Baltimore could get some revenge for the late night move of the Colts in 1984 with a victory in Indianapolis in the AFC Playoffs.

It has been more than 25 years since the Baltimore Colts snuck out of town in the middle of the night on their way to Indianapolis.

Since Baltimore regained an NFL franchise in 1996 the Baltimore Ravens have faced the Indianapolis Colts on ten occasions with the Colts holding a dominating 8-2 advantage. That includes a 15-6 win during their only playoff meeting in 2006.

The Ravens could wipe away all that disappointment with one broad stroke on Saturday if they are able to knock off the heavily favored Colts.

Indianapolis gave up on a chance to make NFL history by finishing undefeated in favor of focusing on winning their second Super Bowl title since moving from Baltimore.

If the Ravens are able to pull off the upset and keep the Colts from continuing their run toward the Lombardi Trophy, it would likely rank as one of the sweetest victories in Ravens history.

Even though Indianapolis would seem to have the upper hand and has defeated Baltimore each of the four times they have met in Indianapolis, you can’t count the Ravens completely out.

Following their dominating victory over the New England Patriots, Baltimore has won four of their last five games.

In addition, they nearly defeated the Colts in their first meeting earlier in the season with Indianapolis winning only by the score of 17-15.

The Ravens looked like they would have a chance for a game-winning score in the final minutes, but a Joe Flacco pass was intercepted at the Colts’ 13-yard line allowing Indy to run out the clock.

This time around the Colts must shake off the rust from the last three weeks. After winning their first 14 games, the Colts chose not to risk injuries to key players and used primarily reserves during much of the last two games.

Then last week they had a bye while the Ravens were tearing up the Patriots.

This marks the fourth time that Indianapolis has earned a first round playoff bye and on the previous three occasions they lost their first playoff game.

If history repeats, it will bring much joy to Ravens fans as they are looking to make the AFC Championship Game for the second straight season.

Nothing will ever completely remove the bitter taste from the mouths of Baltimore Colts fans, but you can bet that a victory Saturday would bring a smile to the faces of everyone who remembers that snowy day in 1984.

Many consider Johnny Unitas to be the greatest athlete in Baltimore sports history.

Measuring greatness is always a tough challenge. While athletes grow in size, stature and athletic ability, does it mean the athletes of today are greater than those of 30 years ago and were those athletes better than the stars of the 1940s and 1950s?

Through the years, Baltimore has been blessed with many great stars.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, Memorial Stadium was home to some of the greatest athletes in Baltimore sports history. Then since the Orioles moved to Camden Yards and the ravens came to town, there have been more superstars to call the city home

But who is the greatest of the greats?

We want to know who you believe is the greatest athlete in the history of Baltimore sports. Vote in the poll accompanying this article and then share with us your thoughts and memories on the athlete you believe is the most deserving.

Out of the dozens of athletes who could have easily been considered, we have narrowed the field to seven finalists. Brief profiles are below.

Ray Lewis has been a defensive star for 13 seasons with the Ravens.

Ray Lewis: The only active player on this list, Lewis is an original Raven having been picked by the team with one of their two first round picks in the 1996 NFL Draft. Amazingly, 25 teams passed on Lewis in the draft and he has been making everyone in the league pay for 13 seasons. One of the hardest hitting linebackers of his generation, Lewis has been the prototype linebacker since he joined the league. A 10 time Pro Bowl selection, Lewis has been a first team All-NFL selection six times. In 2000, the Baltimore defense emerged as the best in the league and Lewis was the leader of the charge. He was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2000 and again in 2003. The Ravens went 12-4 in the 2000 regular season and then allowed a total of 23 points in four playoff games to earn their only Super Bowl title. He was honored as the Super Bowl MVP. Lewis has recorded more than 1,200 career tackles with 33.5 sacks, 28 interceptions and 15 fumble recoveries. He remains the inspirational leader of the defense and a perennial All-Pro.

Gino Marchetti was a first team All-Pro seven times.

