?

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Speaker 9: Did mister nicol come to you?

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Speaker 1: Mister nikola is a friend of mine has He's a

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Speaker 1: friend of Frank Cush's.

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Speaker 3: Now you just put this in your bag. He's a

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Speaker 3: friend of Frank Cush's, not mine.

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Speaker 9: Did he offer me?

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Speaker 3: I don't he offered me whatever I want money. I

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Speaker 3: am not any intention to moving to goddamn team. If

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Speaker 3: I did, I would tell you about it. Okay, stay here,

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Speaker 3: I said, if I have an intention of the movement team.

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Speaker 3: I would tell you about it.

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Speaker 5: Ersay with the city of Baltimore, watching was continually pressed

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Speaker 5: by the media on reports of the deal, and he

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Speaker 5: continued to deny there ever was a deal in place.

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Speaker 3: Now we have no deal with mister Tony.

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Speaker 1: Tony is a friend Anthony Nikolai is a friend of

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Speaker 1: Frank Cushi's not mine. I only saw him once. That's

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Speaker 1: I can't picture what all this is about.

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Speaker 9: Was that in Chicago two weeks ago, sir?

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Speaker 3: He was He was my guest in Chicago two weeks ago.

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Speaker 9: That's supposedly when this deal was formulated.

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Speaker 3: There was no deal formulated.

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Speaker 9: Okay, weren't you supposed to meet the governor of Arizona.

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Speaker 3: To No, absolutely not. I don't want to talk to you.

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Speaker 2: Everybody else I.

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Speaker 3: Don't want to talk to you. Some other questions.

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Speaker 9: Why would he say that? Why would he say, I

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Speaker 9: don't call him.

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Speaker 5: The whole scene that unfolded on live TV gripped the

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Speaker 5: city of Baltimore, a city that, for all the rumors

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Speaker 5: about the Colts leaving over the last six or seven years,

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Speaker 5: collectively didn't believe the Colts would actually pick up and leave.

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Speaker 5: A reporter then asked your say, if you would pledge

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Speaker 5: to keep the Colts in Baltimore, how strong would you Baltimore.

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Speaker 1: I'm very strong about it. I have no problems with

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Speaker 1: the mayor. I have a very fine lease, all right.

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Speaker 1: I let me tell you.

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Speaker 9: Sign the contract for the mayor. Now we signed the

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Speaker 9: contract with the stadium for the night.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you I flew a couple thousand miles

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Speaker 1: to be here tonight, and I don't need any aggregation,

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Speaker 1: all right. And I only came because of him. Because

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Speaker 1: of him, and I told you I flew a lot

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Speaker 1: of miles today. That's my plane out there, and that

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Speaker 1: burned burns a lot of fuel. I come over to

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Speaker 1: tell you I don't know what the hell is about,

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Speaker 1: only because Anthony Nikolai made a statement.

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Speaker 3: Now, why don't you make a statement.

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Speaker 9: Well, I think, speaking on behalf of the media, we

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Speaker 9: love the Colts, and we want to make sure, behalf

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Speaker 9: of everyone who lives here that it stays there.

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Speaker 3: If you love the Colts, why didn't you treat me right?

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Speaker 1: I'm going to send you some articles this man here

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Speaker 1: number one insteading a couple of others hang me all

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Speaker 1: the time?

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Speaker 3: What do you hang me for?

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Speaker 9: That's a reporter for a local paper that you're referring to.

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Speaker 3: Now I'm reforting to read the papers. What do you

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Speaker 3: hang me for?

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Speaker 9: You want me here?

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Speaker 3: Why do you hang me?

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Speaker 9: What are you hang me for?

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Speaker 7: Took the plane to Baltimore that night and kind of

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Speaker 7: reiterated his commitment to Baltimore. But no one believed in

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Speaker 7: our relationship with our fan base in Baltimore was blown

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Speaker 7: to hell. It was surreal. Okay, it was stunning. It

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Speaker 7: was just Baltimore had broken away from the regular program.

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Speaker 7: It was live broadcast live on Baltimore TV. All the

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Speaker 7: satellite trucks were there, and it was just, you know,

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Speaker 7: a surreal scene. And then what kept running through my

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Speaker 7: mind is how are we going to salvage this? You know,

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Speaker 7: with our fans and with the city. How are we

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Speaker 7: going to sal What are we going to do from here?

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Speaker 5: You know, Ward didn't know it at the time, No

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Speaker 5: one with the Colts did. As they picked up the

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Speaker 5: pieces of an irrevocably shattered relationship with the city of Baltimore.

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Speaker 5: But what the cults are going to do from there?

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Speaker 5: From that moment at bw I, they were going to

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Speaker 5: move to Indianapolis. This is episode three of The Move Mayflower.

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Speaker 5: Over the seven or so minutes Robert Ursay's press conference

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Speaker 5: was on live TV in Baltimore, plenty of people who

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Speaker 5: didn't believe the Colts would skip town. They changed their minds.

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Speaker 5: This was the team of Johnny Unitas, the team that

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Speaker 5: brought Baltimore its first championship, and the team that finally

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Speaker 5: allowed the city to compete against its East Coast rivals.

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Speaker 5: But now folks thought they actually were going to leave.

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Speaker 5: A WBALTV news special in January nineteen eighty four after

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Speaker 5: that press conference featured some comments from less than optimistic Baltimoreans.

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Speaker 5: One citizen said he felt like Robert Ursay had made

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Speaker 5: up his mind the team was leaving. Another looked into

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Speaker 5: the camera and begged, saying, quote, please do not take

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Speaker 5: our Baltimore Colts away from us. Among those folks trending

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Speaker 5: toward pessimism was William Donald Schaffer, the immensely popular mayor

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Speaker 5: of Baltimore, who stood next to Ursay in that press conference.

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Speaker 5: He shuffled side to side, He gazed down, then up,

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Speaker 5: and he wore an exasperated look on his face. After

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Speaker 5: the press conference, Schaefer, who had steadfastly remained optimistic he

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Speaker 5: would work out a deal with Ersay to keep the

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Speaker 5: Colts in Baltimore. Was asked if he was confident the

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Speaker 5: city's football team would stay put. His answer was a

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Speaker 5: strong no. According to the Arizona Republic, that was a

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Speaker 5: significant change in his tone. Back at Colts headquarters, things

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Speaker 5: went back to normal for the football side of the building.

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Speaker 5: Rick Venturrey, who's now a color analyst on the Colts

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Speaker 5: Radio network, was entering his third season as an assistant coach.

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Speaker 5: The weekend the Arizona deal imploded. He and other coaches

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Speaker 5: were told to not go anywhere and stay by their

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Speaker 5: phones since the team might wind up being the Arizona

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Speaker 5: Colts within hours, if not days. But after that press conference,

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Speaker 5: it was fair to think this was just yet another false.

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Speaker 11: Alarm and got really quiet after the Arizona thing, and

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Speaker 11: it was almost as if, you know, well, maybe this

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Speaker 11: is just another threat like Jacksonville had been a couple

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Speaker 11: of years before.

