Jesse Reed
Colts move to Indianapolis under cover of night
This embarrassing moment in league history would not be possible in this day and age. With the 24-hour news cycle, Twitter and other social media dominating sports coverage, no owner could just move his team from one city to another in the middle of the night. But back in the mid 1980s the media’s ability to cover professional sports was still limited by technology.
Robert Irsay moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis overnight in 1984. The team had been losing for years, couldn’t sell out games and desperately needed a new stadium. The city of Baltimore wasn’t being cooperative in this effort, and Irsay decided to bypass an eminent domain ruling by the state of Maryland. He hired 14 tractor-trailer trucks to move the entire organization under the cover of darkness.
To this day, it remains one of the most infamous moves in all of sports, and there are some folks in Baltimore who are still bitter over the betrayal.
