The Band That Wouldn't Die

Director: Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Sleepers, Homicide, Oz)

Imagine spending 30 years cheering for your local team only to have them up and leave in the middle of the night.

That's what happened to an entire city in 1983, when owner Robert Irsay packed up a bunch of Mayflower moving trucks and took the NFL's Colts from their original home in Baltimore to the their current place of resident in Indianapolis.

Now imagine you're actually connected to the team — you work for them — and this has happened. What do you do?

The members of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band just kept playing, hoping that one day the NFL would return to their city and they could once again be the marching band for an NFL franchise.

In an ironic twist of fate, they would get that chance when Baltimore played the role of Indianapolis 13 years later as Art Modell relocated his Cleveland Browns to the city, renaming them the Ravens.

"Mixed emotions" is how the various members of the band who spoke about the arrival of the Browns-slash-Ravens in the documentary described the feeling of being on the other side of things this time around. They knew what the fans in Cleveland felt like, but they wanted a team back in Baltimore as well.

One of the things I'm hoping to accomplish with this project is to reconnect with being a fan again. Not the kind of fan that I've been for the last decade either — the guy who only really pays attention once the playoffs roll around, and that cares more about my fantasy teams than the actual real live team I claim to support when asked.

I want to get back to being as passionate about sports as the members of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band during the 13 years they didn't even have a team. Well, maybe not quite that passionate and committed, but even half as passionate would be a improvement.



There are so many weird, random things that crop up out of this documentary that I want to touch on.

I love that stories like this get told, and I think we need more of it, both in sports and in life overall.

There are people who don't know that the Colts originated in Baltimore, that the Ravens used to be the Browns, and the current Browns only came into existence in 1999 after being "on hiatus" from the NFL for three years, and that's weird to me.

There just doesn't seem to be an appreciation for the past as much now as their used to be; we're only focused on the here and now, with an eye on the future. The only trouble is that without everything that happened in the past, the present would look a lot different...

I also wish I was a sports writer in Baltimore during the days of Robert Irsay.

To see some of the clips and hear some of the lines this guy dropped is amazing. There have been some surly, quotable owners in various sports since I've been a fan, but Irsay moves to the top of my list of jackass owners after watching this film.

How do you stand behind a collection of microphones and kick the fans in the nuts by telling them the team is yours and yours only, not theirs? That's some cold shit.

What made it even better is that Irsay seemingly liked to play the "why don't you tell me I'm wonderful and rub my ass real nice?" card with the media too. How could this guy expect the reporters in Baltimore to write something positive about him when he was frequently ragging on the city?

I sat on the couch shaking my head when the CFL's expansion to Baltimore was briefly touched upon.

The team was pretty damn successful, playing in back-to-back Grey Cups in their two years — losing the first year, then winning in 1995 — but even though I'm Canadian, I'm not a CFL fan.

I can't support a league where you get points for missed field goals and punts that don't get brought out of the end zone. Plus the whole placing the uprights at the front of the end zone is just silly to me.

Anyway, remembering the ridiculousness of the CFL's brief US expansion was a fun little reminder of those feelings, especially with the Grey Cup taking place this Sunday out here in Vancouver with the hometown B.C. Lions playing.

Much like I talked about yesterday with Kings Ransom, it's so crazy to see that something like this — the Colts just up and leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night for a new city — could actually happen back then, because there is no way in hell that it could happen today.

People have been trying to buy and move the Phoenix Coyotes for three years and the NHL keeps stonewalling them. Imagine if the old owners just said, "Screw the desert," packed the trucks, and headed to Hamilton all on their own?

So much has changed over the last 30 years, but I know I never really noticed it until I started this project.

Like everyone else, I've kind of just rolled with the changes and developments in all these leagues, but it wasn't that long ago that professional sports franchises didn't cost a bazillion dollars, and could be moved on a wintery night under the cover of darkness.

I have a feeling this is going to happen quite frequently over the next 28 days, but The Band That Wouldn't Die has inspired me, both as a sports fan and in my professional career as a writer.

I want to be more like those men and women who went 13 years without a team but never stopped playing.

Their passion and commitment is incredible, and this film is one that everyone should find a way to watch.

Next Up — Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?