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Speaker 5: Things were different though for the Colt's business operations. Plenty

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Speaker 5: of folks on that side of the building were Maryland natives,

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Speaker 5: and there were folks who probably wouldn't join the team

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Speaker 5: in a new city and from a business standpoint too,

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Speaker 5: the lack of certainty about where the Colts would actually

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Speaker 5: be playing in nineteen eighty four, but plenty of stress

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Speaker 5: on staff members total unpredictability.

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Speaker 7: It was a very unsettling time. It didn't really know

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Speaker 7: it still had not issued season ticket renewals or renewals

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Speaker 7: with our sponsors, you know, and our car dealers and

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Speaker 7: all that sort of things. So it was really a

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Speaker 7: tough time for a lot of employees.

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Speaker 5: After Phoenix fell through, Memphis popped up in the relocation

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Speaker 5: rumor mill, but that was dispelled pretty quickly. Weeks went

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Speaker 5: by with the specter of the team moving still hanging around,

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Speaker 5: though nothing close to that two day stretch in January

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Speaker 5: had materialized. But again, the lasting effect of the near

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Speaker 5: miss in Arizona and the ensuing press conference was a

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Speaker 5: lingering feeling in Baltimore that the Colts were going to

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Speaker 5: move somewhat quickly and otherwise off the map. Midwestern city,

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Speaker 5: a city which was putting the finishing touches on a

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Speaker 5: sixty thousand seat dome stadium, raced to the forefront of

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Speaker 5: the rumor mill. Indianapolis, Indiana, State and local officials in

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Speaker 5: Maryland were aware of the Colts talks with Indianapolis, which

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Speaker 5: picked up steam in the days and weeks after the

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Speaker 5: Phoenix deal fell through, and negotiations with Phoenix and the

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Speaker 5: city of Baltimore were still ongoing with the Colts. Although

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Speaker 5: Indianapolis had a major advantage they already had the dome

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Speaker 5: Robert or Say wanted, Bill Baltimore was nowhere near building

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Speaker 5: a new stadium. They were still negotiating renovations to Memorial Stadium,

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Speaker 5: and Phoenix promised a dome but hadn't begun building one yet.

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Speaker 12: In Arizona, there was nothing there.

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Speaker 5: Colts owner and CEO Jim Er say, oh, yeah, come.

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Speaker 12: And play in a college stadium. You know, we're the

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Speaker 12: cow's team plays. And you know, as far as the

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Speaker 12: new stadium, we have nothing on that yet for you, buddy.

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Speaker 12: And oh, by the way, you're probably gonna have to

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Speaker 12: sell at least forty nine fifty you know, uh to

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Speaker 12: you know, several different businessmen in Arizona.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there was no way.

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Speaker 5: And while some Baltimore officials were still trying to pitch

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Speaker 5: Robert Ursay on staying in town, others realized they were

258
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Speaker 5: out of options to cut a deal with the Colts.

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Speaker 5: And perhaps it was time to operate not with the

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Speaker 5: Olive branch, but with the Bayonet. On March second, nineteen

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Speaker 5: eighty four, Mark Wasserman, who was an aid to Mayor Schaefer,

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Speaker 5: wrote a memo presenting a last ditch but aggressive option

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Speaker 5: to keep the Colts in Baltimore. It read quote, I

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Speaker 5: can't help but assume that Ers has himself so boxed

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Speaker 5: in that there was almost nothing left but for him

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Speaker 5: to move the franchise, even if the Indianapolis deal were

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Speaker 5: to fall through this morning. The situation here is so

268
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Speaker 5: badly deteriorated that it would be virtually impossible to think

269
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Speaker 5: that he would or could remain here. I find it

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Speaker 5: hard to believe that we are going to sit back

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Speaker 5: and watch him go without so much as a whimper.

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Speaker 5: After the mistreatment that we you have been subjected to.

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Speaker 5: For my money, what little there is, we ought to

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Speaker 5: take our best shot and complicate the move any way

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Speaker 5: we can. I recommend that you consider seriously seeking council

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Speaker 5: passage of a condemnation ordinance today, and couple that with

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Speaker 5: seeking an injunction a condemnation ordinance otherwise known as eminent domain.

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Speaker 8: They threatened because the negotiations have become so acrimonious.

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Speaker 5: Jerry Sandusky is a Baltimore native who's now the voice

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Speaker 5: of the Ravens.

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Speaker 8: They floated the threat. They didn't make the direct threat,

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Speaker 8: but they flowed the idea that they were going to

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Speaker 8: initiate eminent domain, basically saying the culture so valuable to

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Speaker 8: this community, the city now owns the Cults, kind of

285
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Speaker 8: like a dictatorship taking over the oil factory or the

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Speaker 8: lumber factory.

287
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Speaker 5: You've probably heard of local, state, or federal government officials

288
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Speaker 5: claiming eminent domain over private property to build infrastructure, a highway,

289
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Speaker 5: public works, et cetera. But claiming eminent domain over a

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Speaker 5: football team. That's a stretch, right, you'd think so. But

291
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Speaker 5: earlier in the decade, the city of Oakland claimed eminent

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Speaker 5: domain over the Raiders when al Davis i to move

293
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Speaker 5: to Los Angeles. The Raiders took the City of Oakland

294
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Speaker 5: to court and the eminent domain claim was dismissed with prejudice,

295
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Speaker 5: meaning it could not be refiled. The City of Oakland, though,

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Speaker 5: appealed to a higher court and had the ruling reversed

297
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Speaker 5: in nineteen eighty two. The case would go to trial

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Speaker 5: in granting the appeal. The court cited a government code

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Speaker 5: that read quote, A city may acquire by eminent domain

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Speaker 5: any property necessary to carry out any of its powers

301
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Speaker 5: or functions effectively. If Baltimore could shoe having the Colts,

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Speaker 5: a team so entrenched in their community and so entwined

303
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Speaker 5: with citizens civic pride was necessary to carry out the

304
00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 5: city's powers or functions, maybe it had a shot at

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Speaker 5: least to mess things up for the Colts. The case

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Speaker 5: of the City of Oakland versus the Oakland Raiders was

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Speaker 5: still ongoing in nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 13: There was a lot going on about the stadium, about

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Speaker 13: eminent domain, about trying to do something to force the

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Speaker 13: team to stay in Baltimore.

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Speaker 5: Jane Miller was a longtime reporter for Channel eleven in Baltimore.

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Speaker 13: And I think there was some skepticism generally about whether

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Speaker 13: you could do that.

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Speaker 5: The Raiders, despite ongoing litigation with not just the City

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Speaker 5: of Oakland but an anti trust suit against the NFL,

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Speaker 5: still were able to move to Los Angeles in nineteen

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Speaker 5: eighty two. Al Davis had made plans to move to

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Speaker 5: Los Angeles long before the nineteen eighty one season ended,

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Speaker 5: which was a much more normal relocation timeline as far

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Speaker 5: as Baltimore was concerned, because the Colts hadn't entered in

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Speaker 5: agreement with another city, maybe they had a shot to

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Speaker 5: really mess things up. War forced Robert or say to

323
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Speaker 5: sell the team to an owner who would keep them

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Speaker 5: in Baltimore.

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Speaker 12: It's very clear you know what the eminent domain law

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Speaker 12: was and what it potentially meant to destroy in your business.

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Speaker 12: But what's even more clear is their intent to fight.

