An airplane that never took off. A call to a lake house in northern Indiana. A scorching night under the lights in Westfield, and a coming out party in Landover, Md.
From some of the franchise’s darkest hours to the season’s sizzling finish, 2018 saw the Indianapolis Colts climb from the league basement to an improbable playoff berth.
Reliving the team’s defining moments, here are six scenes that helped shape a most stirring season:
1. February 7. Chris Ballard’s moment.
The day before, the private jet had just sat there, gassed up in the hangar and ready for a flight to Massachusetts it’d never make.