The Personal Redemption of Bob Irsay and the Mayflower Van Company

The colts won the superbowl last night. I am sure that many a native baltimorean blogger is discussing this today. As the clock expired, I was realizing something. I have changed. I was surprised that I just don't care any more. I can still remember that cold snowy night, watching t.v. in my mom's room as those Mayflower moving trucks rolled out onto Owings Mills Blvd with "our" team. I remember the dart boards with the likeness of Bob Irsay for sale at Oriole's games. I remember my mom sharing memories of celebrating with her dad out in the street after the Colts defeated the Giants in the "greatest game ever played." I was always more of an Orioles fan than the Colts, but it still was sad. I never really thought about it, but I guess my anger subsided over the years. Maybe it was maturity. Maybe it was the fact that our city happily embraced a team departing from another city. Maybe it was that they soon won a superbowl. Maybe it is that I don't have time to pay enough attention anymore to really care. I guess it is probably some of all of these things. I don't want to over-simplify such things. I don't want to say that these things are not important. At the same time, I don't want to project the shear hatred onto events such as this. I really hated Bob Irsay. I hated Indianapolis . I even hated that moving company. It is tough to find balance in life. The memories I have of root-root-rooting for the home team are good ones. What stands out to me more is the people with whom I shared them. I think the lesson I have learned are that sports are great, but like many things, not at the expense of people. I don't want to ignore my kids to pay attention to a game. But I also don't want to hate a man I never met because he did something I likely would have done myself.