Texas Ranger and the horrible Colts

So even though I've been in class for about a week now, I haven't actually begun that whole "studying" thing. I have spent a few hours looking at the books trying to get up to speed on some of the subjects, but have found the "out of school" opportunities a little bit more (ok, a lot) enticing. Our biochem class is... well it's hard to describe. Our professor, Dr. Walker (Texas Ranger) likes to talk. And talk he does. Ramblings on about who knows what half the time. This week he's rambling about protein structure and function, which the nerd in me says is kind of cool... I also did take a class in college called "Protein Structure and Function." So one would think it would be understandable and interesting for me to see it the material again but with a perspective from the end point. (Like when you read a book for a second time... you can see the foreshadowing even better). But the class has been kind of boring. Maybe it will pick up.

The other class is Physiology. Right now we are on cardiovascular physiology. That's actually pretty cool. Our professor has brought in props every day to describe a lot of things which is kind of cool. And we learned that a giraffe's heart is about 2 feet long. That's long. But they also have a pretty tall body. Giraffe's also have a black tongue. But I don't think that's related to the heart.

This weekend is going to be exciting. The Colts are coming (back) to Baltimore in a divisional playoff game. This should be an exciting game to watch as the high powered Indianapolis offense led by Peyton Manning goes up against the league leading Raven defense. They say defense wins championships... so let's go Ravens!

For those unaware of the history of the Colts, the team is formerly the Baltimore Colts. In the glory days (late 50's-60's) of the Colts, they had an amazing quarterback in Johnny Unitas (Johnny U, who I have actually met), and won the NFL Championships in '58, '59, '68 and the Super Bowl III in 1970. Essentially in Baltimore, they have a pretty storied franchise, even with media calling them the best team of all time. The team then started going a little downhill, until 1982 when they had the worst record in the league. The owner of the time, Robert Irsay, a man who is still hated in Baltimore, then threatened to move the team from Baltimore, but later decided to not move the team.

But secretly, Irsay was in talks with Indianapolis. The city offered a lucrative offer that he could not refuse. Then, in a move that has scarred Baltimore forever, Irsay brought in the Mayflower Trucks on the snowy night of March 28th to pack up the Colts, and move them to Baltimore. (The picture is from that night). It is my understanding that Baltimore was promised a team, but it was not until 11 years later did this finally come through, hence the birth of the new Baltimore team, the Ravens. To be fair, I do realize that Baltimore ended up having the team from Cleveland; however there are many differences in the two transactions. The first being that Cleveland retained all rights to the name and the colors of their team, the Browns. Baltimore, however, was stripped of the name and the colors of the team that had defined a city. In the intervening years, Baltimore had a team in the CFL, and wanted to name them the Colts, an homage to the team that was Baltimore. Indianapolis ended up suing this football team claiming they had fill rights to the name. Unfortunately for Baltimore, Indianapolis won. Cleveland was also guaranteed a team within 3 years of the team leaving Cleveland, which actually game true.

So there is the history. And hopefully now you can see why any person from Baltimore can never, ever, ever, EVER like the Colts. And also why this game is so important.

I'll be watching, will you?

GO RAVENS!!

still waiting,
-wait