In NFL, April means Ozzie's Time

[TBird]

When the father got real sick Rosey took care of him and

got him to sign the will over to him. He forced his siblings

out of the will and the business. He expanded their product

line to denim pants and took off. He was a ruthless business

man crushing all opposition.

 

He's from Baltimore and went to City College but said he will

teach Baltimore a lesson when he didn't get a new stadium

and he did. He was a real prick.

 

He even cut his son out of the will or at leas the team and

now Georgia's kids have all that money plus $1b from selling

the team and they still have the original SB 5 trophy.

[oldno82]

Yep, having the Colts here from the 50s-70 was the high times of the franchise. We had three good teams under Irsay and a lot of heartache.

[oldno82]

Just read this and remembered Marchibroda was pushing hard for Phillips but Ozzie had final say:

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25147977/former-rams-rb-lawrence-phillips-suspected-of-killing-prison-cellmate

[cravnravn]

Yep, having the Colts here from the 50s-70 was the high times of the franchise. We had three good teams under Irsay and a lot of heartache.

I still recall my dads bumper sticker on his Buick, Don't Tampa with our Colts, it was right after that drunk fukker got back from shopping our team around..I so wanted to piss on his grave when I went to the Ravens game in 2008 in Indy..

[TBird]

I still recall my dads bumper sticker on his Buick, Don't Tampa with our Colts, it was right after that drunk fukker got back from shopping our team around..I so wanted to piss on his grave when I went to the Ravens game in 2008 in Indy..

I actually went to the cemetry to piss on it but there were cops

all over the place. It was funny but you see all these signs as soon as

you drive into the park saying rewards will be given for info on vandalism.

Seems like a lot of people from baltimore have done their business on

that grave so now the cops guard it every time the Ravens come to town.

It's the most heavily guarded grave site in the country. ILMAO.

 

When we were there a guy was standing over the grave next to Irsay's

pretending to be mourning but if you looked close enough you could see

the tip of his gun sticking below his coat. There was a car on top of the

hill next to his grave and another one below it.

 

He lies on top of a hill over looking the slums of Indy, a very appropriate

place. All the houses across the street are boarded up. It's a famous

cemetry with former Presidents buried there.

 

We saw all the parked cars and never got out of ours. Guys really

laughed at that story on Tony's board but got pissed off when someone

actually pissed on MOdell's grave here.It was OK for us to do it in

Indy but not for someone from Cleve to do it here. Damn hypocrites.

 

Drew from 1570 posted on the board and scolded us there and on the radio

even mentioning our names on the air as guys who desecrated Irsay's

grave. What a prick.

[TBird]

Irsay had nothing to do with hose bumper stickers - DON'T TAMPA WITH

OUR COLTS. Rosey was still here and started shopping the club around.

Irsay got the idea from him.

 

Rosey played an exhibition game in Tampa vs the Squeelers. That was the

game Bubba ruined his knee. Rick Volk intercepted a Bradshaw pass

as Bubba became his blocker. He ran to the side lines where the chain

gang was. The guy was so petrified when he saw the 6'8 250 Bubba coming

at him he froze and didn't move out of the way in time. Bubba got his

knee twisted up in the chains and was never the same again. Joe Thomas

let him go when he became the GM and Bubba ended up in OAK. It was

there in California that he was discovered playing next to the guy with the

beard who made some movies and Bubba was casted as Hightower in all

the Police Academy movies and made a few others.

 

So anyway, after that game was played in Tampa, all these bumper stickers

appeared all over town saying DON'T TAMPA WITH OUR COLTS. I got

a couple for my dad's car and mine.

 

Rosey even tried to get expansion going so he could move there but Pete

and the owners didn't want to expand.

[vmax]

This thread is turning into a really good book.

Keep it up TBird.

 

[TBird]

Thanks, man. The guys on the other board say I should write a

book. All the Nests got emails from Barry Levinson's movie THE

BAND THAT WOULDN'T DIE. You can still see it on HBO on

DEMAND if you get Comcast. Barry wanted old timers on the show

relating their old Colts memories. I was going on but had an accident

and couldn' walk for 6 months. I was in the hospital when they filme

it and couldn't go. Damn shame. I've been extras in the movies

REPLACEMENTS, THE WIRE AND HOUSE OF CARDS but missed

Barry's movie. Damn shame again.

 

That whole Tampa thing figured into the Colts moving. It all really

started the minute the Colts lost SB 3. We lost Shula, then the team

gets shopped around and we lose it - one bad thing after another so

the old timers like myself really cherish these days with the Ravens

and a saint like Bisciotti. I'd kill anyone for him or at least Id break

their legs for him-lol.