Gino Marchetti: Four decades before Ray Lewis, Gino Marchetti evoked the same kind of fear and frustration in offensive players as a defensive end for the Baltimore Colts. A dominating run stuffer and relentless pass rusher, Marchetti was an 11-time Pro Bowl selection and seven-time first team All-Pro. After spending one season as an offensive lineman, he became a Pro Bowl defensive end in 1954 and served as the anchor of the Baltimore defense for 13 seasons. In the 1958 NFL Championship Game, Marchetti broke his leg early in the contest, but the captain refused to leave the field until after the Colts won in overtime. Marchetti was a member of the NFL All-Decade team for the 1950s and in 1969 was named the top defensive end of the first 50 years of the NFL. He was also a member of the NFL’s 75th Anniversary team.

Jim Palmer is the only player to be on all three Baltimore Orioles World Series Champions.

Jim Palmer: The best pitcher in Baltimore Orioles history, Jim Palmer holds the distinction of being the only player to be on the active roster for all three Baltimore World Series titles, in 1966, 1970 and 1983. He actually recorded a victory in each of those World Series and had a 4-2 overall record in nine World Series games. As a 20-year old in 1966, Palmer had a 15-10 record and in game two tossed a four hit shutout to hand Sandy Koufax a loss in his final pitching appearance. Between 1970 and 1978, Palmer won at least 20 games eight out of nine years and claimed the Cy Young Award three times. He was a four-time Gold Glove winner and was named to six All-Star Games. In 1973 he went 22-9 with a 2.40 ERA to win his first Cy Young Award and finish second in the American League MVP voting. Palmer finished his career with a 268-152 record with a 2.86 ERA. He was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.

Cal Ripken Jr. played in a record 2,632 consecutive games for the Orioles.

Cal Ripken, Jr.: For nearly 20 years, Cal Ripken Jr. represented the city of Baltimore and the Orioles with grace and class. The ultimate lunch pale player, Ripken played in a major league record 2,632 consecutive games and played in 3,001 total games in his career. He was in his second year when the Orioles won the World Series in 1983. Ripken, who brought power to the shortstop position, was named the American League MVP after hitting .318 with 27 home runs and 102 RBI. He hit more than 20 home runs in 10 straight seasons between 1982 and 1991. In 1991, Ripken claimed his second AL MVP Award while hitting .323 while establishing career-highs with 34 home runs and 114 RBI. He made 19 consecutive All-Star appearances and eight times claimed the Silver Slugger Award as the top hitting shortstop. Ripken retired following the 2001 season with 3,184 hits, 431 home runs and 1,695 RBI. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Brooks Robinson won 16 straight Gold Glove awards.

Brooks Robinson: No one ever fielded their position better than Brooks Robinson patrolled the area around baseball’s hot corner. Robinson claimed 16 consecutive Gold Glove awards between 1960 and 1975. He was the American League MVP in 1964 and finished third in 1965 and second in 1966. In 1966 the Orioles claimed their first World Series title with a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Robinson is best remembered for using both his glove and bat to completely dominate the 1970 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Robinson hit .429 with two home runs and six RBI. He also robbed the Reds of countless base hits with his amazing fielding. It was no surprise when he was named the Series MVP. In 23 major league seasons, Robinson hit .267 with 268 home runs and 1,357 RBI. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

Frank Robinson won the American League MVP Award and Triple Crown in 1966.

Frank Robinson: Frank Robinson spent only six seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, but it was an amazing six year stretch. Already an established superstar after a decade with the Cincinnati Reds, Robinson was just the player needed to put the Orioles over the top. He made an immediate splash in 1966 as he claimed the Triple Crown with 49 home runs, 122 RBI and a .316 batting average. Ironically, it was the only time in his career that Robinson led the league in any of those three categories. The Orioles reached the World Series for the first time in team history and swept the Los Angeles Dodgers as Robinson hit two home runs and drove home three runs. Between 1969 and 1971, the Orioles reached three straight World Series and claimed the title in 1970. Robinson was traded following the 1971 season despite leading the Orioles to four World Series appearances in six years. He hit .300 with 179 home runs and 545 RBI in six seasons with the Birds. For his career, Robinson hit .294 with 586 home runs and 1,812 RBI. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Johnny Unitas was the NFL MVP three-times.

