The
1982 Baltimore Colts
The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from 1953 to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It w ...
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
was the 30th season for the team in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL), and the Colts’ penultimate season in
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
. It was their first under former
Arizona State coach
Frank Kush, who was hired to replace
Mike McCormack after he recorded a 2–14 record in 1981.
The Colts finished the NFL's strike-shortened 1982 season without a victory, finishing with eight losses and one tie in their nine games. The Colts became the third team since the league’s expansion era began in 1960, after the
1960 Dallas Cowboys and
the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the second team since the
AFL-NFL merger to finish a regular season winless. Since then, the
2008 Detroit Lions and the
2017 Cleveland Browns have posted winless seasons; the Colts are the only one of these five teams that did not do so in a full, uninterrupted season (the Cowboys played twelve games, the Buccaneers fourteen, and the Lions and Browns sixteen, as per the league standards of the time). The Colts are also the only winless team to not have a winning percentage of .000 due to the tie giving them a percentage of .056 which is the worst non-zero win percentage for a team in post-1900s North American sports history. It would be the final season the Colts tied a game for
40 years. This record is only breakable by an NFL team going 0–16–1 (.029) in a season, an MLB team going 8–154 or worse, an NBA team going 4–78 or worse, or by an NHL team finishing with 9 points or fewer.
As mentioned above, the NFL's 1982 season was disrupted by a
strike by the league's players. In the Colts’ first game after the end of the strike on November 21, they were shut out by the
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...
37–0. The following week, they were shut out by the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
20–0, in a game in which the Colts’ offense never crossed the 50-yard line.
Nevertheless, the week after that, they lost by only three points to the playoff-bound and defending AFC champion
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...
.
Offseason
NFL draft
Undrafted free agents
Personnel
Staff
Roster
Regular season
Schedule
Game summaries
Week 1: vs. New England Patriots
Week 2: at Miami Dolphins
Week 3: at New York Jets
Week 4: at Buffalo Bills
Week 5: vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Week 6: at Minnesota Vikings
Week 7: vs. Green Bay Packers
Week 8: at San Diego Chargers
Week 9: vs. Miami Dolphins
Standings
See also
*
History of the Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The organization began play in 195 ...
*
List of Indianapolis Colts seasons
*
Colts–Patriots rivalry
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1982 Baltimore Colts season
Baltimore Colts
The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from 1953 to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It w ...
Baltimore Colts seasons
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
NFL winless seasons