 

Back to Tampa, after Pete said Rosey couldn't move there the NFL

finally had expansion and he remembered that game and gave them

a team. Hugh Culverhouse became the owner. He was the guy

who set Rosey up with Irsay and Joe Thomas who knew all of them.

 

Culverhouse was the tax atty who suggested trading the Colts to LA to

save Rosey millions in capital gains taxes. Irsay was the sucker he

found willing to trade the 2d largest market for the 25th largest in

what's been called the worse trade since Babe Ruth-lol. Irsay

always maintained the Colts were the team he wanted. That's why

we never got the name back. It was so important to the family after

all the shit it endured for trading the markets to begin with -lol.

 

Since Pete knew about the Culverhouse deal and he knew Joe

Thomas who built Shula's Dolphins before he got there, he gave

Culverhouse the expansion team. Joe Thomas and Irsay got the

Colts and Rosey got the LA market. He moved from there too or his

bitch did. Thomas became the Colts GM as a finder's fee if you will

and promptly shipped Unitas and all the stars out as house cleaning.

I heard one story the Irsay walked up to John and said hi on the side

lines and Unitas said who the hell are you. Next thing he knows he

was shipped out to San Diego. Then during his first meeting with

the team he introduced himself as a former Marine which was a big

lie and Tom Matte turned to someone and said how did an ass like

this make enough money to buy a football team. Then Matte is

shipped out to San Diego then John Mackey or anyone that bitched

which was just about everyone-lol.

 

Shula told Bob Costas that he became disfavored with the owner after

the SB3 loss and the next thing I know I'm in Miami and the Colts are

playing exhibition games in Tampa and Irsay gets them in a trade and

an expansion team is given to Tampa.

 

It all comes back to Baltimore and SB 3.

'

[TBird]

No one knows why Tags hated Baltimore so much and rigged

the expansion derby vs us. The official version was, it was DCs

territory but with Tags it was something else, something personal.

He even screwed his daughter and grand sons who lived here. He

still comes into town to visit them and brings a lot of NFL stuff like

helmets and jerseys for their schools to auction off but he always

comes at night under the cover of darkness. It's always low key so

no one knows he's here. He heard about the General who was killed

marching up North Point Rd during the War of 1812 to burn Bmore

to the ground. He laughed at the 5th regiment whom he ran over in

Bladensburgh on the way to burning DC to the ground. Well, two

teenage snipers from Dundalk got him. That's why DC hate Bmore

so much. The British burned their town while they never got past

Dundalk trying to burn Bmore but in their defense they were outnumbered

by about 5,000 British troops. By the time they got here, thousands from all

over the East volunteered to help out and the trenches were so deep

and long at Patterson Park the British army simply withdrew.

 

Even Butler the Butcher of the Civil War whom Lincoln

sent to camp out on Federal Hill and set up his big guns there rode

in at night. He heard about the General getting sniped. All our enemies

come in at night. Tags was the one who said Bmore should spend its

money on a museum instead of a stadium. Some of us wanted to name

the new stadium The Museum.

 

 

The best reason I read for hating Bmore came from Dennis Hand in his book THE

GREAT FOOTBALL WARS, must reading for all Baltimore fans.

He said that Tags was the lead atty vs the old USFL when they sued

the NFL over monopoly charges and Baltimore Stars were one of the

teams. Hell, they were so good, they could have beaten the lower

half of the NFL teams so after a few drafts we would have been a

power house. They had cool unis to and Mora was the coach and would

later coach the Colts in Indy.

 

So Tags won the case for the NFL. Actually, he lost. The jury ruled in

favor of the USFL but only for $1 which the judge raised to $3. The

league was bankrupted. Pete made Tags his assistant who brought

his assistant along, someone named Goodell. When Pete retired, Tags

got the job but not w/o a fight.

 

The old guard consisting of the Rooneys, Maras of NY and Modell wanted

their man Jim Finks, an old timer from Lombardi's staff who was then GM

of the Saints. There were a bunch of new owners in the league led by

old time mavericks Al Davis and Bob Irsay that wanted Tags. They

didn't like getting pushed around by the old guard. Finally they won and

Tags got the job. He was old school too working in the office for the

comish. Everyone knew him. Finks died anyway a few years later of

cancer.

 

Finks also had a link to Bmore when he was an assistant on Lombardi's

staff. He was up in the press box in 65 when Unitas went down and Gary

Quozzo was the backup. He noticed Gary favoring his arm and kept

yelling down to Vince to hit the QB in the arm. He kept yelling hit the qb

hit the qb. They did and knocked him out too and a second string RB

behind Lenny Moore came in as the instant QB - Tom Matte. Several

years later when Shula was fired Finks name came up for coach but

Rosey remembered him yelling down to Vince to keep hitting his QB

in the arm. There was no way Rosey was going to hire that prick.

