Accorsi

Ernie Accorsi, who resigned recently as executive vice president of the Cleveland Browns, has the same feeling I have about the Indians team that played the Orioles here last weekend."

Fifty years ago, an undersized defensive back named Andy Nelson climbed into a car alongside a 25-year-old, fresh-faced quarterback. Was it a Pontiac? A Chevrolet? Tricky thing about time: Just as easily as it can help shape a legacy, it can fade a memory. Nelson and his friend drove together to Memorial Stadium, where they would catch a bus to the airport, where they would board a plane for New York, where they would make history just a couple of days later. If there were only a way to get into his head.

The reshaping of the Orioles' front office took an unexpected turn yesterday when the club announced it has hired former Baltimore Colts general manager Ernie Accorsi to a senior management post.Accorsi, 52, was appointed to the newly created job of executive director for business affairs. He'll oversee a wide range of the team's activities, including stadium operations, fan assistance and community affairs, the club said.Accorsi is the first senior official with previous experience as a sports executive to be hired by the Orioles since investors led by Baltimore lawyer Peter G. Angelos bought the team last October.

Milt Davis knew how to read people - both on and off the football field. As an All-Pro defensive back for the Baltimore Colts, he outfoxed receivers, twice led the NFL in interceptions and helped the club win two world championships. As a pro scout, Davis judged prospects with the best. But it was his touch with everyday folks that will be remembered most, those who knew him said. "When you did your goodbyes with Milt on the phone, the last thing he'd say was 'Be noble,'" said Ernie Accorsi, former Colts general manager.

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.

Ernie Accorsi is coming home.Accorsi, the last general manager of the Baltimore Colts, resigned yesterday as executive vice president of football operations of the Cleveland Browns.Accorsi plans to return to Baltimore -- though a native of Hershey, Pa., he has lived much of his life here -- while he looks for another job. One that would have to be at the top of his list would be running an NFL expansion team in Baltimore."I don't want to make it seem like I'm campaigning for the job, but obviously I'm open to any possibility, including caddying at Caves Valley Country Club.

The CFL team attempting to gain entry to Baltimore not only wants to revive the Colts name, but also wants to tap into the resources of some of old Colts personnel.Ernie Accorsi, the last general manager the Colts had before sneaking off to Indianapolis in March 1984, has been asked to become a consultant to a prospective CFL team in Baltimore. He said he has not accepted the offer."I haven't agreed to anything," Accorsi said from Florida, where he has been vacationing."They asked me to consider helping them in an advisory role, but it's not a position with the team.

The shuffling continues at Camden Yards. Only this time, the Orioles are hiring as well as firing.The latest addition to the club's front office is Walt Gutowski, whose resume includes stints with the Maryland Stadium Authority and the Baltimore Skipjacks, and the distinction of being the last public relations director of the Baltimore Colts. Gutowski began work this week as Orioles director of business affairs.Gutowski, 36, replaces Ernie Accorsi, who left the Orioles in July to join the New York Giants.

Working behind a desk in a baseball office is a new role for Ernie Accorsi, yet it's a perfect fit in all aspects. It may seem odd for a man with 23 years in the National Football League to be working for the Baltimore Orioles, where the only fundamental difference is the shape of the ball.Accorsi made a switch that has only rare precedent. He talks the sports language, knows how to handle himself in diverse environments and will continue to make friends for the organization he represents.

People are confused. They're angry. They're getting disgusted with the whole thing.After a long holiday weekend of charges, counter-charges and internal bickering over the NAACP's support of Charlotte, N.C., for an NFL expansion franchise, people here are wondering if this episode is going to cost Baltimore the pro football team it dearly wants.One person who remains undaunted is Ernie Accorsi.This veteran of 23 years in the NFL has spent the last three months as special adviser to the effort to "Give Baltimore the Ball."

Tomorrow's draft will mark the 25th anniversary of what, in my opinion, was the greatest NFL draft of all time - except in a few places, notably in Baltimore. Many football fans recall the 1983 first round as the The Great Quarterback Draft - the one that produced John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly, Hall of Famers all. Three other quarterbacks were selected in that first round - Ken O'Brien, Todd Blackledge and Tony Eason - and even among that lesser group, O'Brien was a Pro Bowl selection and Eason took a team to the Super Bowl.

In the coming-of-age story of Eli Manning, the New York Giants quarterback who has led his team to the Super Bowl, there is a great measure of vindication for a football guy with strong ties to Baltimore and someone a lot of us in the sportswriting business have always rooted for. Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the Giants, who spent more than a decade with the Baltimore Colts, was the man who engineered the draft-day trade in 2004 that...

He is the Barack Obama of football, a fresh-faced comer whose rapid rise has put him smack in the crosshairs of Baltimore's coaching search. Three years after retiring as a player, is Jason Garrett ready to run the Ravens? Those who know the Dallas Cowboys' offensive coordinator say he is. Garrett, a Princeton graduate, has the smarts, the savvy, the winning smile. He knows when to teach - and when to learn. He is, they say, the brain without the Brian. See the clipboard in his hand?

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.

John Elway and Ernie Accorsi are inextricably linked in NFL history because of what happened 21 years ago - the draft pick so stubbornly fought, the trade so capriciously made, the repercussions that lasted for so many years. Elway was the Stanford quarterback who wanted no part of the Baltimore Colts in 1983. Accorsi was the Colts' general manager who took him anyway with the first overall pick in the college draft. When Colts owner Bob Irsay surreptitiously traded Elway to the Denver Broncos a week after the draft, it set in motion a series of events that would ultimately haunt two cities - Baltimore and Cleveland.

Twenty-one years after he lost John Elway, Ernie Accorsi found Eli Manning. The New York Giants can only hope the two quarterbacks deserve to be linked in the same sentence one day. Accorsi, the Giants' general manager, acquired Manning yesterday after a calculated gamble and some nifty maneuvering in the first round of the NFL draft. Unable to agree on terms of a trade with San Diego before the draft, Accorsi had to watch the Chargers take the Mississippi quarterback with the first pick.

Four months after joining the Orioles front office, veteran football executive Ernie Accorsi is leaving to resume his NFL career as assistant general manager of the New York Giants.The Giants are expected to announce Accorsi's appointment today.Accorsi declined to confirm he is taking the Giants job, saying only, "It's been offered. Obviously I'm quite interested."But Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos said yesterday that Accorsi told him at a meeting earlier in the day that he is leaving to work for the Giants.

Baltimore's newest NFL booster has a background uniquely suited to his new job.Along with his considerable other experience in the game, Ernie Accorsi, the new special adviser to the Maryland Stadium Authority for NFL expansion, worked in the NFL's headquarters the last time the league expanded."

Ernie Accorsi remembers the ill will created in 1977 when Baltimore Colts wide receiver Roger Carr stayed out of camp until the week before the season started. "Players were anonymously sniping at him," said Accorsi, the New York Giants general manager who worked for the Colts back then. "We had a chance to win. We had won two straight division titles. We put him in the game [at Seattle] and his touchdown put the game away. "He caught a bomb from Bert Jones. I think there were 45 guys hugging him on the field.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - If hurt has to look like something, it may look the way Kerry Collins did after Super Bowl XXXV. Ernie Accorsi, the New York Giants' general manager, approaches Collins in the locker room and sees his face. What do you say to a quarterback who throws four interceptions in the biggest game of his life? Accorsi pats Collins on the back and beckons Collins' agent into the room, circumventing rules, figuring Collins needs someone to talk to. Wellington Mara, the Giants' co-owner, walks over to Collins to console him. "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you," Mara says.