n the middle of a March night in 1984, the Colts packed 12 Mayflower trucks with all the team's belongings and left Baltimore for Indianapolis.
The relocation didn't just devastate Baltimoreans — it left a few other cities disappointed, too. Prior to the move, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Phoenix were all courted as the potential next home of the Colts.
In the more than three decades since, all but Memphis have welcomed an NFL franchise. Even Baltimore got its Colts replacement in 1996 when the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens.
Memphis was an extreme long shot at landing the Colts from the start, and its chances weren't much better again when it bid for an expansion team in 1993. The Oilers' move from Houston to Nashville in 1997 — and subsequent rebrand as the Tennessee Titans — has since dulled talks of Memphis' NFL dreams.
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