[TBird]

The league didn't want to expand but the Nations Bank, now

Bank of America reminded them of their obligation to put a team

in Charlotte where the bank was headquartered. It lent the money

to the NFL to field replacement teams if there was a strike which

there was and the replacement teams broke the union's back. That's

why football players still get screwed not having guaranteed

contracts while baseball players do. Players make a lot more than

the guys in the 80s but any one can get cut or traded like Boldin

and Ngata if they don't restructure. Theres' none of that in baseball.

 

So they expanded and Tags rigged the derby vs Baltimore and Hand

thinks it's because we sued the NFL once before.

 

Charlotte got the first team of course and JAX which is rumored to be

heading to LA got the second team. They even dropped out of the

derby because they couldn't match Bmore's package of a public funded

stadium. They're still playing in the ancient Gator Bowl now and cover

thousands of empty seats every game so they won't look empty on TV. LOL

 

So Tags travels down there and begged then to come back in the derby

or he would have to give the ball to Baltimore. That's when they knew they

had the second team. They couldn't believe it.

 

Baltimore figured in JAX too because Irsay shopped the Colts there and they

flew him into the stadium and landed him on mid field in a chopper. He got

out and 60,000 fans went nuts cheering him. He looked like Stalin with

everyone applauding him and they were afraid to stop or Stalin would

shoot them. True.

 

So Hand thinks Tag wanted revenge for Bmore trying to sue their way in

and all the trouble we caused, but hey, that's how he got his job as

comish. He should have been kissing our asses and guaranteeing us a

team.

 

When the teams were announced, Guv Schaeffer was on national TV

crying his eyes out like a baby in what we call the Saturday Night

Massacre. He was so pathetic looking. Thats when the Rams said

you will be hearing from us. They wanted that Baltimore package of a

new stadium, free rent and all monies from parking and concessions but

Tags persuaded them to move to ST Louis but we made a bunch of'

coffee mugs and stuff that said Baltimore Rams. I even have a T-shirt

that says Baltimore Cardinals when Bidwell came here but they chased

him away too.

[TBird]

We finally got a new team when the new Guv Glendenning did in

one month what Schaeffer couldn't do over a decade. Glen

ordered his new Stadium Authority Chief, John Moag, who

succeeded Herb Belgrade to send letters to all NFL teams giving

them 30 days to claim the money or it was coming off the table

and used for schools and hospitals. The new guv knew he

couldn't keep the money in place because it was raided by Mike

Miller the Prick from Talbot County. The legislatures from the

Eastern Shore didn't care about a team or stadium in Bmore so

the guv had to act fast.

 

Three teams jumped at the money - Cardinals, Bucs and of course

the Browns. Moag wanted Art as an owner because he had a storied

franchise and his TV deals made the NFL America's game. Art even

came up with Monday Night Football so he got the team.

 

When asked who the GM was going to be and the name in his first

presser he said I'm the GM and we're the Browns but Cleveland sued

him so he gave them the name, colors and history back to get out of

court and they put a new team there. Art then let the Sun hold a name

contest. He liked the Americans and so did Steadman and I. The

Bombers were also a popular name but Mayor Smoked asked the

NFL not to used that name after the Oaklahoma Bombing. It would

have really been bad after the 911 bombing but it was still a cool

name with the headlines, Baltimore bombs Wash-lol.

 

The Sun brain washed the fans for the Ravens since Poes family is

from Bmore and Poe spent some time here but 90% of Ravens fans

never read the famous poem. Ravens won by a land slide.

[cravnravn]

Good stuff t-bird. That expansion process was really a joke, we got so shafted in that.

[RavenMad]

Great stuff TBird. Thanks,

[thundercleetz]

This topic is an incredible read! I have no idea how you know all of this, but yes, you should definitely write a book, TBird!

[TBird]

Thanks, guys. That's what Herb Belgrad asked me, how do you know

all our business.

 

He used to work out at Bally's in White Marsh and sometimes he brought

Boogie Weinglass in with him who would have probably been the owner

of the new franchise team. Tags didn't like him because he had a pony

tail-lol.

 

I was the only guy in the gym who knew who they were. I walked in the

hot tub and they were sitting there. I was besides myself and thanked Herb

for all the work he did in trying to bring us a team.

