This summer, for the first time in decades, Ernie Accorsi didn't have to worry about training camp. He didn't have to worry about the NFL draft, the salary cap, the combine or the depth chart either. With a little extra time on his hands, the newly retired Accorsi hopped into his car and hit the road for a 4,200-mile tour of the Midwest.
He visited Commerce, Okla., to see where the Mick grew up. He saw the Field of Dreams diamond in Iowa. And caught a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. But when he approached Indianapolis, he just couldn't bear to pass through it.
"I rerouted myself," Accorsi said. "I drove all the way up around Fort Wayne. I didn't even want to see Indianapolis."
Still, all these years removed, the pain of the Colts leaving Baltimore feels fresh for Accorsi, the team's final general manager here, who finally walked away from football after the 2006 season. Retirement has afforded Accorsi an opportunity to catch his breath, a chance to see the things he never had time for and reflect on others that might look like specks in the rearview mirror - but feel much bigger.
In a recently released book, The GM, by Tom Callahan, Accorsi let his private memories go public, finally sharing the details of the Colts' late-night scurry out of town. It still pains him to talk about it, especially because he feels it was avoidable. "The Baltimore Colts didn't have to die," he said in the book.
Recalling draft
In an interview last week, Accorsi revisited the 1983 NFL draft, in which John Elway was selected by the Colts with the No. 1 pick and traded to Denver. At the time, Elway was balking about coming to Baltimore, threatening to play baseball instead. Accorsi had seen Elway's baseball scouting report and knew the quarterback's future was in football.
"I felt I owed it to the city [to draft Elway]," Accorsi said. "I just felt I couldn't sell this franchise down the river. Everyone's telling me this is the greatest prospect in the history of football, and I felt if this franchise was good enough for Unitas, it was good enough for everybody."
In the book, Accorsi recounts overhearing a conversation between former owner Bob Irsay and his money man, Michael Chernoff. Chernoff was complaining about the money they would have to pay Elway, to which Irsay said: "Mike, Mike, let Ernie have his moment. We can do what we want later."