Johnny Unitas: After being cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnny Unitas was playing semi-pro football for the Bloomfield Rams when the former quarterback at Louisville received a tryout with the Baltimore Colts. As they say, the rest is history as Unitas eventually emerged as the greatest quarterback of his generation. After entering the lineup when starter George Shaw broke his leg in the fourth game of the 1956 season, Unitas quickly established himself as one of the elite quarterbacks in football. In 1957, his first full season as the starter, Unitas led the league passing yards and touchdown passes to earn his first Pro Bowl selection. The following season, Unitas led the Colts to the playoffs for the first time in team history. In the dramatic NFL Championship Game, Unitas led the Colts on a last minute drive to send the game into overtime. Then, in the first overtime game in NFL history Unitas led the Colts down the field to the winning score. The Colts repeated as champions in 1959. By the 1960s, Unitas was rewriting the NFL record books. He finished his career with then records of 290 touchdown passes and 40,239 career passing yards. A 10-time Pro Bowl selection and five time first team All-Pro, Unitas was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

Johnny Unitas was the best quarterback to ever play in Baltimore.

In a new Baltimore Sports Then and Now regular feature, we are going to periodically scan YouTube and share some of the best videos and slideshows that highlight the best players and moments from the present and past in Baltimore sports.

Fittingly, our first featured athlete is the greatest quarterback in Baltimore sports history and arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time: Johnny Unitas.

So, kick back and enjoy some great memories of the special career of Johnny U.

Remembering Johnny Unitas

1958 NFL Championship Game, The Greatest Game Ever Played

Johnny Unitas Through The Years

Baltimore Colts Victory Song

Each week during the 2009 NFL season, Sports Then and Now will pick one NFL matchup and look through the history books to find an intriguing past meeting between the two teams. We will recap the game and hopefully help reintroduce (or introduce for you younger readers) you to some of the greats (and in some cases not so greats) from the history of professional football.

Thanks to the decision in 1995 by Art Modell to move the beloved Cleveland Browns to Baltimore a decade after the Colts left in the middle of the night for Indianapolis, Cleveland and Baltimore are forever linked and more than a decade later there is still resentment and anger among some long-time Cleveland fans.

This week as the Baltimore Ravens and current Cleveland Browns are preparing to do battle, we look at a game between the two predecessor franchises in those two cities. The Baltimore Colts and original Cleveland Browns had some classic confrontations during the 1950s and 1960s. But their regular season meeting during the 1968 season is one of the most noteworthy.

The Matchup: Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Colts

Series Record: Between 1956 and 1983 the Browns and Colts met 15 times with Cleveland holding a 10-5 series advantage, including wins in their final five meetings. The two teams met in the playoffs three times, with Baltimore holding a 2-1 edge. However, Cleveland defeated the Colts 27-0 to win the 1964 NFL Championship. There were some other memorable moments in the series including a 38-31 Cleveland victory in 1959 in which Jim Brown rushed for five touchdowns and Johnny Unitas passed for four scores. In 1978, veteran running back Calvin Hill caught three touchdown passes to lift the Browns to a 45-24 victory. Two years later, Bert Jones led the Colts on a furious fourth quarter comeback that fell just short in a 28-27 Cleveland victory.

However, of all the meetings, the 1968 matchup is the most interesting and worthy of a Classic Rewind.

The Game: October 20, 1968, Memorial Stadium, Baltimore Maryland

Team Records: Cleveland Browns 2-3, Baltimore Colts 5-0

Bill Nelsen and the Cleveland Browns entered the game against the Colts struggling with a 2-3 record. Nelsen threw three touchdown passes (none longer than 6 yards) to get the team on a roll.

Overview: The Cleveland Browns came to Memorial Stadium in need of a spark after a surprising loss to the St. Louis Cardinals dropped their record to 2-3. On the other hand, a year after going 11-1-2 and missing the playoffs, the Colts were a team on a mission. They entered this contest with a 5-0 record and had outscored their first five opponents by more than 21 points per game. With veteran quarterback Johnny Unitas sidelined by an injury, journeyman Earl Morrall had seized the reigns and was having an MVP-type season. Running back Leroy Kelly was the offensive star for the Browns while quarterback Bill Nelsen was under center.

