Peter King's thought's on Modell, Tagliabue, and expansion.

**Integrity** · 12-05-2011, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by B-more Ravor

The Eminent Domain bill didn't scare Irsay in the least. In fact, all it did was provide him with just the "reason" he need to arguably support a move. As you said, it had only passed one house, so it still needed to be passed in the other house and signed by the Gov. It was a long way toward being a done deal.

More importantly, eminent domain doesn't mean that the State can immediately take your property, but requires hearings, etc. So, even if passed and signed into law, the State had a long way to go before being able to seize the team. Not to mention, there clearly would have been a constitutional challenge to taking a sports team or business as compared to land (which is the usual target of eminent domain).

Simply put, Irsay was in no imminent danger of losing the Colts when he moved.

The bottom line is that Irsay had been planning his exit for awhile, he was just looking for the right time and reason to support the move. Thanks to the ED bill, he felt he finally had it (and the Indy mayor was pushing for a decision).

I agree with everything you said except that the eminent domain bill didn't put a scare into Bob Irsay. Had the bill been finalized the state would not of been able to seize the team overnight. I agree it would have been a long and drawn out process. We both know this, but did Irsay? Granted its just speculation on my part, but I don't think Irsay was smart enough to know this was essentially a bluff. Yes he already had a place to go and was planning on going, but the manor in which he left makes me think he was scared. Sneaking out of town in the middle of the night during a snow storm? Those are the actions of a coward, in my humble opinion.

**HoustonRaven** · 12-05-2011, 05:48 PM

Irsay had a team of lawyers.

Fairly sure he knew the state was powerless when it came to ED.

And Irsay was a coward, you're correct. It's why he kept Shaffer on the hook, telling him repeatedly that he'd call "his friend Don" once he decided to move the team.

The middle of the night move was Irsay being Irsay and nothing more.

**AirFlacco** · 12-05-2011, 07:00 PM

That's one thing the entire country agrees on.

Irsay was a coward for sneaking out in the middle of the night in the middle of
a snow storm. Like Ravor said, it would have taken time with hearings and
what not to condemn the team.

You young guys just don't get it or care because you didn't go thru it.

Here's an old Times piece saying Irsay made Al Davis look like a knight.
Note pic of snow storm while moving.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html...rts/03.29.html

**AirFlacco** · 12-05-2011, 07:13 PM

This link lists it as one of NFLs all time embarrassing off-field moments ever. That's just not Irsay
being Irsay.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6...history/page/2

**DarthCorvax** · 12-05-2011, 08:05 PM

AirFlacco, interesting quote here from the article:

Without the necessity of N.F.L. approval, Robert Irsay moved his club's shoulder pads and film projectors in the middle of the night after a decent average of 40,923 ticket sales in Memorial Stadium last season, including a regular season club record of 60,559 for one game.

I thought we had completely abandoned the team. Amazing it was that much after Irsay helicoptered into the Gator Bowl and flew all around whoring the team to any and all cities who would take a meeting. And calling plays from upstairs. And falling down drunk. And lying publicly about all of it.

**AirFlacco** · 12-05-2011, 09:22 PM

LOL - Yea, and HR said there were empty seats like we were the ones who did something

bad but Greg corrected that notion and now your quote from the link plus he didn't even
ask for approval. At least Art asked for approval to move and got a near unanimous vote.
And the young ones wonder why we're so upset.

BTW, that 40,000 was down from about 54,000 sellouts for every game over 2 decades but still
decent as mentioned above. Irsay even said out there he would have made more money
staying in Bmore with the deal they offered.

Also, as posted above, those numbers above made the Colts the 2rd or 3d most profitable
team in league and he still moved.

If you're renting an apt and sneak out of town in the middle of the night you'd be called a coward.

**B-more Ravor** · 12-05-2011, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

Irsay had a team of lawyers.

Fairly sure he knew the state was powerless when it came to ED.

And Irsay was a coward, you're correct. It's why he kept Shaffer on the hook, telling him repeatedly that he'd call "his friend Don" once he decided to move the team.

The middle of the night move was Irsay being Irsay and nothing more.

:word

**AirFlacco** · 12-07-2011, 02:34 PM

The young ones are the ones who are cloudy on this. They just don't know.
They get secondary info like books. Even the books contain secondary info.

History majors in college are taught how to write using primary sources. I
wrote a paper on the construction of the Panama Canal using the original blue prints.
My prof said he was stationed down there in the military and never knew that
stuff.

Nothing takes the place of being there.