I was just eating lunch, had it saved on my DVR.  Put it on very casually, not expecting to watch the whole thing at this moment.

I watched the whole thing, and early on I got a little choked up.

But towards the end I literally burst into tears.  My girlfriend was there and I said "I can't believe i'm F'in crying"

It was really well told.  I'm 28 and born in 81, and have no memory of the colts.  My family wasn't a family that switched over to the Deadskins or tried to keep following the Colts.  Football was dead to me my entire childhood until high school when the Ravens came.  I know about the Colts, but not really.  I wasn't raised with a connection to them.

But this movie really put it together for me.  Props to its makers for making a short film that made me actually cry.  It was angry, but happy.  And i now have a greater appreciation of what the band has done for this great city.

And for any haters on the band, and there are many, you must not have seen this film.  And if you have and are still a hater, you have a heart of stone, or are not a true Baltimorean.

I still can't believe I cried.  Haven't burst into tears like that since I was 18.

I missed it the first night and due to NASCAR it was not on the second night. I should have recorded it. I think the next showing is Christmas Eve or Day. But I will see it. I appreciate everything they did for the Colts, the town, and the Ravens. Thanks for posting!

I Doubt I'll cry or feel any sorrow. I'm 31 and live most of my life without the Colts as well. But I've grown to hate the team, mostly because others refuse to let go.

I spent the 90's as a basketball fan. Which generally meant I was a Jordan fan.

I became a Ravens fan on Day 1, before we even had a name. I have a new team and legacy with the Ravens. This passion for a team we no longer have is a little creepy.

I'm also a true Baltimorean. My family has had the same house in Bolton Hill for 3 generations, a few Blocks from MICA. We didn't move and we watched the city turn to crap in the 80's and 90's and begin to rise from the ashes.

I hate the Colts. I hate the fact that it makes the Ravens always feel like an unworthy substitute or a bastard stepchild. I have no personal dislike for any of the former players, but I wish Johnny U and other players left Baltimore with the team. It gave up another reason to hold on to a team that left us like a theif in the night.

For everything they've done for this team; RAY LEWIS AND JONATHAN OGDEN DESERVE STATUTES IN FRONT OF CAMDEN YARDS RIGHT NEXT TO JOHNNY UNITAS.

But they won't get them. And that's the most unfair crime of all.

When can we let go? We have a new team. We wear purple. And we won a title!

It's a lock that there will be a statue of Ray after he retires.

I'm 38 and the first year I was interested in football was 1978, the year Bert Jones hurt his shoulder, which marked the end of the Baltimore Colts ever being a competitive team again.  So, I have no "good" memories from being a Colts fan.  This is probably the reason why I too get annoyed at the sometimes pathetic clinging on to a franchise that, in the end, said F U to the city of Baltimore.  If I were around for the "good ole days", I would have a different opinion I'm sure.

However, the ESPN doc has way more depth.  It goes way beyond the pathetic clinging to the glory days, to tell a story of a city and a region never giving up.  After being told time and time again by the NFL that they weren't good enough, Baltimore wouldn't shut up and wouldn't go away.

BTW.... the Len Bias doc on ESPN this week is sure to be gut wrencher.

I am from Michigan and I thought it was a great short movie.

That "Never Give Up" attitude is what I admire most about the Baltimore Colts band and the people in the city.

At this point the Ravens are your team and a franchise everyone in Baltimore should be proud of.

I am 50 years old and growing up Johnny U. was my idol.  I played QB and wore #19.  He overcame adversity and never gave up.

The people of Baltimore can and should cherish both the Baltimore Colts  of old AND the Baltimore Ravens.

Screw the Indianopolis Colts though...

This old Colts fan has no less love for the Ravens due to the Colts. Actually, I probably appreciate them more than those of you who did not suffer through a team leaving. You did not ache and hope for years and buy seasons tickets for the Stars and the CFL team and pay for a stupid exhibition game and have the Redskins rammed down your throats like I did. And I will never show up with a bag over my head or have a fan strike like those losers in Cleveland are doing on MNF or that two-bit idiot did with the Orioles. Will you be in your seat when the Ravens is 3-10? I will. Did you cheer when Boller got hurt? Did you leave early in the Seattle game and miss the great Anthony Wright / Marcus Robinson comeback? Who do you think put down all those deposits for seasons tickets - don't you think a lot of them were old Colts fans?

The poster was not a Colts fan but found the movie moving. It may very well be that without the Colts band we would not have the Ravens. Would that make you happy? Your anger towards "old Colts fans" is sadly misdirected.