 

Boogie was Barry Levenson's best friend and featured in his mega hit

movie DINER. If you haven't seen it, get it. Boogie was played by

Mickey Roark who said when he checked into the Holiday Inn down town

there was a big murder in the hotel. A prostitute was waisted. Welcome

to Baltimore-lol.

 

I asked Boogie if the movie was true. He said well, we didn't live in

Fells Point where the movie was filmed. All the Jewish people lived in

Park Heights or Liberty Heights in West Baltimore and he said I never

made it north of Belvedere Ave. The movie has a scene where he's hitting

on a chick riding a horse out in the horse country. I said there's where

I grew up - Belvedere Ave.

 

I pissed Herb off though and told Boogie how he rented the room across

the hallway from where the owners met during the expansion process and

cooked crab cakes and handed them out to the owners as they walked in.

There was a lot of ass kissing going on. Boogie laughed his ass off. Tom

Clancy was the other prospective owner and he sent autographed copies

of all his books to each owner that were delivered to their meetings.

 

I asked Belgrad about Al Lerner sticking it to Art. He was ARt's banker

and Art owed him $200M which is why he came here to get the free

rent and new stadium. Al told him to take the Bmore deal to pay off his

debt. Then in the end Al got the new Browns franchise in Cleveland and

Art was pissed.

 

Al was there at the Saturday Night Massacre. He was another candidate

to be an owner of the new franchise here. He was supposed to make a

pitch for Bmore at the meeting but never said a word. He went to the

meeting, the voted and he skipped town really fast.

 

It was like he set Art up and knew he was getting the team in Cleveland

not Baltimore.

 

Herb said that's not true. Al is a friend of mine and he wouldn't do anything

like that. I said you better let Art know about that because he's writing a

book about it.

 

Herb said how do you know so much about all our business. I said from

reading the news paper. Boogie laughed his ass off and said I want to

party with you but Herb was pissed off. Everthing I said was in the Sun,

or the two books I mentioned plus the radio talk shows. The books are

 

FROM COLTS TO RAVENS BY JOHN STEADMAN

 

THE GREAT FOOTBALL WARS BY DENNIS HAND.

 

You can get them on amazon.com

 

It was funny. We had all these owners but no team-lol. Glazer was another

guy who rode into town like he was the second coming to something. Nobody

had ever heard of him but he wanted to own a team. He would have called

them the Cobras but Tags didn't like him either, at least not in Bmore but

he was OK for Tampa.

 

When Culverhouse died Glazer got the team there. He got it because Tags

flew to Florida to stop Bmore once again. Peter Angelos offered more money

for the Bucs than Glazer. The son wanted to sell for Petey for more money

but the wife wanted to keep the team in Tampa and preferrred Glazer and

less money. Tags introduced Glazer to the estate. The lawyers threatened

the son by saying they will tie his inheritance up for years if he insisted on

Angelos so he sold to Glazer. Once again Tags stopped Bmore from

getting a team but can you see Petey as owner of the Os and Ravens.

 

Glazer did win a SB with Gruden as coach but he was the most hated man

in Southern Florida where he owned a lot of trailer parks and cheap apartments

and kept raising the rent and throwing people out. The Miami Herald came

out with a Slum Lord report on him and how much he was hated.

 

When he got the Bucs he said the buck stops here, not Baltimore. That was

a dig vs us because we didn't accept him. Hell, we already had two

groups with Boogie and Clancy and Petey trying to bring a team here. He

also offered more money for the Rams and Georgia considered it before

backing down but can you see Petey the owner of both the Ravens and

Os. He, he completely destroyed the Os that were more storied and

successful than the Colts. Damn.

[TBird]

But Moag got even with Glazer who jumped for the money when

he said he was going to take it off the table. Moag knew Glazer

was using him to get a new stadium in Tampa but Glazer really

wanted to come here but Moag ordered his secretary not to take

any calls from him. Glazer was pissed when Art got the money

instead of him but he learned the buck does stop in Baltimore not

Tampa-lol. And it all started with that Colts exhibition game in Tampa.

 

Art of course had to sell the team in the end. His debt kept rising because

the interest rate alone was $25M and he made a late payment. He was

still within the bank's guidelines but not the NFLs. Tags met with him to

sell the team. It was bad for an owner to have so much debt and to miss

payments.

 

Enter Bisciotti who offered Art $300M up front and $300M later after

he had time to learn the business. That allowed Art to pay off his debt

and ease out while Bisciotti learned the business from him.

 

Art got $600M for the team after paying $4M for it in the early

60s. Art wasn't a bad business man after all and Bisciotti got all

his money back already at least in the team's value. It's now

worth $1.5B and rising.