{"id":252,"date":"2007-02-05T21:43:56","date_gmt":"2007-02-06T01:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/2007\/02\/12\/im-going-to-disney-world\/"},"modified":"2007-02-12T21:45:55","modified_gmt":"2007-02-13T01:45:55","slug":"im-going-to-disney-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"I’m Going to Disney World!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well… isn’t that’s what you’re supposed to do when you win the Super Bowl?\u00a0 Sometimes you get to go to the White House, too.\u00a0 And<\/em> have a local parade. <\/p>\n

I’ll pass on the parade… and going to the White House would be an honor… it’s just that the current occupant is not a person I care to see…<\/p>\n

But… <\/em>I’m always up for Disney World.\u00a0 It’s like the “holo-deck” in Star Trek come to life… the ultimate trip to a wonderfully artificial environment.<\/p>\n

Actually… I’ll let Peyton Manning take the trip without me.<\/p>\n

Still it was supemely satisfying to see my <\/em>Colts take the “big prize” this year.\u00a0 You may ask, “why the Colts?”\u00a0 How did I become a fan?\u00a0 And what about them leaving Baltimore for Indianapolis?<\/p>\n

It’s not like I’m from Baltimore, or <\/em>Indianapolis for that matter.\u00a0 I grew up in New Haven… and the closest team in those days were the New York Giants (they were actually called the New York football <\/em>Giants to distinguish them for the New York Giants baseball team).\u00a0 But it’s not uncommon for a kid to take\u00a0a shine to a team from beyond\u00a0his\u00a0home region.\u00a0 Witness the number of Cowboy fans throughout this country, ferinstance.\u00a0 The team is usually a good one… with a star player, or players… and then\u00a0they gotta\u00a0have a\u00a0cool uniform.<\/p>\n

In 1958 the Baltimore Colts were a good team.\u00a0 They had a star player in Johnny Unitas.\u00a0 And their deep blue and white uniforms, helmets with a riveted horseshoe… real cool looking<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In my case, pledging my allegiance to the Colts was made easier by my Dad or Paul having no specific attachment to New York Giants.\u00a0 Or, if they liked the Giants it was far less clear than their liking of the Brooklyn Dodgers.<\/p>\n

I guess it was a matter of luck to come of “fan age” (circa<\/em> age eight) when the Colts played in the historic overtime Championship game against the Giants… a game that would go on to define the\u00a0NFL.\u00a0 Our family listened to that game on\u00a0our car radio when we went to Stowe, VT for a skiing vaction.<\/p>\n

Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Alan (The Horse) Ameche, Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, Gene (Big Daddy) Lipscomb, Art Donovan… I could name that entire team.<\/p>\n

This was in the day before the AFL… before the Super Bowl.\u00a0 When the NFL Championship was for all the beans.<\/p>\n

The Colts would remain a good football team for better than a decade.<\/p>\n

But they would suffer the ultimate disgrace… they were the first team to take it on the chin from the upstart AFL in Super Bowl III.\u00a0 This was like an elementary school team beating\u00a0your middle school team in softball.<\/p>\n

The New York Jets and Joe Namath beat my Colts in 1968.\u00a0 From that day on I have hated the Jets… and when the Jets had a 1-15 record several years ago… I was not quite happy enough.\u00a0 <\/em>I don’t know who I hate more… Joe Namath, the Grand Inquisitor, or that jerk who wears the green fire helmet and leads the Jets cheer at home games.<\/p>\n

Two years later the Colts had a measure of redemption in winning Super Bowl V against the Cowboys (another team I don’t care for… although without the same\u00a0malice I have reserved for the Jets).\u00a0 It was a sloppy game filled with turnovers, and I think it is regarded as one of the worst played Super Bowls.<\/p>\n

It’s OK, I’ll take the “w”.<\/p>\n

I don’t think there was a Disney World in 1970 for the victors… maybe there was.<\/p>\n

I was still in college then… still didn’t think too much about parades.\u00a0 And I wouldn’t have wanted to go to the White House then either.\u00a0 Although I find it hard to believe that I would ever find myself thinking that there could\u00a0possibly\u00a0be a more wretched President than Richard Nixon.\u00a0 Thank you George W. Bush… you are like finding a team that I hate worse than the New York Jets.<\/p>\n

Well… it’s been a long time between “drinks of water.”\u00a0 The Colts finally win another Super Bowl in another sloppy turnover filled game.<\/p>\n

It’s OK, I’ll take the “w”.<\/p>\n

The Colts have moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis.\u00a0 But it wasn’t like I have a connection to the city itself.\u00a0 They\u00a0are still the Colts… same neat uniforms, same history.\u00a0 I have the luxury of continuing to be a fan without suffering the sense of desertion that folks from Baltimore would feel.<\/p>\n

The Colts had a considerable stretch of time when they were awful… but they have returned to playing good ball again… they have gotten close to the big\u00a0dance over the past four years.\u00a0 They have a terrific Head Coach in Tony Dungy.\u00a0 A person who I greatly admire for the way he carries himself.\u00a0 A great Quarterback in Peyton Manning who calls his own plays… the way that Johnny Unitas did.<\/p>\n

This was their year. <\/em><\/p>\n

Who knows?\u00a0 They might even do it again next year.\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 I’ll think about how much fun it will be to take another mental trip to Disney World.\u00a0 <\/em>But, I’m not greedy.\u00a0 I hope they continue to play well…\u00a0and I’ll be OK… as long as those son-of-bitch Jets don’t win.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well… isn’t that’s what you’re supposed to do when you win the Super Bowl?\u00a0 Sometimes you get to go to the White House, too.\u00a0 And have a local parade. I’ll pass on the parade… and going to the White House … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}