Without warning? Are you kidding? The Colts made it well known that they were seeking to move over a dispute surrounding the crappy stadium; the dispute between the Colts and Baltimore was years old. Phoenix, AZ was also a front runner.
The Colts left in the middle of the night because the state legislature was in the process of passing a bill to seize the team by eminient domain; if they waited until the next day, the state police might have seized the team's property. In fact, the Colts were so concerned about being stopped by the Maryland state police that several "dummy" trucks were sent to confuse the state.
If Baltimore wouldn't have been so ham-fisted towards the Colts, they would still be in Baltimore.
You think Irsay is the first owner who snapped his fingers and didnt get what he wanted right away? I'm sorry, but he was promised a stadium but it wasnt fast enough for him. The league was dead set against what he did but he didnt care.
What the city did after he left was perfectly reasonable. The NFL administration is just a paper tiger anyways.
We were well aware that Irsay wanted to leave (even though sometimes he insisted “DAMNIT” that he wasn’t going to). The difference was the splitting without actually announcing it would happen.
Yes, the state was getting involved, perhaps too much (and now they talk of doing something about the Preakness). (Of course, why any city/state should have to build stadia, I don’t know; that’s state involvement, too.) But the fact remains the Colts left without saying they actually were going to do so. That is unprecedented.