ClericBlackDave wrote:

 

I watched the whole thing, and early on I got a little choked up.

 

 

But towards the end I literally burst into tears.  My girlfriend was there and I said "I can't believe i'm F'in crying"

Since it's time for "True Confessions", I'll join in.  First time I got misty eyed since Johnny U day at the stadium, a few weeks after he died.

WinterWars wrote:

I Doubt I'll cry or feel any sorrow. I'm 31 and live most of my life without the Colts as well. But I've grown to hate the team, mostly because others refuse to let go.

 

........... I hate the Colts. I hate the fact that it makes the Ravens always feel like an unworthy substitute or a bastard stepchild. I have no personal dislike for any of the former players, but I wish Johnny U and other players left Baltimore with the team.

 

...... When can we let go? We have a new team. We wear purple. And we won a title!

 

 

 

 

Nothing personal, but it's Ravens fans with similar attitudes are getting a free ride.  You wouldn't have the Ravens if it weren't for the old Colts fans (and the Colts Corrals and Marching Band).

Please watch 30 in 30 again!

thanksart wrote:

This old Colts fan has no less love for the Ravens due to the Colts. Actually, I probably appreciate them more than those of you who did not suffer through a team leaving. You did not ache and hope for years and buy seasons tickets for the Stars and the CFL team and pay for a stupid exhibition game and have the Redskins rammed down your throats like I did. And I will never show up with a bag over my head or have a fan strike like those losers in Cleveland are doing on MNF or that two-bit idiot did with the Orioles. Will you be in your seat when the Ravens is 3-10? I will. Did you cheer when Boller got hurt? Did you leave early in the Seattle game and miss the great Anthony Wright / Marcus Robinson comeback? Who do you think put down all those deposits for seasons tickets - don't you think a lot of them were old Colts fans?

Art: if you run for Governor, you've got my vote!  Eloquent.

I actually watched the TIVOed version because my kids make fun of me crying at TV, and believe it or not it my 17 yo son has watched it 3 times and feels he understands me more and why I react the way I do.  It is Amazing.

thanksart wrote:

 And I will never show up with a bag over my head or have a fan strike like those losers in Cleveland are doing on MNF or that two-bit idiot did with the Orioles. Will you be in your seat when the Ravens is 3-10? I will. Did you cheer when Boller got hurt? Did you leave early in the Seattle game and miss the great Anthony Wright / Marcus Robinson comeback? Who do you think put down all those deposits for seasons tickets - don't you think a lot of them were old Colts fans?

 

I will never do the bag thing either, I will be at those games at 3-10 and buy my seaosn tixs year after year, Nope I didn't cheer when he got hurt I still shake my head about that, parents wanted to leave early but my friend who went was a Seahawks fan so they decided to let us stay they were glad we did.

I appreaciate the work you guys did to get us a team back, but to question the guys fandom just becuase he doesn't agree with something you do is just as wrong.

bigwillygbcs wrote:

 

thanksart wrote:

And I will never show up with a bag over my head or have a fan strike like those losers in Cleveland are doing on MNF or that two-bit idiot did with the Orioles. Will you be in your seat when the Ravens is 3-10? I will. Did you cheer when Boller got hurt? Did you leave early in the Seattle game and miss the great Anthony Wright / Marcus Robinson comeback? Who do you think put down all those deposits for seasons tickets - don't you think a lot of them were old Colts fans?

 

I will never do the bag thing either, I will be at those games at 3-10 and buy my seaosn tixs year after year, Nope I didn't cheer when he got hurt I still shake my head about that, parents wanted to leave early but my friend who went was a Seahawks fan so they decided to let us stay they were glad we did.

 

I appreaciate the work you guys did to get us a team back, but to question the guys fandom just becuase he doesn't agree with something you do is just as wrong.

You're dead wrong, it was a very valid criticism.  The guy said that he wished the old Colts, including Johnny U, would've left too.  He also put down all the old Colts fans, which is pretty stupid too, considering they're the main reason we have the Ravens.  Pretty ignorant things to say.

Most of us "Fing whiners" will always appreciate the Ravens doubly more now because of the loss of the Colts in Baltimore.  The  "get over it" crowd is very spoiled, because if had not been for us " fing whiners" and the band ya'll would not know what professional football in Baltimore is.    Just remember that.  The Ravens are not second class citizens, we all bleed purple but the Baltimore Colts are like your first love, you may have split but with out them you would not be the person you are now and you will never forget them.   Signed Fing whiner who will be in her seat at 1245 cheering my Ravens.

