The Colts, however, were stunned by the Jets who won the game 16 – 7 in the first Super Bowl victory for the young AFL.

The result of the game was surprising to many in the sports media as Joe Namath and Matt Snell led Jets to the Super Bowl victory, under head coach Weeb Ewbank, who won two NFL Championships with the Colts.

The Colts won their first postseason game as the Indianapolis Colts in 1995 and would go onto the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, coming Hail Mary pass reception away from a trip to the Super Bowl XXX.

The Colts won their first two playoff games against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens to return to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2003 game, and they would face the same opponent in the New England Patriots.

On November 4, 2007 the Patriots defeated the Colts 24 – 20 ; in the next matchup on November 2, 2008, the Colts won 18 – 15 in a game that was one of the reasons the Patriots failed to make the playoffs ; in the 2009 meeting, the Colts staged a spirited comeback to beat the Patriots 35 – 34 ; in the most recent 2010 game, the Colts almost staged another comeback, pulling within 31 – 28 after trailing 31 – 14 in the fourth quarter, but fell short due to a Patriots interception of a Manning pass late in the game.

Super Bowl III became the most famous upset in pro sports history as the American Football League's New York Jets won 16 – 7 over the overwhelmingly-favored Colts.

Yet in 1971 the teams were engaged in a heated race that went down to the final week of the season, where Miami won its first division title with a 10 – 3 – 1 title compared to the 10 – 4 Baltimore record after the Colts won the Week 13 matchup between them at home, but proceeded to lose the last game of the season to Boston.

The two then met in the wild-card round where the Dolphins won 23 – 17 before being blown out by Oakland 27 – 0 ( the Colts themselves had suffered a bitter loss to the Raiders in Week Two of the season when the Raiders erased a 24-7 gap to win 38-31 ).

Manning's Colts defeated the Chargers in 1998 and 1999, but in 2004 with Leaf long gone from the game the revamped Chargers behind Drew Brees erupted into playoff contention ; on December 26 with both teams at 11-3 the Colts hosted the Chargers with Manning close to matching Dan Marino's touchdown record ; the Chargers stormed to a 31-16 lead, but Dominic Rhodes ' kickoff return put the Colts within eight points, then with one minute remaining Manning rifled a 21-yard touchdown to Brandon Stokley, breaking Marino's record ; the two-point try succeeded, then after Brees was intercepted the game went to overtime and the Colts won 34-31 on a field goal.

The next year on December 18 the Chargers faced the unbeaten Colts ; the Colts dream of the first perfect season since 1972 failed as the Chargers won 26-17.

First on November 11, with the Chargers up only 23-21 and despite five Manning interceptions, the Colts closed to range of a 29-yard field goal try for Adam Vinatieri, a kick that shockingly missed ; Manning then threw a sixth interception and the Chargers won.

They won against the Panthers in the first game at the New Meadowlands, but then lost to the Colts in the second " Manning Bowl ", so-called due to Eli Manning's brother Peyton playing for the Colts.

The Baltimore Colts had won the 1958 and 1959 NFL championships under Coach Weeb Ewbank.

The Colts finished a distant second in the West to the Packers in 1966, and in 1967, with the NFL divided into four divisions of four teams each, went undefeated with two ties through their first 13 games, but lost the game and the Coastal Division championship to the Los Angeles Rams on the final Sunday of the season — under newly-instituted tiebreakers, Los Angeles won the division championship as it had better net points in the two games the teams played ( the Rams win and an earlier tie ).

It was in 1994 that Robert Irsay brought in Bill Tobin to become the next general manager of the Indianapolis Colts.

Up until the Colts ' back-to-back titles, the Giants had been the premier club in the NFL, and would continue to be post-season stalwarts the next decade losing three straight finals.

The two teams met twice a year ( interrupted in 1982 by a player strike ) 1970 – 2001 ; with the move of the Colts to the AFC South the two teams ' rivalry actually escalated, as they met three times in the playoffs in the South's first nine seasons of existence ; the Jets crushed the Colts 41 – 0 in the 2002 Wild Card playoff round ; the Colts then defeated the Jets 30 – 17 in the 2009 AFC Championship Game ; but the next year in the Wild Card round the Jets pulled off another playoff upset of the Colts, winning 17 – 16 ; it was Peyton Manning's final playoff game with the Colts.