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Speaker 12: That's a message I think that forced them to make

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Speaker 12: a decision.

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Speaker 5: A headline in the Baltimore Sun on March sixth, nineteen

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Speaker 5: eighty four read quote legal scholar thinks eminent domain could

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Speaker 5: hold the key. The article is an interview with a

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Speaker 5: law professor at NYU who thought, based on Oakland's chances

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Speaker 5: of continuing to emerge with favorable judgments in court against

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Speaker 5: the Raiders, as well as a few other recent other

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Speaker 5: uses of eminent domain, that the city of Baltimore's best

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Speaker 5: shot at keeping the Colts was by pulling that lever.

338
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Speaker 5: That was hardly the only article in the Baltimore Sun

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Speaker 5: floating or even encouraging the idea of local government using

340
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Speaker 5: eminent domain to keep the Colts That's how dire the

341
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Speaker 5: circumstances were for a state and local government that didn't

342
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Speaker 5: seriously consider the Colts moving until they got to the

343
00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,040
Speaker 5: goal line. With Phoenix still as the day's blood off

344
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,760
Speaker 5: the calendar, in March, the prospect of the Colts relocating

345
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Speaker 5: for the nineteen eighty four season seemed to dwindle. The

346
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Speaker 5: immediate threat that presented itself in January maybe was fading.

347
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:28,359
Speaker 5: TV news stations still covered every meeting or rumor about

348
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Speaker 5: the possibility of the Colts leaving town, but internally within

349
00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,320
Speaker 5: the organization there was doubt as to whether the team

350
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Speaker 5: would actually relocate in nineteen eighty four.

351
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Speaker 7: I and every other employee didn't really know what was

352
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Speaker 7: going to happen. And by March twenty seven to twenty eighth,

353
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Speaker 7: there's no way we're moving. It's too late in the year.

354
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Speaker 7: You know, we have the draft coming up in a

355
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Speaker 7: few weeks, and we got Mini camp a week after that,

356
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Speaker 7: and then we got training camp coming up then, and

357
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Speaker 7: it was just and we you know, we'd have to

358
00:18:57,640 --> 00:18:59,320
Speaker 7: sell season tickets and all that sort of thing. It

359
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,840
Speaker 7: was just it was so as unbelievable when and when

360
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:03,840
Speaker 7: it happened, you.

361
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,720
Speaker 5: Know, How it happened and why the Colts had to

362
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:09,719
Speaker 5: leave Baltimore in the cover of darkness started with an

363
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,439
Speaker 5: under the radar action by the Maryland State Senate. On

364
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,520
Speaker 5: March twenty seventh, nineteen eighty four, a bill was brought

365
00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,520
Speaker 5: to the floor of the Maryland State Senate by Thomas Bromwell,

366
00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:23,359
Speaker 5: a state senator from Baltimore County. The legislation would grant

367
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Speaker 5: the City of Baltimore power to claim eminent domain over

368
00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,560
Speaker 5: the Colts. According to a Baltimore Sun News blurb in

369
00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:32,159
Speaker 5: the Morning paper on March twenty eighth, the bill quote

370
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,600
Speaker 5: slipped quietly through the State Senate by a resounding vote

371
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 5: of thirty eight to four. It was expected to fly

372
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,400
Speaker 5: through the Maryland House and quickly be signed into law.

373
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,520
Speaker 5: But for the Baltimore Colts, there was nothing quiet about

374
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:46,919
Speaker 5: the bill passing through a chamber of Maryland's Assembly with

375
00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,800
Speaker 5: very little opposition. The message was clear the state and

376
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:54,679
Speaker 5: city government were coming for the Colts. So what did

377
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:55,159
Speaker 5: the club do?

378
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,000
Speaker 14: I lived at an apartment called Morningside Heights where a

379
00:19:58,000 --> 00:19:59,560
Speaker 14: lot of the players lived in.

380
00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,040
Speaker 6: It over looked the complex, so I was that close.

381
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,400
Speaker 5: John Scott was the Colt's equipment manager in nineteen eighty four.

382
00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,920
Speaker 14: So that was a Tuesday, and about ten o'clock at night,

383
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Speaker 14: I get a telephone call, pick it up and I

384
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 14: recognize the voice right away. It's Jim Mersey and it's Johnny.

385
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Speaker 6: It's Jim Talks.

386
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Speaker 7: You know.

387
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:23,639
Speaker 6: I just talked to my dad. We're moving. It's twenty

388
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Speaker 6: seventh at night.

389
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 7: I go, oh my gosh, I said.

390
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 14: When he said tomorrow, I'm like, oh my gosh. Then

391
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:36,879
Speaker 14: I said phoenix fingers crossed, and there's a long pause.

392
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:44,400
Speaker 14: He goes, no, Indie, and then he told.

393
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Speaker 6: Me, hey, you got to keep this quiet.

394
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Speaker 14: You can't tell any of the staff working with the culture,

395
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 14: can't tell your friends. You got to keep it quiet

396
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:52,639
Speaker 14: from your family.

397
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Speaker 6: I'm going, oh my gosh, what is going on?

398
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Speaker 14: And it was, you know, didn't know at the time

399
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Speaker 14: that the State of Maryland, see they're trying to get

400
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:02,479
Speaker 14: the team to eminent domain.

401
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:06,400
Speaker 5: Colts Vice president and general counsel Michael Chernoff recalled seeing

402
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:08,920
Speaker 5: the eminent domain blurb in the Baltimore Sun tucked away

403
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,959
Speaker 5: in a note section deep within the paper and feeling like,

404
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,879
Speaker 5: as he told The New York Times later in nineteen

405
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 5: eighty four quote. They were putting a gun to mister

406
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 5: Orsay's head and cocking the trigger and for saying the

407
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,119
Speaker 5: Colts they didn't have time to figure out if that

408
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 5: gun was loaded or not.

409
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,480
Speaker 12: The bottom line is they forced him to move because

410
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 12: they were gonna, you know, eminent domain means for those

411
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:33,480
Speaker 12: people who've never heard of the laws, is it means,

412
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:35,719
Speaker 12: you know, the city, you know, we're building a new

413
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 12: highway for the public interests.

414
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 2: We're gonna, you know, claim your house.

415
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:44,000
Speaker 12: And it says your house is worth two hundred thousand,

416
00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:46,439
Speaker 12: so you have to you don't have a choice here

417
00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 12: to do the one hundred thousand. Get out of your

418
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,959
Speaker 12: house because the highway's coming to here. They were going

419
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 12: to try to use that on the football team that okay,

420
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,600
Speaker 12: we're taking the Colts because it has to stay here

421
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:57,919
Speaker 12: for the public interest.

422
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,200
Speaker 5: Scott, the equipment manager, slipped into the Colts Owings Mills

423
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 5: facility at four o'clock in the morning on March twenty eighth.

424
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:11,919
Speaker 5: He shut the doors to the team's equipment room and

425
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 5: he started packing an NFL team, knowing he had barely

426
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:17,960
Speaker 5: twenty four hours to complete a job that otherwise would

427
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:19,639
Speaker 5: have taken weeks, if not months.

428
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Speaker 6: Then it was so surreal.