Coaches: Cleveland Browns – Blanton Collier (6th year); Baltimore Colts – Don Shula (6th year)

Notable Browns: Bill Nelsen (qb), Paul Warfield (wr), Leroy Kelly (rb), Eppie Barney (fl), Milt Morin (te), Gene Hickerson (ol), Bill Glass (de), Don Cockroft (k), Ben Davis (db), Bob Matheson (lb)

Notable Colts: Earl Morrall (qb), Johnny Unitas (qb), Tom Matte (rb), John Mackey (te), Jerry Hill (rb), Jimmy Orr (wr), Willie Richardson (wr), Rick Volk (db), Bubba Smith (dl), Mike Curtis (lb)

Interesting Notes: Colts head coach Don Shula had been a player for both teams having spent two years as a player under legendary head coach Paul Brown with the Cleveland Browns and then spending four seasons (1953-1956) with the Baltimore Colts. Two key performers for the Browns would go on to become key players for Shula during his tenure with the Miami Dolphins. Wide receiver Paul Warfield was traded to Miami in 1970 and became the deep threat that complimented the dominant running game. The famous Miami 53 defense was named after Matheson, who wore number 53. Matheson played with the Browns from 1967-1970 and then with the Dolphins from 1971-1979. One of Shula’s assistant coaches with the Baltimore Colts in 1968 was Chuck Noll, who would become the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers the following season and lead them to four Super Bowl victories.

Don Shula won 71 games in his seven years with the Colts, but they struggled in the biggest games.

The Game: The Browns landed the first blow in this struggle between two marquee squads when Bill Nelsen tossed the first of his three touchdown passes to Leroy Kelly in the first period.

Baltimore soon answered with a 23-yard dash by running back Tom Matte. For the game, Matte finished with 64 yards rushing on 13 carries and also caught two passes for 37 yards.

The Browns quickly responded as Nelson’s second touchdown toss, this one to Paul Warfield, gave Cleveland a 14-7 halftime edge.

Nelsen’s third touchdown pass came early in the third quarter and was a two-yard toss to Eppie Barney. None of Nelsen’s three touchdowns passes went for more than six yards. He finished the day completing 15 of 23 passes for 137 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

While Earl Morrall started for the Colts, with the offense sputtering Shula turned to Johnny Unitas and gave him his second action of the season. Unfortunately, an elbow injury that would hamper him throughout the season made him only a shell of his Hall of Fame self.

In one of the worst performances of his career, Unitas completed only one of 12 passes with three interceptions. When in the game, Morrall was only marginally better as he connected on 10 of 18 passes for 130 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Tom Matte rushed for 64 yards and a score against the Browns.

The Colts boasted one of the best receiving corps in the league, but they were held in check by the Cleveland secondary. John Mackey had three catches for 41 yards and Jimmie Orr added three receptions for 38 yards. Willie Richardson did not catch a pass until late in the contest and finished with only one reception for eight yards.

In the third period, the Colts were able to keep the game close as pair of Lou Michaels field goals made the score 21-13.

As the game entered the final quarter, Kelly increased the lead for Cleveland with a four-yard touchdown run. On his way to his second straight NFL rushing title, Kelly rushed for a season-high 130 yards on 30 carries.

The extra point attempt by Don Cockroft failed to keep the game within two scores at 27-13. However, after another failed Baltimore possession, Cockroft connected on an 11-yard field goal to make the score 30-13.

Leroy Kelly rushed for a season-high 130 yards against the Colts and led the NFL in rushing for the second straight season.

The Colts completed the scoring with a touchdown toss from Morrall to Richardson to make the final margin 30-20.

For the game, the Browns out-gained Baltimore 305 yards to 212. The Colts finished the season with the third best rushing defense in the NFL, but surrendered 179 yards on the ground to Kelly and company.

Turnovers also proved to be a key in the game as Baltimore threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. The Browns had only one lost fumble in the contest.

Post Script: The victory proved to be just the spark that Cleveland needed. They went on to win eight straight games before dropping their regular season finale. They won the NFL Century Division and then defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the opening round of the playoffs.

