The Worst of Sports by Jesse Lamovsky

Author:Jesse Lamovsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345502278
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

THE WORST OWNER

On July 13, 1972, Illinois air-conditioning magnate Robert Irsay traded the ownership of the Los Angeles Rams to Carroll Rosen-bloom in return for that of the Colts. With the exception of the brief run of success in the middle of the ’70s, Irsay’s ownership in Baltimore was an almost unmitigated disaster, and even the turnaround was tarnished by association with its engineer, GM Joe Thomas, a gifted talent evaluator and rampant megalomaniac who was roundly disliked around B-More for selling Johnny Unitas to the Chargers before the ’73 season.

Irsay was a born meddler. In 1974 he fired head coach Howard Schnellenberger following a game in Philadelphia because Schnellenberger refused to change quarterbacks at halftime. Two years later, Irsay triggered a squad mutiny when he canned Ted Marchi-broda following a preseason game in 1976. Irsay was what they used to call a “toper,” and he ran the Colts with the fuzzy-headed aplomb of Joseph Hazelwood at the wheel of the Exxon Valdez. The erratic nature of the team’s ownership bore sour fruit on the field. When Baltimore went into its late-’70s tailspin, there was no one around competent enough to reverse it.

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