429
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,679
Speaker 14: As I'm doing it packing the uniforms, I'm going I

430
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:27,520
Speaker 14: wonder if the colors are going to change.

431
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:29,440
Speaker 6: I wonder if the name is going to show.

432
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 14: These things going through my head as I'm packing it up,

433
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 14: and still I pinch mysel am I dreaming this thing.

434
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 5: Business side employees, front office staffers, and coaches all showed

435
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 5: up to work that morning in Owings Mills like it

436
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,159
Speaker 5: was a normal day. The coaches went to work with

437
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:45,800
Speaker 5: our usual schedule. They had meetings on football in the morning,

438
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 5: and then they had meetings on the upcoming NFL draft

439
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 5: in the afternoon. The Colts had two first round picks

440
00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:53,360
Speaker 5: that year, their own number eight overall and the nineteenth

441
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 5: overall pick acquired from the Denver Broncos in nineteen eighty

442
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 5: three's John Elway trade. There was plenty of work to do.

443
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 11: It was about mid and my good friend rested in cheace.

444
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 11: Hal Hunter was my good friend and one of our assistants,

445
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 11: and he was real close to Frank and he stopped

446
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 11: me in the hallway and whisper, he whispered, hey, listen,

447
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 11: don't go home tonight. After work coach is coming back.

448
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 11: And coach wasn't even in town, and he wasn't in

449
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 11: town a lot in those days during the offseason. So

450
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:24,159
Speaker 11: he said, he's coming back in town. We're going to

451
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 11: have a meeting about six o'clock, he said, So, you know,

452
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 11: just don't make any plans. I think it's important. And

453
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 11: we didn't say very much after that. Everybody just kind

454
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,159
Speaker 11: of I went about my business and he said, now,

455
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 11: don't say anything to anybody.

456
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 5: News of the teams and pending moved to Indianapolis was

457
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 5: kept under strict need to know orders. Not all staffers

458
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,880
Speaker 5: are going to leave Baltimore with the team, and legitimately,

459
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 5: there was a risk that if the wrong person found

460
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 5: out something was up, the whole move could fall apart,

461
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 5: because if the wrong person found out and the wrong

462
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 5: person let the media know, then the state government could

463
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 5: have acted swiftly to get the eminent domain bill signed

464
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 5: into law, which at best would have complicated things for

465
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:07,640
Speaker 5: the Colts. At worst, it could have blocked to move,

466
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,679
Speaker 5: forced Robert Essay to sell the club, and kept the

467
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 5: team languishing in Memorial Stadium.

468
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:17,440
Speaker 11: The reason for the stealth, the reason for the immediacy,

469
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:21,439
Speaker 11: was that Baltimore. Now they were going to try to

470
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:23,680
Speaker 11: block Bob from leaving, and they were going to try

471
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 11: to block him with the legal concept of eminent domain,

472
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 11: you know, which essentially says that the community owns the

473
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 11: franchise and you can't move it. And he, I guess

474
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 11: felt his legal people felt that maybe they could do that,

475
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:43,679
Speaker 11: and so he was going to get out of Dodge

476
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 11: before it got to the you know, to the house

477
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 11: or whatever. So I mean, I think that was the

478
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 11: reason for the stealth in the immediacy of it.

479
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 5: As the hours sticked away and as employees began getting

480
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 5: ready to go home, not knowing it would be their

481
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 5: last day of work for the Balti More Colts, Pete

482
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 5: Ward was summoned to Jim Orsay's office for the second

483
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,639
Speaker 5: time in nineteen eighty four. Ward was told the Colts

484
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 5: were moving.

485
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 7: Late in the day. Jim calls me those office and says,

486
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 7: you know, my dad says, we're moving tonight to Indy.

487
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,280
Speaker 7: Go home, get your personal life in order. I live

488
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,240
Speaker 7: like five minutes away in an apartment. But be back

489
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 7: here by ten o'clock because all the trucks are going

490
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 7: to arrive and you need to help bring some sembilance

491
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 7: of order to the move. So and I had very

492
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,199
Speaker 7: few possessions and not much of a personal life, so

493
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 7: that part was easy for me.

494
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 5: One of Ward's first orders make sure everyone who sticks

495
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,680
Speaker 5: around to pack the team up stays safe.

496
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 7: After the Phoenix thing, I had to hire guard a

497
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 7: guard company with guard dogs because we were getting death

498
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 7: threats and bomb threats. We had them on call, and

499
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,640
Speaker 7: right after I was told we're moving, I call them

500
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 7: up and we had so we had security there.

501
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,880
Speaker 5: Most employees left work that day noticing or thinking anything

502
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 5: was up. The Colt's facility was two stories, with the

503
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,879
Speaker 5: football side of the team's operation on the first floor

504
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 5: and the business side on the second floor. But one

505
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 5: eagle eyed staffer a guy who stayed late after work

506
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 5: to play racquetball at the facility. Yes, it was a

507
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 5: facility that had a racquetball court. Notice something strange.

508
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 12: As he left work, everyone else has to be out

509
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 12: of the building. And it was a short list, you know,

510
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 12: and you know who you're waiting for, well Keakowski to

511
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 12: get out of the building because he was playing racquetball.

512
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 12: And we're like, because he wasn't on the list to come.

513
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 7: This one gentleman is a great guy. He's our per director,

514
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 7: a young man. He's only twenty three years old at

515
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 7: the time. He's our PR director.

516
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 15: You know.

517
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 7: And I went home and he called me at home

518
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 7: and he said, Pete, something's going on here. I was

519
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 7: leaving the office and all the coaches cars are here,

520
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 7: but all their doors are closed. And I said, well,

521
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 7: the hold on, let me come over there. So I

522
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 7: went to the office and I met with Walt. I

523
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,680
Speaker 7: went down to see Jim and that's when he told

524
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,679
Speaker 7: me everything. And I said, well, Walt knows something's up.

525
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 7: And he said, well, send Walt down to me. Walt,

526
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 7: being a great guy, you know, he took a you know,

527
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 7: like a man. He said, I understand, and this is

528
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 7: tough situation. I know, you know, it's not your doing.

529
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 7: And there's a there's a funny aside to that. And

530
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 7: that's when Walt and I. When you walked into the

531
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 7: employee entrance, you walked right into the coach's hallway. And

532
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,360
Speaker 7: as Walt and I walked into the coach's hallway, Rick

533
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 7: comes out of his office with a with a box.

534
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 4: Sees what the hell man? You know? That was Rick.

535
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 7: So Walt went home, and as far as I know,

536
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 7: he never told anybody. He gave his word to Jim,

537
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 7: he never told anybody.

538
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 5: Venturi found out what was going on that evening. He

539
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 5: stayed past five o'clock, and a few hours later he

540
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 5: found himself in a conference room with seven other coaches,

541
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 5: a handful of front office staffers. Pete Ward and Jim

542
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 5: are saying.

543
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 11: Jim clears his throat like he always did in those days.

544
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 11: He always cleared his throat before he delivered. And I'll

545
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 11: never forget it what he said. He said, Okay, man,

546
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 11: he goes. The deal has been done. We're moving to

547
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 11: Indianapolis tonight. The trucks will be here at eleven. We

548
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 11: will all assist in different deals to help on the move.

