By the late 1970's the Colts were unfortunately a shell of themselves in an organizational sense. Ironically, the departure of the chaotic Joe Thomas only made things worse for them, as it was his absence that began to further expose the even more volatile Robert Irsay to the team and city. It was around this time that he began to flirt with moving the team for the first time, but before fans truly began to worry about that, they were instead more focused on what would wind up being the last competitive days for the Colts in Baltimore. This reached it's peak with an incredible playoff game against the Oakland Raiders that would become so famous it would earn a nickname that ensured it would live on for decades in Baltimore. The days after this game would be rough ones, as contractual disputes, marred the end of the decade, and would come to define the business style of Irsay who was running more interference than ever on the team. They were tough days for certain, but nothing in comparison to what Colt fans were still yet to go through...
This podcast is produced by Jake Louque (@Jakelouque) as a Baltimore Beatdown Podcast Limited Series, presented by SB Nation's Baltimore Beatdown.
Special Thanks to:
Jack Gilden
Bill Curry
Keith Mills
Sourcing and supplemental audio for today's show, in order of appearance:
https://bonesaw.tripod.com/records6.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz4eFbcw4hs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFA5N5Q3tPs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1978/08/10/racial-grievance-filed-by-mitchell-against-the-colts/7777bcf5-8f1d-492f-9b14-4a08d73878a0/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1978/08/23/colt-owner-irsay-rejects-compromise-with-mitchell/bd52d5b6-9d3c-4bc9-99f6-dfc5c545eee4/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifR7lmPDN_M
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/08/archives/bert-jones-makes-colts-go-camera-records-his-pain.html#:~:text=Jones%20suffered%20a%20partial%20separation,which%20the%20Colts%20lost%20four.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1986/12/15/now-you-see-him-now-you-dont
https://vault.si.com/vault/1979/10/08/no-ones-got-the-dutton-pro-bowl-defensive-end-john-dutton-is-forking-hay-in-nebraska-not-sacking-quarterbacks-in-baltimore-while-his-agent-seeks-a-team-willing-to-meet-his-price
https://vault.si.com/vault/1979/09/10/oh-no-not-again-baltimores-stock-dropped-when-quarterback-bert-jones-who-was-sidelined-for-most-of-the-1978-season-suffered-yet-another-injury-to-his-right-shoulder-in-the-colts-loss-to-kansas-city
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zwYzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EuIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6733%2C9065819
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1979/06/13/irsay-shots-blanks/365d8319-bc5b-4371-983c-5427645503a3/
https://www.jacksonville.com/photogallery/LK/20190815/NEWS/815009993/PH/1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1980/01/17/colts-pick-mccormack/e4c37dc6-98e6-473f-9794-383aec5851e5/
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/09/22/Baltimore-coach-Mike-McCormack-is-blaming-the-performance-of/4493369979200/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1981/11/17/irsay-on-the-phone-mccormack-on-hold/397b0405-c6ce-4f46-aa5e-3690250eb2c2/#:~:text=Mike%20McCormack%20today%20said%20he,the%20Colts'%2010th%20straight%20defeat.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/14/Bert-Jones-demands-Colts-trade-him/5284387608400/
https://vault.si.com/vault/1982/05/10/la-gets-a-new-leading-man#:~:text=First%20to%20Manning%2C%20who%20was,eve%20of%20the%20NFL%20draft.&text=The%20Rams%20would%20give%20the,30%2Dyear%2Dold%20Jones.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1983/05/20/neck-injury-forces-bert-jones-to-retire/c1d09eac-433d-438f-a229-58634b23a04b/
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