1969 Baltimore Colts season

1969 Baltimore Colts season
OwnerCarroll Rosenbloom
General managerHarry Hulmes
Head coachDon Shula
Home fieldMemorial Stadium
Results
Record8–5–1
Division place2nd Coastal
Playoff finishDid not qualify

The 1969 Baltimore Colts season was the 17th season for the team in the National Football League. The Colts finished the National Football League's 1969 season with a record of 8 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie. Led by seventh-year head coach Don Shula, Baltimore finished second in the Western Conference's Coastal division, well behind the Los Angeles Rams (11–3).

Many attributed the disappointing season to the hangover of losing to the heavy-underdog New York Jets in Super Bowl III in January 1969. It is one of the first instances of a Super Bowl hangover – in which the team that played in a Super Bowl the previous season, underperforms the next season.

A disappointing 20–17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in week 9 dropped the Colts to a 5–4 record and put the Colts four full games behind the unbeaten Los Angeles Rams in the division. After the defeat head coach Shula declared, "It looks like we are out of it. I'm disappointed that we went without giving them [the Rams] a battle for it."[1]

Two months after the season, Shula departed in February 1970 for the Miami Dolphins.[2][3]

  1. ^ Cameron C. Snyder, "Shula Thinks Colts are Out of It," Baltimore Sun, Nov. 17, 1969, p. 27.
  2. ^ "Shula replaces Miami's Wilson". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. February 19, 1970. p. 1, part 2.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Dollar signs convince Shula to jump to Miami Dolphins". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. February 19, 1970. p. 4D.