Go Colts!

Well Colt fan, here we are facing the biggest game in team history. Our first ever AFC Championship game in the Dome. For us loyal Colt fans, this is what we have been waiting for, especially with this team. I know it isn’t the Super Bowl and just getting there is by no means enough. Not by a damn sight. But the only way the Colts win it is to win Sunday. Twenty three seasons we have waited for an opportunity like this. Sure we were in this game in 1995 and 2003. Unfortunately we were on the road. Honestly we should have beaten the Steelers in 95, but we played poorly in Foxboro a few years ago.

Since then we have posted great season records including last years stellar 14-2. But as any fan can tell you, those games are pretty much meaningless unless the team backs them up in the playoffs. Ask anyone on the team, they’ll tell you!

This year has been different. This year the team had another great regular season, but was lousy on defense and struggled down the stretch. Looking back a month one wonders if they weren’t just ready to get to January and the playoffs.

So we go into Sunday, against the team I consider the Colts biggest rival. Pat fan might not call it a rivalry, but they are lying to themselves. Once they owned us. Hell for the first 21 years the Colts have been in Indianapolis they owned us. But on prime time TV both this year and last, the Colts have extracted a measure of revenge by beating them in their stadium, soundly. It may have been only the regular season, but if anyone believes the games meant any less than a playoff game to either team they aren’t paying attention.

As the week goes on expect the city to reach a fever pitch. The Pat fans say they are coming, but I bet their numbers in the dome are negligible. Look for more blue being worn. Posters in windows. Debate on talk radio. Discussion on TV. Expect the experts, especially the noted Colt haters Mark Schlereth and Sean Salisbury to call the Colts soft and incapable of winning this game. Expect to hear about how Pat coach Bill Belichick has Peyton Manning’s number and how Tom “Man purse” Brady is the best QB ever. Expect talk about how 18 has played in the playoffs, but don’t expect much about the D. Some of what you read and hear is true, some, pure folly. All of it, however, means they are talking about our Indianapolis Colts who stand just two victories from history.

And look out. If the Colts are to win, which I truly believe they will, watch for the media to jump all over the Bear or Saint bandwagon next week. Especially the Saints. God forbid they lose and ruin the “America’s new team” mantra some seem to have bestowed upon them.

Well America, you may not have been Colt fans before and you may not be now, but the bandwagon is gearing up again and there is plenty of room. Jump on board! Don’t let the uppity fans not let you. Let’s make this our week! As we know, these opportunities don’t come along very often!