Baltimore recovered from their disappointing performance to go the rest of the regular season without losing. They won the NFL Coastal Division with a 13-1 record and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the opening round of the playoffs to set up a rematch with the Browns.

This time the Colts were prepared for Kelly and company. They held Kelly to 28 yards rushing and Cleveland gained only 173 total yards. Conversely, Baltimore and NFL MVP Earl Morrall gained 353 yards of offense in a 34-0 domination to claim the NFL Championship.

Of course, the dominating performance led just about everyone to expect that Baltimore would steamroll past the New York Jets and win Super Bowl III.

Much like in the loss to the Browns, the Colts were unable to stop the running game of the Jets, turned the ball over at key moments and were unable to turn opportunities into touchdowns as the Jets pulled the greatest upset in Super Bowl history with a 16-7 victory.

Shula left the Colts following the 1969 season to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. After coming close to posting an undefeated season with the Colts in both 1967 and 1968, Shula led the Dolphins to a perfect 17-0 mark and a Super Bowl title in 1972.

Blanton Collier was 76-34-2 in eight seasons leading the Cleveland Browns.

Blanton Collier retired as coach of the Browns following the 1970 season due to continuing struggles with hearing loss. In eight seasons leading the Browns, Collier led them to double-digit victory seasons five times and posted a 76-34-2 overall record.

The Colts played in Baltimore through the 1983 season before owner Bob Irsay snaked them off to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.

Baltimore was without NFL football until Art Modell, owner of the Browns, announced late in the 1995 season that he would be moving the Browns to Baltimore in 1996.

After an outcry from loyal Cleveland fans, the NFL agreed to the move, but kept the Browns records, logo and colors in Cleveland. A new Cleveland Browns entered the NFL in 1999.

During the first 10 seasons of the new Browns, Cleveland has registered only two winning seasons and one playoff appearance.

Since beginning play in 1996, the Baltimore Ravens have a wining record and are annually a playoff contender. Since 1999, they have had winning records in six of 10 seasons and made five playoff appearances. The Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV to give the city of Baltimore their first football championship since Super Bowl V.

Lenny Moore

In preparation for the start of the NFL season, we recognize as the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Athlete of the Week one of the most exciting players ever to call the city of Baltimore home.

For 12 seasons with the Baltimore Colts, Lenny Moore was one of the most versatile and explosive players in the game.

A double threat as both a runner and receiver, Moore was a perfect offensive compliment to quarterback Johnny Unitas and receiver Raymond Berry.

After playing collegiate football at Penn State, Moore became an immediate Pro Bowl player for the Colts as he and Unitas both made their debut for the Colts in 1956.

Moore rushed for 649 yards and led the NFL with an average of 7.5 yards per carry.

After leading the NFL in yards from scrimmage in 1957, he took it to an even higher level in 1958 as Moore helped lead the Colts to the NFL Championship. He rushed for 598 yards and seven touchdowns and caught 50 passes for a career-high 938 yards and another seven scores.

In the famous 1958 NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants, Moore rushed for only 23 yards, but caught six passes for 101 yards.

Lenny Moore was a threat both as a runner and receiver.

The following season he caught a 60-yard touchdown pass to start the scoring as the Colts claimed their second straight NFL title with a 31-16 victory over the Giants.

Moore was named a first-team All-Pro every season from 1958-1961 as he ranked in the top three in yards from scrimmage each season.

After being limited by injuries in 1962 and 1963, Moore returned with a vengeance in 1964 as he was named the NFL MVP while scoring a then-NFL record 20 touchdowns.

Beginning in the 1963 season and continuing into the 1965 season, Moore scored a touchdown in 18-straight games, a mark that was not matched for 40 years until being equaled by LaDainian Tomlinson.

Moore retired following the 1967 season with 5,174 yards rushing, 6,039 yards receiving and 113 career touchdowns. At the time of his retirement, his 11,213 career yards from scrimmage were the third most in NFL history.

For his career, Moore was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and earned first-team All-Pro honors five times. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1975.

If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week, send me a nomination by e-mail.

