Volume 4, Number 3
March, 1999
2000, A Very Good Year
By Dean Shutt
Hey Folks, well another football season has come and gone. Congratulations to all of you Falcon and Bronco fans, you had a good run. Those of us that are Colts or Bengals or Seahawks fans are already looking forward to the draft, but hey, I can be happy for you. Besides, as a Colts' fan, I can see the light at the end of he tunnel. In a couple of years we are going to have a truly scary offensive machine in Indy. With a decent draft this year, we are going to have a pretty good defense as well. Then my friends, my beloved Colts are going to whip-stomp through the NFL like Godzilla through Tokyo. I can wait a couple of years for that, hell, I've waited 25 already, what's a couple more.
There is another reason that I am feeling so chipper after yet another losing campaign by my boys in blue. A reason that has nothing to do with the Colts per se, but does impact their future chances at attaining the crown. The reason I speak of is the disintegration of the NFC in general and the 49ers and Cowboys in particular.
Now we all know that I hate the Niners and the Cowboys. The Niners I've only hated for a few years, but the Cowboys I've hated pretty much since birth. Some of my happiest memories are of the year the 'Boys went 1 and 15. It was a glorious time to be a Cowboy hater. Of course it was tempered by the fact that my own squad was barely any better than the Cowboys during time. It s tough to get really excited about your enemy's downfall if you are falling right along with them.
Now though, the evil ones will be hitting the bottom of the NFL barrel just as my beloved Colts begin their triumphant march through the professional football landscape. It is going to be a glorious time folks and I figure it's going to arrive around the year 2000 season. Here are a few reasons why:
Age It's against the Niners and Cowboys, it's on the side of the Colts. Who is waiting in the wings to replace Steve Young? If you said no one at all you were correct. Who is going to replace the already weak offensive line of the Niners in a couple of years? Who is going to replace the trio of Aikman, Emmett and Irvin in Dallas? Who is going to replace Nate Newton and Larry Allen? This leads us into our next point, which is...
Organization Jerry Jones thinks he's a football guy, in fact he is a yutz. San Francisco fans are hailing the return of the sainted Eddie D, but all he ever did was sign the checks and if he has to give up everything else he owns to get the team back, he won't be doing much of that anymore. Besides, he's lost all of the front office guys that did the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, in Indy, Bill Polian is one of the best GM's in the game. Jim Irsay has proven in his first couple of seasons at the helm that he's happy to let the football guys run things. That makes for stability folks and stability makes for winning.
Well there they are, the main reasons why the year 2000 is going to be a very good year for Colts' fans (all three of us) and why it will be the crying time for fans of the Niners and the Cowboys. I could list a few more, such as the Colts very good, young, offensive line vs. the aging lines of the bad guys. Or I could point out that in the year 2000 the Colts' starting quarterback will be Peyton Manning, while the Niners will trot out Jim Druckenmiller or worse and the 'Boys will probably not even do that well.
But why get into that? There will be plenty of time in the future to relish each and every one of the upcoming agonies for the Niners and the Cowboys. Just as there is no rush for the Colts to begin their term as the dominant franchise in the NFL. I will happily let the Niner and Cowboy fans out there to bask in their last few games as members of the elite. Because in about 700 days I will be saying to all them, Welcome to mediocrity folks, here take our spot,we won't be needing it for a while.
Dean's House of Pain
Copyrights 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 by the Author, and SCROOMcomm, Ltd.