I think there are 3 groups / generations here:

1) Colts fans who had a team with a great storied history ripped away from them and lived in NFL purgatory for all those years before the Ravens

2) Late twenty somethings like myself who didn't grow up with a team but enjoyed the Ravens coming during my high school years

3) Younger Ravens fans who have grown up with a team.

For groups 2 and 3, I understand why on the surface you don't understand.

What the original post was saying was that the film makes you understand that the band not quitting and the undying spirit of Baltimore fans is why we have the Ravens.  The would be no Ravens without the Marching Band, I have no doubt in my mind.

I cried because I understood how a part of my childhood was stolen, how the league pointed a middle finger at Baltimore during expansion, how much of a drunken a$$hole Irsay was, how sad it was to see Donald Schaffer immaculated like that, to see our Civic Pride immasculated like that.

While my pain watching could never equal the pain of Group 1, fans who really knew the Colts, but the film helped me understand. 

And if you actually REALLY watched the whole film with an open mind and don't get it now, you're just spoiled.  You're probably in Group 3 and have no clue of what its like to not have a team, and to have the City crushed like that.

I'd feel more sympathy for Browns fans, but we left them their colors and history, and they got a sweetheart expansion deal with extra draft picks and expansion draft I think?   While when Baltimore had our team ripped off we were told to build a f'in museum, and they gave a team to Jacksonville.  I'm old enough to remember the failed expansion bids and that was some bullsh1t

WinterWars wrote:

I became a Ravens fan on Day 1, before we even had a name. I have a new team and legacy with the Ravens. This passion for a team we no longer have is a little creepy.

 

You didn't grow up as a Baltimore Colts fan. You didn't grow up surrounded by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that were Baltimore Colts season ticket holders. You didn't grow up spending Sundays in the autumn either at Memorial Stadium or at a relative's house, watching the game on TV. I find it a little creepy that you claim to be a Baltimore football fan and cannot understand the passions some of us older "whiners" have for a long-gone team.

 

I'm also a true Baltimorean. My family has had the same house in Bolton Hill for 3 generations, a few Blocks from MICA. We didn't move and we watched the city turn to crap in the 80's and 90's and begin to rise from the ashes.

 

I hate the Colts. I hate the fact that it makes the Ravens always feel like an unworthy substitute or a bastard stepchild. I have no personal dislike for any of the former players, but I wish Johnny U and other players left Baltimore with the team. It gave up another reason to hold on to a team that left us like a theif in the night.

 

You claim to be a "true Baltimorean" yet you wish Unitas and the others had left when Bourbon Bob took the Colts away. You don't know the meaning of the term.

 

For everything they've done for this team; RAY LEWIS AND JONATHAN OGDEN DESERVE STATUTES IN FRONT OF CAMDEN YARDS RIGHT NEXT TO JOHNNY UNITAS.

 

But they won't get them. And that's the most unfair crime of all.

 

When can we let go? We have a new team. We wear purple. And we won a title!

 

Listen up and listen good, little fella. I bleed purple. I have done so since 1996. I bleed purple despite living 1,600 miles from Baltimore now. I bleed purple to the extent I started an unofficial Ravens Nest here in Austin, and we pull in anywhere between 20 to 50 Ravens fans PER GAME here in Texas. Before I bled purple, I bled blue and silver for the Baltimore Stallions, and I had season tickets to see CFL football. Why? Because I was a Baltimorean. Did you have CFL tickets? Before the Stallions, I bled red and yellow for the Baltimore Stars of the USFL and had season tickets to see them. Did you have tickets to see them? Before the Stars, I bled blue and white for the Baltimore Colts. When they left, a part of my heart left. When the NFL staged that exhibition game at Memorial Stadium, I was one of the 50,000 + that bought tickets, to show the NFL we, the former Baltimore Colts football fans, deserved to be back in the NFL. Did you buy tickets to that game?Did you shell out money to sit and watch two teams that meant absolutely nothing to us?

 

How dare you question my loyalty to Baltimore football. For you to demand we forget the Colts shows clearly that you have NO CONCEPT of what it means to be a Baltimore football fan. If it wasn't for us "old whiners," you'd be watching golf or NASCAR on Sundays, instead of sitting at the stadium and watching the Ravens.