Jim Parker

In recognition of the Baltimore Ravens signing first round pick Michael Oher to help protect quarterback Joe Flacco, the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week is a player who spent a decade protecting quarterback Johnny Unitas.

Jim Parker did not miss a game for 10 straight seasons as he helped turn the Baltimore Colts into a perennial NFL Championship contender. The Colts did not have a losing record during his career and claimed back-to-back NFL Championships in 1958 and 1959.

Having played both offensive and defensive line at Ohio State and received the Outland Trophy as the top lineman in college football, Parker could have played on either side of the ball in the NFL. Baltimore Colts head coach Weeb Ewbank saw him as the perfect protector of star quarterback Johnny Unitas and entrenched him at the left tackle position during his rookie season.

He played left tackle for the next five and a half years and earned Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors four times. Midway through the 1962 season Parker was switched to left guard and earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors at that spot four times. He finished his career playing right tackle.

In 1973 Parker became the first full-time offensive lineman named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a member of the NFL All-Decade Team for the 1950s and also selected to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team.

He passed away in July 2005 at the age of 71.

If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Baltimore Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Week, send me a nomination by e-mail.

Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath each personified an era in Pro Football history.

“I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow…’Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day“…words to live by.

I was a 10-year-old farm boy when Joe Namath signed the biggest contract in pro football history.

The war between the AFL and NFL had reached its apex, and the news of Namath’s choosing the upstart AFL traveled far and wide—even to our local weekly, the little ol’ “Reidsville Review” down in Carolina.

At that point in my life, my knowledge of professional football was gleaned from family gatherings around a huge woodstove on Sundays and an occasional peek at a snowy black and white TV that the men huddled around after church…as long as I was quiet.

Out of those bull sessions, I surmised that Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts were, and always would be, the greatest group of athletes in the history of the game…forever, 1958’s “Greatest Game Ever Played” being the benchmark against all who would challenge their superiority.

Six months later, my father uprooted us and followed his company north to the Dalmarva peninsula and the heart of Colts country. We left behind the red clay tobacco fields, the mule and milk cows, and moved into a suburban life of middle-class America.

Instead of biking the graveled back roads with the same three friends for hours on end, I was shoved into a group of 100 or so children of the suburbanite culture, crazy about sports and crazy about heroes.

The one constant was…the Baltimore Colts…but I kept watch out of the corner of my eye on this AFL deal and this guy, this incredibly cocky No. 12 of the Jets.

By the close of 1965, the official escalation of the second Indochina war was almost 12 months old, and we were losing an average of 155 22-year-old men per month—1,863 officially for the year. The nation cringed and the seeds of doubt were planted.

That year, a street busker from Berkeley by the name of Joseph Allen McDonald penned the now infamous “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” and the infant “counter-culture” had its anthem.

The AFL had finagled a lucrative contract with ABC to televise it’s games nationwide and our move north meant no more fuzzy black and white games fighting their way from Raleigh-Durham, but a choice of games from Philadelphia or Baltimore…in freakin’ COLOR.

That’s what sold me on the AFL. They had flashier uniforms, they threw the ball…a lot…and there was that tall, lanky dude from Beaver Falls, PA who was not only playing football with abandon, he was living the high-life that every man-child dreamed of.

He was “Broadway Joe” now or “Joe Willie” as Cosell called him.

There was the Fu Manchu, a mustache wasn’t enough, it had to be a “spectacular” mustache, there were the white shoes, so easy to find in a sea of black high tops, the mink coat on the sideline. It all screamed “Individuality” in a world of Madison Avenue conformity.

Still, there was a war coming into our living room every night—a war brought to you by Gillette, DOW Chemical, and Chevrolet; a war sanctioned, blessed and sponsored by the ‘establishment’—a war that ended up erasing almost 60,000 members of my generation.

As my family stood the last goal-line defense for the great ’50s American Dream…I hooked it wide left.

By 1968, my freshman year of high school, I was no longer that little country bumpkin from Rockingham County. I had grown to a 6′0″, 215-pound wannabe quarterback on the famous late ’60s Middletown, DE Cavalier JV squad.

