No town likes to take a stroll down memory lane like Baltimore.

While metropolises like New York and Los Angeles are all about setting trends, the denizens of Charm City are hoping there's a real-life Doc Brown who can build a time-traveling DeLorean so they can see the Colts’ victory in 1958 World Championship at any time. It was a pride-filled moment that still moistens the eyes of the most hardened men.

At face value, the NFL has actually made that time machine real with the release of the recent DVD, “Colts: The Complete History.” Baltimore football fans can view a lavish, beautiful documentary of the team that once captured the imagination of the town. There's a whole disc with all those great plays from Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Artie Donovan, Raymond Berry, Jim Parker, Tom Matte, etc. It's too good to be true, right?

Right?

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You hear that sound, Baltimore? That's the NFL kicking your puppy.

Here’s the catch: You can't just buy that disc. As part of that retrospective box set, you get a second disc that includes the illustrious history of the Indianapolis Colts. You know, like, um, well, they drafted Peyton Manning and they’ve, um, well, lost in the playoffs a couple of times.

In full disclosure, I have been one of those jerks in the past who has thought that Baltimore should get over itself when it comes to the Colts. “Sure it hurts,” I used to say, “but you took the Cleveland Browns, a team that was just as, if not more so, embedded in their community as the Colts were.”

I was wrong.

While the new DVD box is billed on the cover as the complete history of the Colts, the NFL's Web site sells it as the history of the Indianapolis Colts, mixing the lineage of the teams of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s with current guys like Marvin Harrison. That takes guts.

Sure, Baltimore's nostalgic, but how desperate does the NFL think this town is to see those old Colts highlights? Why can't they separate those discs? The league, and undoubtedly the Colts organization, will make more money by doing that.

The Colts officially died for many around here March 28, 1984. The story of the franchise was legendary, and the book was closed when the Mayflower trucks drove off into that snowy night.

In reality, the team that plays in Indianapolis really is the same franchise, with all of the records, colors, logo and family ownership that was in Baltimore for its last season in 1983. Still, that team knows, as well as the NFL, how crushing to Baltimore the experience of losing the team was.

Why hold the documented history of those pre-Indianapolis teams hostage? It belongs to the players who left their blood on the field of Memorial Stadium, and the people here in Baltimore who lost their voices each week cheering on the Baltimore Colts.

Matt Palmer is a staff writer for The Examiner. He can be reached at mpalmer@baltimoreexaminer.com.