549
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 11: And this will be done with the secrecy of moving

550
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 11: an embassy in Washington, d C. Don't tell your wives,

551
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 11: don't tell your girlfriends. We want this thing totally, absolutely quiet.

552
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 11: I remember calling Miss Sherry and saying, Cherry, I think

553
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 11: I'm going to be really late tonight, and she said, well,

554
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 11: how late, I said, I'm like I'd be hung at all.

555
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 5: Everybody left in the building had a specific job. Venturre's

556
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 5: was to take down all the blackboards and whiteboards in

557
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 5: the complex. He grabbed a screwdriver and he went to work. Everything,

558
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,240
Speaker 5: and I mean everything had to be taken off the

559
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 5: walls and thrown into boxes. Time was of the essence.

560
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 5: Anything that didn't make it out of the Mayflower moving trucks,

561
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 5: which were a few hours from rolling into the team facility,

562
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 5: might not make it to Indianapolis. Anything left behind could

563
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 5: be caught in legal limbo the moment Baltimore claimed emminent

564
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 5: domaine over the Colts, so everything that was essential to

565
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 5: the operation of a football team had to be on

566
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 5: its way to Indianapolis in just a few hours. Back

567
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 5: in Indianapolis, the work folks like David Frick had done

568
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 5: prior to March twenty eighth paid off the city of

569
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 5: Indianapolis and the Colts are on the same page for

570
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 5: the terms of a deal to relocate. The Colts guaranteed

571
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 5: attendants a favorable loan, a new training facility, stuff like that.

572
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 5: Mayor Bill Hudnutt had already secured moving vans through Mayflower,

573
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 5: whose CEO happened to be his next door neighbor. Mayflower

574
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,280
Speaker 5: had a convoy of eleven moving vans ready to head

575
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 5: to east down Interstate seventy to go get the Colts.

576
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 5: So when Robert ur Say called Hudnut at eleven o'clock

577
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 5: in the morning on Wednesday, March twenty eighth to tell

578
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 5: him were coming to Indianapolis, the city was not just ready,

579
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 5: they were ready right now. Indianapolis didn't build the Hoosier

580
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 5: Dome so they could secure a team overnight. They built

581
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 5: it thinking the NFL would expand to their city sometime

582
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 5: in the nineteen eighties. But because they had already had

583
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 5: a brand new sixty thousand seat dome stadium with skyboxes

584
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 5: and luxury amenities, Indianapolis was uniquely ready to welcome the

585
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 5: Colts whenever they were ready to move. Hudnut's risky, no guts,

586
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 5: no glory play for an NFL franchise was about to

587
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,719
Speaker 5: pay off. As the sunset on March twenty eighth, nineteen

588
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,480
Speaker 5: eighty four, all that had to happen was getting those

589
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 5: Mayflower trucks loaded up in Baltimore and on the road

590
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 5: to Indianapolis before the city of Baltimore could claim eminent

591
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 5: domain over the Colts. Easy right.

592
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 7: And right at ten o'clock, all the trucks arrived and

593
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 7: they're coming in. It's dark. We're kind of in a

594
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 7: rural area and they have their lights out, and they're

595
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 7: all Mayflower vands and a bus comes in.

596
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 5: This is how spooked the Colts were at the wrong people.

597
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 5: Getting wind of what was happening, churn Off scrapped hudnuts

598
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 5: plan of a convoy of Mayflower trucks and asked him

599
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 5: to have the moving company dispatched trucks from a handful

600
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 5: of East Coast depots. The drivers were to arrive at

601
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:49,479
Speaker 5: the Colts complex in Owen's Mills after nightfall, but they

602
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 5: were not to be told their destination until it was

603
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 5: absolutely necessary.

604
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 12: So finally it was time, and I swear I remember

605
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 12: standing outside waiting for the trucks, and it was dark,

606
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 12: and it was snowing, And when that first truck, when

607
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,239
Speaker 12: the first gear in Owen smells back then you had

608
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 12: to climb a big hill to get to our parking

609
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 12: lot and the complex, and I said, my god, the

610
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 12: whole state of Maryland could hear that.

611
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 5: Hudnutt earlier in the day had called Mayflower CEO John B.

612
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,200
Speaker 5: Smith at about eleven forty five am, and he told

613
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 5: him send the trucks Meanwhile, the folks who were swiftly

614
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 5: packing up boxes needed some help getting those boxes onto

615
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 5: the waiting moving trucks. That's when a bus showed up,

616
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 5: filled with college students from the University of Maryland, who

617
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 5: were usually tasked with moving foreign diplomats and dignitaries around

618
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 5: the Washington, d C.

619
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 9: Region.

620
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 7: And I hopped on the bus and it's all the packers,

621
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 7: you know, And the guy in front says, hey, man,

622
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 7: is this an embassy. You know, because the embassy's move

623
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 7: at night.

624
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 5: It didn't take long for those college kids on the

625
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 5: bus to realize what they were doing and how they

626
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 5: might be able to take a little advantage of the situation.

627
00:32:58,240 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 6: So the trucks are pulling up.

628
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 14: Then a bus pull up and it's all these workers

629
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 14: hired that night or the day before to come in.

630
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 14: And then they started taking a lot of the boxes

631
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 14: that I had going on the Mayflower trucks. So I'm

632
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 14: I'm kind of watching these guys. And then about a

633
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 14: hour later I noticed watching these guys and they had

634
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 14: coats on. It was a rainy, snowy night, and underneath

635
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 14: their jackets was as if I could see Baltimore across here.

636
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 14: But I had heard earlier that these guys came from Washington,

637
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 14: d C. And I'm thinking to myself, Wait, these guys.

638
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 6: Are redskin fans.

639
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 14: Why did they have you know where I'm going with this.

640
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 14: They would go in the back parts of these rooms,

641
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 14: put on a jersey, put on a Colt's shirt or whatever,

642
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 14: put their jacket back on, and then walk out.

643
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 6: And then they were ripping us off, you know.

644
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 14: And these guys were gaining weight.

645
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 6: Look like he was one hundred and ninety five now

646
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 6: he's two forty. You know, he's like a Michelin man.

647
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,760
Speaker 7: Yeah, they're stealing stuff right and left. It was mass chaos.

648
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 14: So I got with the guy in charge. I said, hey,

649
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 14: you know something's going on here. You know, whatever it is,

650
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,439
Speaker 14: you need to get with those people. You know, it's okay,

651
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 14: I get, I get, give me fifteen minutes. So went

652
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:22,800
Speaker 14: back in the locker room.

653
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 6: There's a mountainous stuff.

654
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 14: There's football's jerseys at all in this big pile. You know,

655
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 14: these guys had taken from I'm sure they got off

656
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 14: with something.

657
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 5: The scene at the Colts facility was utterly chaos. How

658
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,799
Speaker 5: could it be anything but a handful of people were

659
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 5: trying to move an NFL team as fast as they could.

660
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 5: Organization was not at a premium.

661
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 7: It wasn't like, Okay, I's to this office in this office,

662
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 7: so I couldn't be everywhere to label box and it

663
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 7: was just mass chaos. And so that's how things end

664
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 7: up being packed and shipped. And when we got to Indianapolis,

665
00:34:55,800 --> 00:35:00,200
Speaker 7: there's just a big pile of boxes and desks, and

666
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 7: you know, we new Bank's hat and the footballs and everything.