Dallas forced the Colts to punt on their next possession, and several plays later, quarterback Craig Morton completed a 47-yard pass to Bob Hayes at the Colts 12-yard line, with a roughing the passer penalty adding 6 yards ( half the distance to the goal ).

The next time the Colts had the ball, Unitas was hit as he threw a pass, resulting in an interception by Renfro.

The Colts won 4 of their next 5 games, including one against New England in which Manning posted the first perfect passer rating of his career, but then lost 4 of the 5 games following that.

The Colts won their next four games including a 45 – 31 win over Green Bay in which Manning threw 5 touchdowns, earning him AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, but then lost their next two games, to Jacksonville and Kansas City, despite Manning throwing for 840 yards combined in the two games.

The Colts responded well, winning their next 8 games before losing their final regular season game to Denver, a game in which Manning played only the first series.

On the next play, the ball was fumbled by Jerome Bettis and picked up by Colts defender Nick Harper who appeared to have a clear path down the sideline for what might have been the game-winning score.

The Colts won their next 5 games, securing yet another AFC South title, as well as the AFC's number two seed in the play-offs.

The next week the Colts went into Tennessee on Monday Night Football to face the 6 – 0 Titans.

After the Colts routed the Denver Broncos in the wild-card round of the 2004 playoffs, he told reporters that the Colts ' opponents in the next round of the playoffs, the Patriots, were " ripe for the picking ," and said " I think they're not as good as the beginning of the year and not as good as last year " ( when they won the Super Bowl ).

When the merger took place, all ten AFL franchises became part of the merged league's new American Football Conference ( AFC ), with three teams from the original 16-team NFL ( the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Colts ) joining them.

The Colts were members of the National Football League from their founding, however, they were one of three teams to switch to the AFC following the 1970 merger.

Under the new ownership, the Colts did not reach the postseason for three consecutive seasons after 1971, and after the 1972 season, starting quarterback and legend Johnny Unitas, was traded to the San Diego Chargers.

Following Unitas ' departure, the Colts would make the playoffs three consecutive season from 1975 to 1977, losing in the divisional round each time.

The Colts wore blue pants with their white jerseys for the first three games of the 1995 season, but then returned to white pants with both the blue and white jerseys.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have three primary rivals: their divisional rivals ( Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts, and Houston Texans ).

The Vikings were 11 – 2 after 14 weeks, but slumped briefly, losing their last three to the Rams, Packers and Colts while starting quarterback Daunte Culpepper was hampered by injury.

Ted Hendricks was a member of four Super Bowl-winning teams ( three with the Raiders and one with the Colts ) and was a Pro Bowl selection eight times.

Colts quarterback Earl Morrall threw three interceptions before being replaced by Johnny Unitas, who then led Baltimore to its only touchdown during the last few minutes of the game.

But Colts running back Norm Bulaich failed to gain any yards with three rushing attempts, and on fourth down, Morrall threw an incomplete pass, turning the ball over on downs.

It hosts the Queen Anne's County Fair each summer and was home to three franchises during the existence of the Eastern Shore Baseball League -- the Colts, Red Sox, and Orioles.

With the exception of the three teams that have direct descendants still in the NFL, the Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals and Dayton Triangles ( whose remains reside in the current Indianapolis Colts — or the St. Louis Rams, depending on the perspective ), Buffalo was the longest-lived of the league's original teams.

In their second season, the Gold Miners were no longer the lone American team as the CFL introduced three new teams: The Las Vegas Posse, the Shreveport Pirates and the Baltimore Stallions ( who were known as the CFLers when the NFL did not allow the Colts name to be used ).

After three non-playoff seasons, the 1964 Browns ' team would finish 10 – 3 – 1 and appear in the 1964 NFL Championship Game against a heavily favored Don Shula coached Baltimore Colts team with Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas as its signal caller.

Marchibroda, who also had been the head of the Colts when they were in Baltimore during the late 1970s, had coached them the previous three seasons in Indianapolis, and they were fresh off of an appearance in a memorable 1995 AFC Championship loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After starting the season 1 – 6, the Jets won three straight and faced the Indianapolis Colts.

The stadium reopened on October 5, 2008 when the Texans hosted the Indianapolis Colts and hosted three additional home games in October.

The Patriots and Colts had faced each other twice in the previous three postseasons at Foxborough ; this game, however, was played at Indianapolis.