The Colts only won two games in 1981, the season opener and the season finale both against the Patriots. While the Colts offense was respectable, the defense had it's difficulties all season.
The finale game of the season also marked Bert Jones last game as a Colt. Jones ended his career as a Colt with three touchdown passes in his final game. I believe this was also Don McCauley's last game (a nice way to end a career - td from Jones). There is also a play in the final game where Jones tucks the ball under his shirt and runs for a moment (the played was declared dead), it was featured in a follies film shortly thereafter.
The clip makes no mention of Jones's name because he was already traded to the Rams by the time the film was being made. The focus is on the receivers like Raymond Butler and Roger Carr (though Carr went to Seattle before the 1982 season started).
Note: Retired players, please contact your representatives about making available for purchase the original broadcasts of games from this era. Or a reasonably priced boxed set of yearly highlights (example, a 1970's Colts highlight film box-set featuring every yearly highlight film from 1970 to 1979 for about $20).
The same can be said for the Game of the Week films (box-set) or the weekly highlight films. For example, the complete15 episodes of the 1972 season of This Week in Pro Football in one box-set collection for about $20.
These films are wasting away in vaults when they should be in every Colt fans video library.
The revenue from the sales of the games from your era could be used for your pensions and medical issues.
Carr was a fine reciever in his day, and was worth being the teams first round pick, one of the Colts better first round drfat picks of the 70's.
quietriotfan1976 1 month ago
@iwtfy
John Elway was not bluffing when he said that he wouldn't play for the Colts. Not only did he dislike Colts' owner Robert Irsay, but he also had an intense dislike for their head coach at the time, Frank Kush. See, Kush was the coach at Arizona State when Elway was at Stanford, and knew about the shabby way that Kush treated his players at ASU. Elway would've played for the Yankees before he ever played for the Colts, despite the fact that he also hated George Steinbrenner.
cjs3872 2 months ago
@FrsBigeasy
Another reason for the Colts departure in 1984 was the rise of the Washington Redskins in the early 1980s. In fact, from the sixth week of the 1981 season through the 1983 NFC Championship Game, the Redskins had a record of 36-6. As a result of that and the Colts ineptitude, most of the Colt fans in Baltimore had become Redskins fans even before the Colts left Baltimore.
cjs3872 2 months ago
After 77, it was all downhill...they never had a winning season after that year. In 83, the showed some promise, going 7-9, which really surpised a lot of people But that same year, they made a huge mistake with Elway--they should have called his bluff. Instead they traded him and didn't for Chris Hinton and Mark Hermann (who's nickname was "rag arm"). Sad. Irsay destroyed the team.
iwtfy 10 months ago
When the Colts plummeted so did their attendance & then they left Baltimore
FrsBigeasy 1 year ago
The Colts '81 schedule was ridiculously brutal. They played all five AFC playoff teams a total of eight times, then had the Cowboys and Eagles from the NFC. Other than the Patriots, the only other team with a losing record the Colts played in '81 was the Cardinals.
DNSKansas 1 year ago
Roger Carr's speed & acceleration made him one of the league's elite home run threats. He could always break away from the pack, but in 1981 the Colts fell behind early in most games & defenses continually took away the outside, forcing the QB to dump off underneath. Carr's contract hassle in training camp did not help and was as invisible during the season as he was during the walkout. A head-on collision with new head coach Frank Kush before the 1982 season sent Carr to Seattle.
plntntvzn 1 year ago
It was obvious Raymond Butler had the size, speed & toughness to go get it over the middle & develop into a 1st-rate receiver. He was a fluid athlete with size & deceptive speed but in the future he would lack assistance. After Roger Carr departed to Seattle in 1982, everybody knew Butler was the only Colts receiver who could run it deep & they double-teamed him all day long. He needed a receiving partner with deep potential to loosen some of the coverage clamps on him but never got one.
plntntvzn 1 year ago