 

 

 

 

 What Tex said. I, like CBD, grew up without the Colts on Sundays. But I grew up in a family/in a neighborhood that were Colt's fans. I heard the stories, from multiple people with multiple views (mostly wishing a safe to fall on Irsay's head like in the cartoons.) The best way to describe what it means to some people of my generation (middle 30's) is that starting this season, I can sit with my one year old and watch football together. Now I know he has no clue/doesn't give a rat's patootie about what's on the TV unless it has colors, noise, and blinking lights now, but as he gets older he'll understand and then I'll watch my hometown football team with my son. Something a lot of us were never able to experiece with our fathers.

I understand some people's desire to move on from the old Colts, and I have no problem with it. But to wish that Johnny U and our history went away when the colors left, well, not so much.

\

It does me well to see 20 somethings like Dave have this kind of reaction to the truth. I was in HS in '83 and cried like a baby that snowy night. On the other thread we had many other 20 somethings who posted that they have now changed their tune regarding the band and us old Colt fans. I tip my cap to y'all. As for the one of 2 being a holes on this thread...... well it is Denver day so I'll let it go. But you would have no Ravens without the efforts of old Colt fans. So stop being jerks.

And WW, you might want to watch who you agitate considering you are already on thin f ing ice around here.

Let me say that I was never a nay-sayer re: the Band, I've always hated the INDIANAPOLIS Colts, and had some respect for the Baltimore Colts.

But the film really showed me how the efforts of the Band and a vocal minority were what kept the door open for Football to return to Baltimore, MD.

Without the Band, there would be no Ravens.  So for that I salute the Band and its members and leadership.

I do agree that having a team is like a marriage, and its gotta be better or for worse.  But I also think that ownership by the city like Greenbay or ownership by a benevolent local power like Bisciotti is IDEAL.  And if we we weren't dealing with a drunken a$$hole like Irsay, things could have been worked out.

But I cried after watching that film, it was just an emotional feeling.  Anger, sadness, triumph, and the utmost respect for the Band for keeping the faith and being goodwill ambassadors for Baltimore Football.

OT: I am the only person that wishes the Stallions hadn't left?  Yeah, it was the CFL, but it was Baltimore football, and I enjoyed it the times I went.

RchmondRvnsFan wrote:

 

bigwillygbcs wrote:

 

thanksart wrote:

And I will never show up with a bag over my head or have a fan strike like those losers in Cleveland are doing on MNF or that two-bit idiot did with the Orioles. Will you be in your seat when the Ravens is 3-10? I will. Did you cheer when Boller got hurt? Did you leave early in the Seattle game and miss the great Anthony Wright / Marcus Robinson comeback? Who do you think put down all those deposits for seasons tickets - don't you think a lot of them were old Colts fans?

 

I will never do the bag thing either, I will be at those games at 3-10 and buy my seaosn tixs year after year, Nope I didn't cheer when he got hurt I still shake my head about that, parents wanted to leave early but my friend who went was a Seahawks fan so they decided to let us stay they were glad we did.

 

I appreaciate the work you guys did to get us a team back, but to question the guys fandom just becuase he doesn't agree with something you do is just as wrong.

 

You're dead wrong, it was a very valid criticism.  The guy said that he wished the old Colts, including Johnny U, would've left too.  He also put down all the old Colts fans, which is pretty stupid too, considering they're the main reason we have the Ravens.  Pretty ignorant things to say.

I see your point but why question his fandom? Saying the guy wouldn't show up if we are 3-10 or that the guy was one of the people who cheered an injury is not a fair assesment of him.

Misinformed he may be about certain things it gives us no right to say he woud/did those things. I can see both viewpoints on the subject, I try to be objective, but w/o you guys, w/o the band we wouldn't have the Ravens right now, we wouldn't have never seen a CFL Grey Cup, a Ravens SuperBowl none of it and we would still be getting the Deadskins jammed down our throats.

I just checked out a book from the library on the History of Baltimore Football and have seen some interesting things in it like how the Colts could have moved to Baltimore County and the mayor of the county said no? Can someone familair with that give me some input on it please. It would be appreciated

Baltimore County has a County Executive, not a Mayor and as far as I can remember the training complex has always been in the county, I would defer to Mista T on that.

drkraven wrote:

Baltimore County has a County Executive, not a Mayor and as far as I can remember the training complex has always been in the county, I would defer to Mista T on that.

ok thanks if Mista T could answer, the book is at my grandmothers but I believe it was Rosenbloom who wanted to possibly build the stadium in Baltimore County since the city wouldn't build a new one and the county exec said no way and that prompted Rosenbloom to do the swap with Irsay