Indianapolis Colts

Indianapolis Colts, American professional football team based in Indianapolis that plays in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the NFL. The franchise, originally known as the Baltimore (Maryland) Colts (1953–84), has won three NFL championships (1958, 1959, 1968) and two Super Bowls (1971, 2007).

The Colts originated from the dissolved Dallas Texans NFL team in 1953. There had been two professional football teams with the name Baltimore Colts before 1953, and continued fan support in the Baltimore area led the NFL to approve the purchase and relocation of the defunct Texans by the Baltimore-based owners. The rechristened Colts hired future Hall of Fame head coach Weeb Ewbank in 1954 and signed Johnny Unitas, who became one of football’s all-time greatest quarterbacks, in 1956.

In the late 1950s Unitas headed a formidable offense that featured, in addition to Unitas, three other future Hall of Famers: tackle Jim Parker, end Raymond Berry, and halfback Lenny Moore. In 1958 the Colts defeated the New York Giants 23–17 in a nationally televised NFL championship game, which the Colts won when their running back Alan Ameche scored a one-yard touchdown run in a sudden-death overtime period. The 1958 championship game took on the nickname “The Greatest Game Ever Played” and was likely the single most important moment in the popularization of professional football in the latter half of the 20th century. The Colts reemerged as NFL champions the following season, beating the Giants again in the championship game.

The team appeared in another memorable title game in 1969, when the heavily favored NFL champion Colts met the upstart American Football League (AFL) champion New York Jets in Super Bowl III. The Jets were led by young quarterback Joe Namath, who said, before the game, that he guaranteed a Super Bowl victory and then guided his 18-point underdog team to the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. In 1971 the Colts won their first Super Bowl, a 16–13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

The years after Unitas’s 1973 departure from the team were filled with many mediocre seasons and no playoff victories for the remainder of the team’s tenure in Baltimore. In 1984 team owner Robert Irsay—after failing to get local government funding for a new stadium—relocated the team to Indianapolis in a move that took place in the middle of the night, before most Colts fans knew that any move had been planned. Even after the franchise had departed, the Colts Marching Band kept the spirit of the team alive in Baltimore by continuing to perform in parades and at civic events until 1996, when the Cleveland Browns moved to the city as the Ravens.

The relocated Colts initially struggled, qualifying for postseason play only once in their first 11 seasons in Indianapolis. In 1998 the Colts drafted quarterback Peyton Manning, who teamed with wide receiver Marvin Harrison and running back Edgerrin James to give the Colts one of the league’s best offenses in the early 2000s. Manning put up record passing numbers and led the team to numerous winning seasons, but he was often blamed for his team’s failures to advance in the playoffs.

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Led by coach Tony Dungy, the team broke through in 2007, beating the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl and putting a stop to criticism that Manning could not win the big game. In 2009 the Colts won their first 14 games of the season en route to earning the AFC’s top seed in the playoffs. Indianapolis then easily advanced to the Super Bowl, where it was upset by the New Orleans Saints. Manning missed the entire 2011 NFL season owing to preseason neck surgery, and the Colts posted a 2–14 record, ending the team’s streak of nine consecutive seasons of at least 10 victories (which also included an NFL-record seven straight 12-win campaigns [2003–09]). The poor record earned the Colts the first pick in the 2012 NFL draft (spent on quarterback Andrew Luck), and the team released Manning during the offseason to avoid paying him a sizable contract bonus and to begin rebuilding around a younger core of players. Luck then led the Colts to a surprising 11–5 season that culminated in a first-round playoff loss in his first season with the team.

The Colts won a division title in 2013, which the team followed with a stirring 28-point comeback victory in its opening playoff game—the second largest point differential made up during a win in NFL postseason history—before getting eliminated in the following round. Luck continued to improve, and in 2014 the Colts won a third straight division title and upset Manning’s new team, the Denver Broncos, in the playoffs en route to a loss in the AFC championship game. However, the Colts were unable to progress from that feat, and the team finished the following two seasons with 8–8 records and outside the playoffs. Luck underwent shoulder surgery after the 2016 season, but complications during his recovery kept him out of the entirety of the following season, and the Colts struggled to a 4–12 record. Luck returned in 2018 and played a full season, during which he rallied the Colts from a 1–5 start to win 10 games and qualify for the playoffs, which ended in a loss in the divisional round.

Citing the numerous injuries that diminished his love of the game, Luck shocked the football world by suddenly retiring days before the start of the 2019 season. Despite the unexpected loss of the team’s star quarterback, the Colts remained surprisingly competitive that year, finishing the season with a 7–9 record. The Colts finished with a 11–5 record in 2020, earning them a spot in the postseason, where they lost in the wild card round. Amid changes to the coaching staff and no consistency at the quarterback position, the Colts missed the playoffs from 2021 to 2023.