It has been just over eleven years since the Indianapolis Colts brought the Lombardi Trophy home to Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time in nearly four decades. Wrapping up the 2017-18 season tied second-to-last in the AFC South, the Colts’ General Manager Chris Ballard has a lot of eyes on him in the weeks leading up to the April 26th start of this year’s NFL draft.
Boasting the No.3 overall pick, the Colts’ opportunity for a massive acquisition could serve to carry them far away from the 4-12 record of this season past.
“You can’t build a sustained winner, one that lasts over time, in free agency,” Ballard said. “You can’t do it. You’ve got to draft your own players. At the end of the day, you’ve got to draft and develop and stack drafts. One, two and three drafts on top of each other where these guys are homegrown Colts. That’s where you get players that are loyal to your organization. And that’s how you build a winner. We’ll supplement with free agency. We had to last year.”
But will marquis acquisitions be interested in playing for a team that may, or may not, be changing hands regarding ownership? Proving the inarguable power of internet keywords, search engine optimization and social media trending, the newest controversy within the NFL has left pundits puzzled as to whether or not that Indianapolis Colts have actually been sold to an 87-year old great-grandmother from Brownsburg, Indiana.
Like many senior citizens, Greta Brombley lives on a fixed income. Still a confidently licensed driver, Mrs. Brombley found herself in need of a new vehicle but was apprehensive about financing a new model year offering. With that in mind, she turned to the internet by searching Buy Here Pay Here Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Mrs. Brombley’s limited aptitude for operating the computer her grandchildren had bought her was the root controversy.
Mrs. Brombley’s grandson, Peter Turwilliger explains, “Judging by her search history, the Google search bar must have autofilled her query. Had she just typed ‘Buy Here Pay Here’ it’s likely that she would have received results based in and around here, due to her IP address. However, she added ‘Indianapolis.’ Intuitively, it appears that Google may have autofilled it with ‘Colts’ before she typed in ‘$10,000 or less’.”
Now, this alone wouldn’t have had any major impact. However, Mrs. Brombley then proceeded to hit enter upwards of a hundred times, rather than scrolling down to see her actual search results. Believing there to be something wrong with her computer, she then went to her local library. Logging into her Google account, she retried her search, however, as she began to type Google recognized her last search and (once more) autofilled the rest. Failing to scroll down, she once more began hitting Enter repeatedly out of frustration. She then logged out and went to Mr. Turwilliger’s house for assistance.
Upon arriving, he sat her down at his computer and asked her to retrace her steps. Unfortunately, he received a phone call just as the search bar was again autofilled to read, ‘Buy Here Pay Here Indianapolis Colts $10,000 or less’. And just as Mrs. Brombley got up to get a drink, awaiting her grandson’s return, a picture frame was accidentally knocked over and fell onto the ‘Enter’ button of the keyboard.
Equating to thousands of internet searches for ‘Buy Here Pay Here Indianapolis Colts $10,000 or less’ the phrase was recognized as a local internet trend within the greater Indianapolis area. Without any understanding of what had prompted it, local reporters and bloggers picked up on it and began circulating a story questioning the nature of this startling trend. This, of course, elevated the story significantly. Now visible to the national news circuit, as well as the likes of ESPN, the question at hand was “Are the Indianapolis Colts being sold for $10,000 or less?”
The answer?
“No,” according to sports journalist Len Bevine and Angus Wolf (author of ’S.E.O. Savage’). “That’s not how this works. It’s not how any of this works.”
As for Mrs. Brombley, she is still in the market for a reliable used vehicle.