667
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 5: As snow and darkness fell in Owings Mills, that sleepy,

668
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 5: somewhat rural Baltimore suburb, the move was going according to plan,

669
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 5: at least as planned out as moving an NFL team

670
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 5: with a few hours notice could be. Nobody outside the

671
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 5: building had let it slip that the team was about

672
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,359
Speaker 5: to skip town. But at some point in the night

673
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:23,839
Speaker 5: Ward had to call up the Colts football video guy.

674
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 5: All the video equipment in the building actually belonged to

675
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 5: the video director, not the team.

676
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 7: Now, our video director at the time was a native

677
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 7: Baltimorean and he owned our video equipment. So we had

678
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 7: to call him in to come get his equipment. And

679
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 7: he was a long time, I mean all the way

680
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 7: back to the fifties, you know, and he was the

681
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:51,360
Speaker 7: one who had up calling local radio station. That's what

682
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,720
Speaker 7: broke it, you know, about midnight.

683
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 5: Word was out. Shortly after the news broke over the

684
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 5: radio airwaves. The pitch black, snowy darkness outside the Colts

685
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,920
Speaker 5: complex was broken by the glowing lights of TV trucks.

686
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 5: News crews were quickly dispatched to Owings Mills.

687
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,120
Speaker 9: That was before cell phones and everything else.

688
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 5: Jane Miller, the longtime Baltimore news reporter, was quickly sent

689
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 5: to Owings Mills to report that night.

690
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 9: You know, clearly word got out that they were moving.

691
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,720
Speaker 13: So I hustled out there. And it's in Owings Mills,

692
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 13: which is about it's a suburb of Baltimore City. It's

693
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 13: probably about twenty five to thirty minutes outside the city.

694
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 13: It was the nasty night.

695
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 15: It was dreary weather.

696
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,759
Speaker 13: It was like a wet snow that was falling by

697
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 13: the time the sun came up.

698
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 5: John Zeeman, the leader of the Cult Marching Band, worked

699
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 5: at a local TV station in Baltimore. He and his

700
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,320
Speaker 5: wife Charlene, who was also involved in the Colt Band,

701
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 5: were out that night doing auditions for the nineteen eighty

702
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:50,040
Speaker 5: four season.

703
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 16: At the time, I worked for WMRTV in Baltimore and

704
00:36:54,719 --> 00:37:02,879
Speaker 16: studio operations, and the night they moved, I was auditioning

705
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 16: new drummers because at the time I was also in

706
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,280
Speaker 16: charge of percussion line, the drum line. My wife Charlene

707
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 16: was auditioning new flag line for some reason, I don't

708
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 16: know why. We didn't turn a radio on. Gone home

709
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 16: and I got home. My son Christopher was forlorn. Patrick

710
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:22,919
Speaker 16: was just born. Here's a month old movie two.

711
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,400
Speaker 2: And the babysitter just looked at me coming in.

712
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 16: I thought something happened to one of the boys, and

713
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 16: she just pointed to the TV in a saumet flower

714
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,280
Speaker 16: and I saw the name Bottom calls inside the building,

715
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 16: and then it was Hoover.

716
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 5: Zeeman was dispatched to Owings Mills to help with wmr's

717
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 5: coverage of the night. He was one of the few

718
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 5: people around Baltimore who, for years truly believed the Colts

719
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 5: were destined to move, But as he watched those green

720
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:52,399
Speaker 5: moving vans get loaded up, the emotions he felt were

721
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,359
Speaker 5: difficult to process. Zeeman was a true cult fan, someone

722
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 5: who was intimately involved with the team, and someone whose

723
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:01,839
Speaker 5: civic pride swelled when he played the Colt fight song

724
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 5: before games, and even if he thought this day would come,

725
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 5: watching it unfold in person was as heartbreaking as it

726
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:09,760
Speaker 5: was surreal.

727
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,920
Speaker 16: I had to take a light kid and go out

728
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 16: to the bottom of Calls Complex with the reporter Susan

729
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 16: White Bowden and stand out there all night in the

730
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 16: snow and freezing rain.

731
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 2: And watch the Mayflower movie bands leave.

732
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 16: And it was hard on me as a citizen in

733
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 16: a kind of bottom of Colts fan, but even harder

734
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 16: on me as something invested in that team, and that

735
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:39,239
Speaker 16: a lot of times I didn't think this is real.

736
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 5: My dreaming inside the facility, the frenetic work getting things

737
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 5: loaded up was starting to wind down. Some of the

738
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 5: trucks began leaving in the wee hours of the morning.

739
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:52,399
Speaker 11: I would say two thirty three am somewhere in there.

740
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 11: You know, it escapes me a little bit. But then

741
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 11: Jim called us all together and he said, okay, our

742
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 11: part of it is done. You know, we want you

743
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,359
Speaker 11: guys to go on home. He said, we will then

744
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 11: all fly out on my dad's plane and we will

745
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,360
Speaker 11: leave from Dallas Airport. And he gave us a time

746
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:14,520
Speaker 11: and obviously we couldn't leave from Maryland. I mean that

747
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:15,920
Speaker 11: way to lab to get killed.

748
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 5: But leaving the now Baron Colts Complex was not going

749
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 5: to be the easiest thing for anyone there. The presence

750
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:35,879
Speaker 5: of news crews complicated things. The employees who were left

751
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:38,560
Speaker 5: in the facility would ultimately have to leave and get

752
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 5: past those crews waiting outside. For one employee, that was

753
00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,799
Speaker 5: an especially problematic situation, jim Irsay, who was the son

754
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 5: of owner Robert Ursay. While Jimmy, as he was known

755
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 5: to Baltimore locals, was largely well liked and respected in

756
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 5: the area, there were threats against him and his family.

757
00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 14: He said, just to let you know, you and I

758
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 14: are flying to Indianapolis in a couple of hours.

759
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 6: And I think, okay, all right. He goes, we got

760
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 6: to get some sleep. Are you almost done here? I

761
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,800
Speaker 6: said yeah. He goes, I can't.

762
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:10,399
Speaker 7: I can't go.

763
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 14: Home because there's been death threats on my family everything else.

764
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 7: I said, well, wait a minute, just go to my apartment.

765
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 14: He goes, yeah, but you gonna have to sneak me

766
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 14: out of here.

767
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 7: I said, well, okay, we can do that.

768
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 6: So we went in my car. I'm driving Gym's in

769
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 6: the passenger side. I have this big blank in the

770
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 6: bat I throw it over him. Now as we're going out, of.

771
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 14: Course, there's a lot of news people and they got

772
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 14: their cameras and everything, and I'm pulling up.

773
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 6: You know, they're stopping me and taking pictures. I rolled down.

774
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 6: I wouldn't I say, hey, can I help you? Oh

775
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 6: that's John said equipment. Yeah, come on through, you know.

776
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 14: So I went there and Gin's hiding underneath it.

777
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,799
Speaker 5: As dawn broke on Thursday, March twenty ninth, some employees,

778
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,760
Speaker 5: those ones who left the day before at five pm,

779
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:56,720
Speaker 5: trekked through the snow and slush to the Colts complex.