I played center. I played fullback. I played tight end…I played none of them well. Perhaps as a consolation, perhaps only because it fit, I was issued the No. 10. I wanted No. 19…or No. 12.

I was forever resigned to ‘lineman eligible’ status…and I blew that, too.

In a season and a half, I created more chaos in that locker room than Bill Billings had ever seen. Beer, long hair, girls, drag racing, joy rides in the town police car, all under the radar and hidden from public view…the coaching staff put up with all of that and more because I was big and could long snap like a QB.

What straw broke the camel’s back?

Those white shoes…I wore white shoes to a pregame scrimmage one day. I crossed that unseen line in the sand between the past and the future and I had unknowingly slipped into the evil counter-culture that had infected this great nation in her time of crisis.

On the field, the royal blue and white Middletown Cavaliers were the spittin’ image of the Baltimore Colts minus the horseshoe, even down to the black hightops we were required to wear. White shoes weren’t part of that image. I had made my last snap.

Thank you, Joe Willie Namath.

1968 was a year of transition as well for this country and for the New York Jets. The war had turned bad by then and it’s various opponents had finally united to stop the slaughter.

After the Tet Offensive exposed the strategic weakness of America’s base defense systems, the U.S. military indiscriminately bombed, burned and destroyed anything it viewed as a threat to South Vietnam’s security and the phrase “We had to destroy the village to save it.” entered the American lexicon.

This nation was torn apart, and I rolled with it.

The NFL was the “establishment” as were my beloved Colts. The AFL were “counter-culture” all the way.

No more “three yards and a cloud of dust”, Namath had thrown for 4,007 yards in 14 games, Joe Willie had made Don Maynard and George Sauer household names in 1967.

Namath had taken the Jets from a football joke to championship contenders in three short seasons.

With this nation in flames and our government in paranoid denial, racial tensions spilled onto the front page, and the population poised to split along generational, racial and political lines, we needed a hero, someone who could do battle with the status quo.

With the “establishment” maintaining control in a manner that would shame the KGB…the “other” America needed someone cool, someone young, brash and willing to tell the NFL “establishment” to “stick it.”

We found that hero in Joe Namath.

The details of Namath’s war with the league and his proclivity for the spotlight are well chronicled and need not be rehashed ad nauseam.

He stood his ground, the league submitted, a compromise was reached and the league thrived because of it. If this handsome gunslinger had anything on his side it was the destiny to evolve and control his environment.

On that humid, overcast day in Miami, Namath evolved, he tossed aside his gunslinger ways and took the game to my Colts on their terms…and won.

Joe Namath beat the “establishment” with their own weapons…a solid run game, timely throws and clock management.

Something died in me that day in Miami…but in every death there is a re-birth. The Colts and my boyhood icon had aged before my very eyes but my faith in social change and it’s righteousness was re-born that day as well. I don’t think I’ve ever given up hope since.

In a precursor to American history, the leagues merged and became one of the most successful capitalistic ventures in history, it became the flagship “establishment” enterprise and Joe Namath, his outrageous contract and his legitimizing his own personal ‘counter culture’ made that happen.

It took a few more years for the American “counter culture” and “establishment” to merge, to kiss and make up if you will. A war had to end, veterans had to rejoin the mainstream sans guilt and mothers had to bury their 58,913 children once and for all.

As the AFL and NFL recognized that their “war” was self-defeating, eventually so did we as a nation.

By the time I mustered out of the Infantry in 1975, the nation seemed to be back on track…and Joe Willie became just another bad kneed quarterback with a porous offensive line. The nation had begun to heal, if not Joe Willie’s knees.

Namath passed from our view as his career and the war wound down. His star shown bright and blew by us in a quick blaze of glory. It was our loss, Joe. It was our loss.

It took two extra years to see him elected to Canton, but in the end, the old “establishment” and new “counter-culture” Hall of Fame voters hugged and got it right, embracing Namath not for the numbers, the white shoes or the mink coat, but for the impact he had on the NFL and a nation at it’s height of crisis.

*For a further, more comprehensive discussion of Joe Namath’s place in American history I leave you with Rob Kirkpatrick’s “1969: The Year Everything Changed”

(dedicated to Lisa Horne)