780
00:40:57,320 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 5: A handful of longtime fans showed up to see the

781
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:03,759
Speaker 5: sight of team leaving Baltimore for themselves. The mood among

782
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,840
Speaker 5: the folks outside the gate are people watching things unfold

783
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 5: on the morning news? Are Colts fans? In general? Was

784
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 5: a mix of the five stages of grief. There was denial.

785
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:15,360
Speaker 8: I was doing an internship at a TV station and

786
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,160
Speaker 8: it came across the ap wire story.

787
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:20,080
Speaker 5: Jerry Sandusky is a Baltimore native who's now the voice

788
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:21,600
Speaker 5: of the Baltimore Ravens.

789
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 8: That the Colts had moved, and I read it a

790
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 8: couple times before I could digest it, because it was

791
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 8: like saying, you know what, Christmas no longer exists. There's

792
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:32,880
Speaker 8: now only seven months in the year. It was like

793
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:36,280
Speaker 8: all these impossible thoughts that hit you all at once.

794
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 3: There was anger when you have to sneak out in

795
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 3: the middle of the night.

796
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:43,919
Speaker 12: Don't inform your invested employees of your intentions. I don't

797
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 12: want to work for people like that.

798
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:46,400
Speaker 5: There was bargaining.

799
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:47,840
Speaker 6: You never forget the Colts.

800
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 16: Are you going to go on wearing that hat?

801
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,800
Speaker 10: Absolutely, we're still going down our convention June notion City

802
00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 10: to corrals. We're not gonna stop just because the team's gone.

803
00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 10: The band didn't stop in fifty and fifth be won,

804
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 10: so why should we stop. We'll be here when the

805
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:03,799
Speaker 10: new Colts come in.

806
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:04,760
Speaker 5: There was depression.

807
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 17: I saw my father cry twice in his life. My

808
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 17: father was born in nineteen nineteen. He died in ninety two.

809
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 17: I saw him cry when his sister died, and I

810
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 17: saw him cry when the Colts left town.

811
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 5: And there was acceptance.

812
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 16: The last person out, the very last person that was

813
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,800
Speaker 16: gentleman by the name of Walter Ktawski, Walter was a

814
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:23,279
Speaker 16: p architector.

815
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 2: And he came out and I'm.

816
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 16: Paraphrase and said, guys don't stand after a cold.

817
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 2: They're gone. And he closed to get and that was it.

818
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 5: Whoever you believe was to blame for the colts overnight move,

819
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 5: whether that's Robert or say the state legislator eminent Domaine, whoever, whatever,

820
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 5: the impact on scores of people was profound. They hadn't

821
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 5: just lost their team. They went to bed on March

822
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 5: twenty eighth as Baltimore Colts fans. They woke up on

823
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 5: March twenty ninth without a team, without a piece of

824
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 5: their identity, and without a part of their city. And

825
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 5: the speed with which that happened, which with they had

826
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 5: a part of their identity ripped out of them. That

827
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 5: is a big part of why the hurt still lingers

828
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 5: in some people in Baltimore. John Scott began packing up

829
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,719
Speaker 5: the Colts equipment room around four am on March twenty eighth.

830
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,280
Speaker 5: Coaches in front office staffers joined the efforts around six pm,

831
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 5: and within twenty four hours, the Baltimore Colts were gone.

832
00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 11: I mean here was unbelievable. You know what in twenty

833
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:30,440
Speaker 11: four hours in other words. When that complex in Baltimore closed,

834
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 11: let's say at five o'clock, it was a fully functioning

835
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 11: complex as you would know today, equipment rooms, everything.

836
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:39,799
Speaker 3: You know.

837
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:42,400
Speaker 11: By four in the morning or five in the morning,

838
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:44,440
Speaker 11: it looked like an empty airplane hangar.

839
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 5: Maybe the Colts are going to move anyway. They almost

840
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:57,120
Speaker 5: left for Phoenix two months prior, and Indianapolis put together

841
00:43:57,160 --> 00:43:59,839
Speaker 5: a strong bid to land the team. They met every

842
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:03,439
Speaker 5: one of Robert Ursay's requests while opening the Hoosier Dome

843
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 5: with its sixty thousand serendipitously colored blue and white seats.

844
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 5: But when the Maryland State Senate overwhelmingly approved eminent domain legislation,

845
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:16,440
Speaker 5: signaling it was a matter of when, not if the

846
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 5: city of Baltimore could try to seize the Colts, it

847
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,720
Speaker 5: forced the team's hand. Sure, the courts could have got involved,

848
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:25,799
Speaker 5: and maybe the city wouldn't have been successful, but any

849
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 5: ongoing litigation could have at the very least complicated things

850
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:31,879
Speaker 5: for the Colts as they looked for their exit from

851
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 5: Memorial Stadium. The Colts had a good option awaiting them

852
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:37,920
Speaker 5: in Indianapolis. Why wait around and see what could have

853
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:38,880
Speaker 5: happened at Baltimore?

854
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 7: Not necessarily eminent domain, because that was that was a reach.

855
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 7: That was what spurred the move to be that night.

856
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:49,520
Speaker 7: But a judge could have temporarily issued a stay and

857
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,359
Speaker 7: so and actually we had stuff that was still there

858
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:55,239
Speaker 7: for another year and a half because he was able

859
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 7: to sign an order first thing in the morning that

860
00:44:57,080 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 7: we had and yeah yet shipped. So we had is

861
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 7: that we're in Baltimore for another eighteen months or so.

862
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:07,000
Speaker 5: The morning of March twenty ninth, the Maryland Assembly quickly

863
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:09,799
Speaker 5: moved the eminent domain bill through committee and then to

864
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,720
Speaker 5: its floor, where it easily passed. By noon, Maryland Governor

865
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 5: Harry Hughes signed it into law, saying, according to the

866
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 5: Baltimore Sun, quote, I don't like having to do something

867
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 5: like this, but extraordinary circumstances made it necessary. The Colts

868
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 5: are an integral part of the Baltimore community and the

869
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,319
Speaker 5: Maryland community. If this is necessary to assure that the

870
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:33,880
Speaker 5: city can make the last ditch effort to keep the

871
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 5: team here, then we have to do it. But folks

872
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 5: in Baltimore and officials in Maryland had plenty of chances

873
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 5: to keep the Colts in the years leading up to

874
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty four, Memorial Stadium had been a problem for

875
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,759
Speaker 5: a decade and a half, dating back to Carol Rosenbloom's

876
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 5: days as the Colts owner. Government officials responded by shutting

877
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 5: down a plan to build a dome stadium to house

878
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:56,319
Speaker 5: the Colts in the Orioles, and then by putting a

879
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 5: referendum on the ballot that eliminated any chance of building

880
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 5: a new stateum in Baltimore. Fan support was dwindling, falling

881
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 5: hard from the sellout streak in the nineteen sixties to

882
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,800
Speaker 5: under thirty thousand fans for some games in the nineteen eighties.

883
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 5: Mayor William Donald Shaeffer did everything he could within those

884
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,320
Speaker 5: boundaries to keep the Colts, but he was not able

885
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,359
Speaker 5: to do the thing that could have kept the Colts

886
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,760
Speaker 5: in Baltimore, and that's build a new stadium.

887
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 17: It's one of life's lessons, right. I don't know what

888
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:22,439
Speaker 17: else to say.

889
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 5: Nestor Eppertio is a long time Baltimore radio host.

890
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 17: If there's not enough money, the business closes and you

891
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 17: don't get to eat the ring dings you love there anymore,

892
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,759
Speaker 17: right Like, if enough people don't support it.

893
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,919
Speaker 5: But the narrative in Baltimore quickly and strongly became as mayor.

894
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 5: William Donald Schaeffer told TV news stations outside his home

895
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 5: on the morning of the twenty ninth that the Colts

896
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 5: had to sneak out of town. The narrative was that

897
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 5: Robert Arsay did something despicable and dishonorable over.

898
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 2: Nine the team moved. That's classless.

899
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 5: To this day, Robert Arsay is still hated by baltimoreans

900
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 5: old enough to remember March twenty eighth, nineteen eighty four,

901
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:02,840
Speaker 5: or because of how that night played out, But the

902
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 5: way his son observed it, a few things were true.

903
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:08,799
Speaker 5: Robert Arsay didn't really want to move the Colts, but

904
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:11,320
Speaker 5: he needed a new stadium, and the state of Maryland

905
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 5: pulling the ripcord on eminent domain was the reason why

906
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 5: Robert Arsay had to get the hell out of Baltimore overnight.

907
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 12: I would just tell anyone who wants to vilify my

908
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:25,960
Speaker 12: dad about moving the team is totally wrong. I would say,

909
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:28,560
Speaker 12: if it's right, look at when my dad's wrong, I'll

910
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,000
Speaker 12: tell you he was wrong. When he's right, I'll tell

911
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 12: you he was right. And that's just the way I

912
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 12: am with myself or anyone else. I mean, I'm not gonna.

913
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,880
Speaker 12: You know, the truth is is that there was no

914
00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:43,840
Speaker 12: question he was forced to move. Indy just did something

915
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:48,160
Speaker 12: which is unheard of, is they built a new stadium

916
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 12: and back then a dome stadium, which they are very

917
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:53,799
Speaker 12: few of, and they didn't have a team, you know.

918
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 5: I mean, it's like what Indianapolis's government officials and business

919
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:01,440
Speaker 5: community meanwhile put their reputations on the line to construct

920
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 5: the Hoosier Done. They're bold actions. Building a sixty thousand

921
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 5: seat stadium without an NFL tenant set the city up

922
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 5: to welcome the Colts with open arms on March twenty ninth,

923
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty four. Hud Nuts maneuvering to build the stadium

924
00:48:16,080 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 5: wasn't universally well received until it paid off.

925
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 18: So as a journalist, it's kind of showed me, you know, really,

926
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 18: you know, are you really I mean this feeding this

927
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 18: bs here or in this dream land of how things

928
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,640
Speaker 18: are everything? You know, So you do have that attitude

929
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 18: early on.

930
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 5: Debbie Knox began a long career as a reporter for

931
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 5: WISH TV in nineteen.

932
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 15: Eighty But when those vans loaded up Baltimore Colts, you

933
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,359
Speaker 15: know and all their you know, stuff that they had

934
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:49,360
Speaker 15: in vans and they're traveling in anatolasy Bob brsdayes in

935
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 15: the city.

936
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:52,080
Speaker 18: That's when it really became real.

937
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:04,640
Speaker 5: So beginning on March twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four, the

938
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:09,239
Speaker 5: Baltimore Colts were now the Indianapolis Colts. They did it.

939
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 5: The team moved.

940
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:14,279
Speaker 7: Now what didn't really know where to be. We didn't

941
00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:16,640
Speaker 7: have you know, we didn't have phones. We didn't have

942
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:19,480
Speaker 7: any boy the answer phones. We didn't have stationary, We

943
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:21,760
Speaker 7: didn't know what our address was. We didn't have a copier,

944
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:22,760
Speaker 7: you know, all that stuff.

945
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:23,919
Speaker 4: It was just like more how.

946
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,520
Speaker 7: Starting a franchise from scratch, except that you had your

947
00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 7: players and your coaches of the contract.

948
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:32,000
Speaker 5: The story of what came next after the Colts arrived

949
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 5: in Indianapolis and how on remarkably short notice an NFL

950
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,000
Speaker 5: team got off the ground in a new city with

951
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,319
Speaker 5: just over five months before the season started is on

952
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:45,320
Speaker 5: the next and final episode of The Move Aftermath.

953
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 14: Well, now we're going to take you to the complex.

954
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 6: I think you great.

955
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,520
Speaker 14: Yeah, I hope it's as nice as the one in Baltimore.

956
00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 14: And we pull up to Fall Creek Elementary School. Yes,

957
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 14: why are we here?

958
00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:05,920
Speaker 19: March twenty nine to eighty four, the Colts arrived in Indy.

959
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 19: I still remember thinking, wow, that's kind of late, you know,

960
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:13,399
Speaker 19: in the in the ticketing process to move, and I thought, wow,

961
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:16,080
Speaker 19: that's going to be pretty tough for someone over there

962
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:16,720
Speaker 19: in Indy.

963
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:18,759
Speaker 9: Little did I know there was going to.

964
00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:21,800
Speaker 20: Be meet like the talking has sound life during wartime,

965
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:25,319
Speaker 20: you know that gunfire and the distance time getting used

966
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:28,719
Speaker 20: to it. Now, you know, it's so absurd that no

967
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,440
Speaker 20: one would possibly you just could not believe.

968
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:33,799
Speaker 2: What was going on that first year.

969
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:35,920
Speaker 12: I mean, it's just it's unbelievable.

970
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 7: There was a learning curve to becoming a crowd.

971
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:41,800
Speaker 21: I think what was evident once the season started it

972
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:45,840
Speaker 21: was a basketball state with a tremendous heritage because whenever

973
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,239
Speaker 21: the offense got in the field, they were cheering. So

974
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:50,440
Speaker 21: we come ahead and kind of hold our hands down,

975
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:52,880
Speaker 21: like no, no, no, we're cheer when they're on defis.

976
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:54,759
Speaker 17: I was angry about it for so long, bro. I

977
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 17: lan ended at your airport and I went in passed

978
00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,840
Speaker 17: the Kolachi stand and into Center City for years and

979
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 17: would see that Colt shop in the mall. It would

980
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:03,800
Speaker 17: piss me off.

981
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 22: The story of the nineteen eighty four season, and the

982
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 22: fallout of the Colts Move, both in Indianapolis and in Baltimore,

983
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 22: will be told on episode four of The Move. The

984
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 22: episode will be released on July fifteenth. Subscribe to the

985
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 22: Colts Audio Network on your podcast platform of choice to

986
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:24,319
Speaker 22: download episodes one and two of The Move, which tell

987
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:28,200
Speaker 22: the story of Baltimore and Indianapolis before the Colts moved.

988
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,040
Speaker 22: Episode three of The Move was written and narrated by

989
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:35,719
Speaker 22: JJ Stankowitz and produced by Casey Valiant. Amber Daro, Dave Knickerbocker,

990
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,400
Speaker 22: and Matt Taylor contributed with research and editing.

991
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:02,000
Speaker 7: Se